Toy camera thread

[mollyc]

As some of you know, I have recently picked up interest in film cameras. I bought a Holga this week. It came with a roll of Fuji 400H, but as that is a discontinued stock I want to wait to use it after I am a bit more familiar with what the Holga does.

I meant to buy some Portra 400 when I was picking up my daughter's developed film yesterday but forgot. When I looked at Amazon, I see that 120 film is $15/roll. Probably not spending that on my first Holga roll. Any suggestions for a reasonably priced color stock that will get hit with light leaks? I am thinking the Lomography brand, which I know can be a weird film, but given that the Holga is a weird camera, maybe that's okay.

So, I know the Holga is not at all sealed. I don't want to ruin the entire roll of film so should I keep it taped unless I am actually shooting it? that way the light doesn't spill in between frames? I do want some light leaks, but just don't want the entire roll overexposed when I have it developed.

Does anyone else shoot a Holga or other similar cameras? @kenoh seemed keen on having a thread regarding this an lomography, so let's have at it.

 

[kenoh]

I know you shoot colour but Fomapan is a good choice for B&W. Maybe shoot some cheap B&W until you find your groove with the Holga? and you will also see the leaks and be able to tell if you need to tape it up or not - also, if you have a changing bag for your film, then maybe keep the holga in that between shots.

120 film has 12 exposures per roll so unless you are ultra frugal, you wont be leaving partially exposed film in there long.

 

[tizeye]

I feel your pain. Seems like only want to sell in quantity of 5 as I went through similar with B&W 120. while I saw Ilford HP5 online for $7.95 single roll at B&H, that was it. Do you have a traditional brick and mortar camera store nearby? Was in my local store pricing developing chemicals until I discovered they would do B&W developing in house for $5 (add for scan or prints). But more important, I saw the film and paper in the cooler, quantiles of 5...disappointed until I asked about single roll to experiment with on old camera. She pointed me to the obvious - they had a retail rack of film behind the cash register filled with 120 and 35mm single rolls, B&W and Color, Kodak, Ilford, Fuji. Almost got TriX but decided to try Ilford HP5, and both were $6.95 for the single roll.

If the camera is known to have a light leak, may want to experiment with the cheaper B&W. Also, there are several 'recopies' online for plugging light leaks, but are more focused on leaking bellows which I don't think the Holga has. To identify where/if has light leak may want too try a variation of this. I extended the bellows, opened the rear for film loading, then went into a dark room with a flash light. Happy to say no light shone through! You may want to look for a small light source that can be enclosed in the camera film area with the light on, the walk into a dark room to see where light shines through. That would identify where need to tape or put some black putty "recipe" compound.

 

[bunnspecial]

Never been into toy cameras, but they can be fun and I've seen some interesting(and good) results from them.

I seem to remember that you mostly want to stick with C-41 film for developing ease. If you do much in MF(and I don't mean this in a patronizing way) it's well worth having some B&W stuck back in the freezer as even if you mostly intend to shoot color, it's a WHOLE lot cheaper to run a roll of B&W through a camera to check for light leaks, frame overlap, and the various other ills that can affect MF cameras.

With that said, fitting in with the whole aesthetic of toy cameras, you might find it worthwhile to look on Ebay for expired film. Back in the day(even in the mid-2000s) a lot of camera stores would put short-dated or expired stock out of the refrigerator(yes, the good camera stores had refrigerators behind the counter for film) and set it in a box at 50% retail.

I'll check next weekend when I'm at my parents house, but I MIGHT have some expired C-41 film I can send you. Also, I can probably scrounge up a roll or two of expired E-6, which you can cross process in C-41 chemistry for some interesting effects.

 

[mollyc]

No, I don't want color for ease of processing, I just like color. 🙂 I'm not a B&W shooter at all, and I know many of you here prefer that, but I am just a color shooter.

I'm super annoyed that I forgot to get film yesterday when I was at the camera store. It's not very far from here, but for $12 or so it's just easier right now to order from Amazon. But expired film is a good idea, and I do know that the camera store has a few rolls behind the counter.

I like @tizeye's idea of checking with a flashlight. 🙂 I will probably just tape the camera after I load up film and then untape it when I shoot.

 

[bunnspecial]

No, I don't want color for ease of processing, I just like color. 🙂 I'm not a B&W shooter at all, and I know many of you here prefer that, but I am just a color shooter.

Not trying to convert you at all.

Just mentioning that with medium format especially, B&W tends to be a much, much less expensive way not only to check camera function but also get comfortable with loading and handling film in a camera.

Medium format is a different beast from 35mm with different loading. Some cameras are really simple. The Holga, for example, along with cameras like Rolleiflexes and the Pentax 67, have what I call "straight shot" film loading, where the film basically pulls straight across from the supply to the take-up spool. You hook the(paper) leader onto the take-up spool, then either shut the back and advance until you see a 1 through the back window, or line up the arrows and close the back(or on a Rolleiflex, you thread through the "sensing" rollers and just crank until it stops cranking). A lot of MF SLRs in what I call the "Hasselblad pattern" have convoluted film paths and it can be surprisingly easy to actually load the film upside down. Hasselblads are even worse because you have to deal with the film "tab"...

 

[Steven-iphone]

Here is a little cheaper in a 5 roll purchase :

Kodak Professional Portra 400 Color Negative Film (120 Roll Film, 5-Pack)

Buy Kodak Professional Portra 400 Color Negative Film (120 Roll Film, 5-Pack) featuring Daylight-Balanced Color Negative Film, ISO 400/27° in C-41 Process, Very Fine Grain, VISION Film Technology, High Color Saturation, Low Contrast, Accurate Color and Neutral Skin Tones, High Sharpness and Fine...

www.bhphotovideo.com

 

[mackmgg]

When I had taken a photography class back in high school, the teacher had a Holga sitting around that she let me borrow. That was B&W, because we were developing everything ourselves. I also bought a few rolls of color film at the time that I never used. I just found those rolls sitting around and will probably try and shoot. By this point they’re well expired and have been through TSA x-rays a few times! So not a toy camera but by this point the film will give it the same effect.

Have you looked at B&H? It looks like the decent films are ~$45 for a 5-pack, so that’s only $9/roll rather than $15. It looks like Portra 400 is $10/roll there. Then another $10 to get it developed…

 

[mollyc]

When I had taken a photography class back in high school, the teacher had a Holga sitting around that she let me borrow. That was B&W, because we were developing everything ourselves. I also bought a few rolls of color film at the time that I never used. I just found those rolls sitting around and will probably try and shoot. By this point they’re well expired and have been through TSA x-rays a few times! So not a toy camera but by this point the film will give it the same effect.

Have you looked at B&H? It looks like the decent films are ~$45 for a 5-pack, so that’s only $9/roll rather than $15. It looks like Portra 400 is $10/roll there. Then another $10 to get it developed…

I ended up ordering a three pack of the Lomography film for around $30. I don't mind spending more on a roll once I get the hang of it, but not to start on a Holga. I probably should have looked at B&H; I don't know why I didn't think to look there. Oh well. 🙂

 

[mollyc]

No, I still haven't shot a full roll of my Holga yet... So lame....I got super confused with advancing it so just quit. I'm pretty sure my first frame has about 20 different images layered on one frame. I'm going to try to finish it off when we go to the beach next month (ironically I started the roll at a different beach last year).

Anyway...long shot here, but in the theme of toy cameras....does anyone have a Sprocket Rocket? Totally gimmicky but they look super fun. And the complete opposite to my half frame camera, where the SR takes two frames for one panoramic image.