Holga 135BC - 1st Impressions
The 135BC arrived last week along with 5 rolls of 35mm film!
This mini 35mm holga is very light and I love the design, its a fair bit smaller than the original Holga medium format cams.. Loading with 35mm film was very easy and all functions are clear and simple to use. There is a switch for “Bulb” or “Normal” shutter speed, flash hot shoe, focusing ring, sunny(f11)/cloudy(f8) aperture switch, tripod screw mount and cable release connection. I was very keen to load and start shooting, many photos in this test roll were shot inside the night I opened the box. I have a standard Holga Flash that works great with all the 120 Holgas and I was happy with the results under flash light on the 135BC, you can grab a Holga Flash from Amazon.com for real cheap: Holga Manual Shoe Mount Flash!
Composing shots made me think differently to using a Holga 120 as the format is not square in these new 35mm models. Considering I went for the black corners model - 135BC - I was expecting pronounced vignetting on almost all shots, I was very surprised to see almost a complete lack of this effect! I would like to test this further, its winter in Melbourne and hard to catch some sunlight so perhaps sunnier conditions could lead to more vignette. The freedom of having 24+ shots rather than 12 (standard 120 film) was cool. Im still a believer that 120 film is more suited to lomo photography and helps to produce dreamy deep and moody shots in a way unlike 35mm film.
Here are some shots from the 135BC (Agfa 200 ISO 35mm Color Negative Film):
Light Shade: Cloudy (f8) with Flash
Russel Street Melbourne: Cloudy (f8)
Graffiti Truck
Holgas, Kershaw folding camera from the 1950s and a Diana
Multiple Exposure
Overall this is a sweet little camera, and a nice addition to the Holga family.. The photos from this 1st roll are not as amazing as 120 photos from the other holga models, but the softness of a plastic lens and the slight vignette in these shots make it classic holga!
You can buy Holga 135’s on amazon:
Holga 135 BC (Bent Corners - Vignette Version) - Lomography Holga 135BC Plastic 35mm Camera - “Bent Corners” Version
Standard 135 - Holga 135 Plastic 35mm Camera
and the Pinhole 135 - Holga 135PC Plastic Pinhole 35mm Camera
Holga 135 - 35mm Editions are now available on eBay too and other crazy stuff for your holga like a fisheye lens!
Search now for Holga 135 on eBay
Let everyone know what you think of the 135BC by leaving a comment below..
Hola! Thanks for leaving a comment on my post.
Firstly the vignette is present but not that pronounced with negative film, like in your first roll. I find the vignette to be much heavier when I use slide film.
Next, take a look at the mask inside your camera when you are next out of film. If it is a white mask with concentric cut out circles I think the vignette is slightly heavier, if it is a solid plastic piece then the vignette is less pronounced. Both are part of the BC (black corners) range of the Holga 135.
I prefer shooting with the Diana+ — I think I like square format a LOT but like you said with 35mm the number of photos you get to take is fantastic!
Check out the Holga 135BC group on flickr.com — join us!
Wowh! Really interesting. I’m waiting for my Holga 135BC
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!
I know this is a late post but i have the same problem with the vignette hardly being noticeable…
Did you ever find an answer why this is?
The article is ver good. Write please more
Woahh. I did like, 5 rolls already, and I always got awful blur images! Excuse this newcomer, please
But looking at your sample pics really make me want to try more and more rolls! They pump me up! 
I would like to try the slide, but it’s kind of expensive. I hope I could find an expired one, so I might get it cheaper
I would really like to have the vignette effect, but from all the five rolls, there are less than 5 pics with clear vignette effect, and only around 20 with fade vignette.
By your experience so far, do you think what kind of conditions that will allow us to get more of this effect?
uhm, where do you get you film? i cant seem to find it anywhere
plus your photos are greeattt. thanks:}
Was browsing your pics and they are great! For those pics w/o using flash, how long did you leave the shutter open? Or just a immediate snap?
I was looking to buy the Holga 35mm today and was torn between the regular model and 135BC — what’s the main difference, besides the bent corners? The regular model was actually more expensive, so I couldn’t figure it out.
They both use 35mm and can take b&w and color photos, right?
hey.. yeah the only difference between the normal and BC version is BC has the black/bent corner vignette effect and the normal does not. It depends if you want that affect or not on every shot. The photos above are taken with the BC.. They both use 35mm film and can be color or bw. cya
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