Digital Holga for the rich only

Leonard Goh | Sep 11, 2009

The Holga with the Imacon digital back. (Credit: Four Corners Dark)

Shutterbugs familiar with toy cameras will know that the Holga is an inexpensive medium-format shooter made of plastic, right down to the lens. However, the snapper you see in the picture costs more than US$30,000 when it was put together in 2004.

Photographer Ted Dillard strapped an Imacon (now Hasselblad) medium-format digital back to the Holga by using two thick rubber bands. Then, he tweaked the hotshoe on the camera to activate the sensor when the shutter was pressed and that would snap the picture. Don't believe this works? Check out his sample images after the jump.

(Credit: Ted Dillard)

For years now, photographers have been trying to make a digital Holga but none have been as successful as Dillard. Most shutterbugs take the plastic optics from the toy camera and modify it to be attached to a dSLR. However, the results are often unsatisfactory--somehow the images lack the Holga-ish effect which is distinguished by light leaks and unsaturated hues.

A quick search on eBay showed that the cheapest digital back costs around US$4,000, which can get you 350 Holgas. This is one mod not many people can afford.

Via Four Corners Dark

Filed under: Digital Cameras
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TedDillard

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TedDillard says...
Thanks for posting this, it brings up an interesting lesson I learned when I made this. I did it for fun, when working at EP Levine, in Boston, as the Digital Imaging Specialist, and we joked about selling it. The Imacon digital back was around $23,000 at the time, and of course, it was obvious nobody would buy a digital back to use on the Holga.

When I joined an Imacon user support Group, and announced, joking, that I was the creator of the world's first Digital Holga Imacon, then something funny happened. These Imacon owners, who had already invested in the digital back, wanted to buy a Holga to have some fun with it. They'd already spent the big bucks, another $50 for the Holga was nothing.

The lesson? Know who your customers are. As you say, if you approach it as a Holga that you need a digital back for, you're right. Even at $4000 it's a mod not many can afford, but if you have the digital back as the Four Corners Dark folks do- well then. It's only the price of a Holga to give it a try!

For more info on how to make your own digital Holga mod, I'll be posting some instructions and a video on my blog: www.h2hreviews.com...

Thanks again, Leonard!

Sep 13, 2009 18:22