Back in the day, when things were simple, we had one Holga camera: The Holga 120S. But since then, the range of Holga cameras have increased dramatically, ranging from bizarre Hello Kitty branded point and shoot cameras to even bizarrer stereo 3d cameras.
As Holga are releasing more and more products, especially since their rebrand/relaunch as Holga Inspire, we thought it would be time to take a look through the Holga catalogue, examining exactly what holga products you can buy these days.
G,F,N,WPC, WTF?
Before we head on with the guide, here’s a quick rundown of the holga cameras and what the letters mean, as far as we know! Basically, you should be pretty much able to put any of these letters together and buy that specific camera (i.e, want a glass lense 120 holga with standard,no-color flash, then what you need,sir, is a Holga 120GFN).
| Term | Definition |
| S | Standard, as in the original Holga 120S |
| N | New/Normal, means the new standard, the 120S was replaced with the 120N |
| G | Glass, A glass version of the standard plastic Holga lens |
| F | Flash, this means the holga has a flash built in |
| W | Wide, for a wide panaoramic holga |
| CF | Color Flash, these letters will always be together, the color flash enables you to change the color on the flash that is built into the holga. |
| PC | Pinhole Camera, Anytime you see PC, it means the holga doesn’t have a lense, but a pinhole instead, along with a permanent ‘B’ bulb mode. |
| BC | Bent/Black Corners, The standard 135 camera lacks a lot of vignetting, so holga introduced the BC version to ‘bend the corners’ of your photo giving that much loved holga effect. |
| 3D | Three Dimensional. Basically, a holga with 2 lenses. |
| TLR | Twin Lens Reflex, a holga with one lens for framing and one for taking the photo. |
| 120 | Takes 120 Film |
| 135 | Takes 35mm Film |
| 110 | Takes 110 Film |
Now we have the camera builder out the way, let’s take a closer look at the cameras you can buy:
The 120 Series
Holga 120N
Holga 120N by rvdh
The replacement for the original Holga 120S, the 120N is still the ’standard’ Holga camera. Stripped to it’s bare minimum, without any bells and whistles, the 120N has no flash, and a plastic lens. Still the original, and best of the ‘new’ Holgas.
Holga 120FN
My love, my Holga 120FN by lololomo
This Holga, is the standard Holga 120N, but with an internal flash. As outlined above, the flash isn’t too great, but it’s better than nothing!
Holga 120GN
The 120GN is the standard non-flash 120 Holga with a glass lense. I’m a bit unsure of the ‘G’ series of Holgas, primariliy due to the fact that surely the plastic lense,and it’s associated ‘quirks’ is one of the main draws to a holga.
Holga 120CFN
Holga 120CFN by missy & the universe
The 120CFN has a ‘color flash’ built in. This is the same as the flash built into the 120FN, apart from a small wheel on top of the camera that allows you to rotate different colored filters over the flash-these are red,blue,or yellow. The 120CFN is a fun camera, but the colored flash is a gimmick most of the time, and you still get the associated problems of the built in flash(no hotshoe, dodgy wiring, can’t change batteries half way through a film etc).
Holga 120GCFN
That’s got to be the most letters you can get in a Holga name. Using the guide above, you can see this puts everything but the kitchen sink into the 120N holga: The glass lens and the color flash.
Holga 120PC
The Holga 120PC is the Pinhole version of the Holga 120N. Instead of a lense on the camera, you get a pinhole, along with a permanent bulb mode (no ‘N’ switch here).
Holga 120WPC
Holga 120WPC by .dave.d
The Holga 120WPC, again is a pinhole camera, but this time has a wide lense. The negative this camera produces is an astounding 6×12 (opposed to the normal 6×6 of a holga 120N)! This camera has a cable-release thread for attaching a shutter release cable (sometimes included, other times not). The cable release screw also acts as a shutter release button when pressed, allowing you to take shorter exposures. Also contains a useful exposure guide on the back, and a few small nobbles on top of the camera to line your shot up, plus a spirit level to make sure it’s level.
Holga 120-3D
The 3D is a relatively new kid on the block, it’s the same body as the 120PC-3D (below), but with holga lenses instead of pinholes. The stereo camera also has color flashes built in, and a cable release thread instead of a shutter switch.
Load up your stereo camera with slide film, take some snaps, develop, mount onto the slide mounts and view in the 3d viewer:
I personally haven’t had any experience with this, but if anyone has used it, feel free to comment below explaining if it really works!
Holga 120PC-3D
The 120PC-3D is the same stereo camera as above, but instead of lenses, you get pinholes. You do get a funny little crosshair on top of the camera for framing purposes.
Holga TLR
The Holga TLR and GTLR cameras were released May 2009 in Asia as a test release first, with the rest of the world receiving them in August 2009. The camera lens and functions themselves are the same as the 120 CFN and 120 GCFN, with the colour-wheel flash and plastic/glass lens. The real difference is the viewfinder. Instead of a standard viewfinder (which is useless on the standard holga), the TLR features a second lens in which to frame your shots. This fixes the parallex issues for horizontal alignment, but still doesn’t fix the vertical. It’s in interesting camera, but the second lens is just for framing rather than focussing like many other TLRs.
The 135 Series
Holga 135
Holga 135 Newly Arrived by by Patrick Ng
The Holga 135 is the standard 35mm holga. It has some good features, and some not-so-great features. The good points are that it has a non-coupled advance so you can double-expose your life away, it has the same features as the 120N: a hotshoe, broken aperture, bulb setting, tripod mount etc and it takes 35mm film (obviously!), that can be processed by many more shops than 120. The downsides? The camera lacks any of the ‘quirks’ that make the holga special: it doesn’t vignette, it doesn’t have the ‘dreamy’ blur, and you don’t get sprocket holes showing like you would using 35mm in a 120 Holga (good/bad, who knows?). A good thing though is at least you can reqind your film without a darkbag. It even has a film counter!
Holga 135BC
Holga 135BC by Der Ohlsen
The BC Version of the 135 is an ‘improved’ (if that’s the correct term, it probably actually makes the photos worse, but ‘better’ in a holga-way!) version of the 135. It contains an internal mask to help give the photographs a more ‘holga-y’ look-this includes more vignetting, and the blurring around the edges.
Holga 135PC
Holga 135PC by jasmund
The 135PC is the Pinhole version of the 135, so instead of a lense, you get that good ‘ol pinhole!
Holga 135BC TLR
Holga 135BC TLR
Holga 135BC TLR
The Holga 135BC TLR has the exact same innards as the 135BC, but instead of a standard viewfinder, you get a waist level finder and an extra viewing lens, just like the other Holga TLRs.
Other Holga Cameras
Holga K200N fisheye
The K200N is a 35mm fisheye camera. It contains a colorflash, plus the lense is detachable!! The bosy of the camera looks like any other 35mm cheap camera, but the lense transforms it into something a bit more interesting!
Holga Baby 110 /Holga Micro 110
The Holga 110 Camera has a few different names, but the main ones are the 110 baby or the Micro 110. As the name suggests, the camera takes 110 film, and is TINY! Not much else to say really, it’s small, it takes 110 film, it’s like pretty much any other 110 micro camera.
Mew Mew Holga
The Mew Mew Holga is another fantastic creation by superheadz , it’s a camera, in a tin! It get’s better though, when you open the tin, and use the camera, it makes cat noises every time you take a photo! These don’t appear to be sold in many places, but if you must, you can get one off ebay. Nic Nichols over at FCD has a review!
Woca Cameras
Woca 120G by Herbert Kornfeld's Bling
The Woca cameras are basically the old name for the glass lensed Holgas. So the Woca 120G is a Holga 120GN and the Woca 120GF is a Holga 120FN. Shutterbug has some info, as does Four Corners Dark.
And that concludes our little adventure through the holga catalogue. It doesn’t really end there though, there’s loads of different color Holgas, but we aren’t going to go there right now…
ARGHHHHH MY EYES. THEY IS BLIND.
Comments
nice review!
I’m looking for anyone who can give me information on problems with the B Shutter cable that I ordered along with my 120GN. The end that you are supposed to screw into the hole above the shutter release knob after attaching the piece over the lens and knob is way too long. The part that you hold and push is way too short. Is there any way of fixing this. I’ve emailed the store in Hong Kong yesterday, but haven’t received a reply yet.
Thanks for any ideas. Please reply to my email at mary.mccabe@gmail.com
Mary
Just picked up a Holga 110 (now re-branded Baby Holga), but also noticed leaflets saying there’s a “Sister Holga” too – another 110 camera, but with a “proper” case I think. Didn’t see one in the flesh, but will have a look for more details…
Hi, I have a Woca 120 GN and I have some Fuji 120 film (I think NPH 220 400 iso) and I installed it but there are no numbers on the back to tell me how far to advance the film to the next frame. I did not have any problem with my BW film (Ilford Delta 400) Anyone have any idea? I am guessing 36 clicks like the manual says for the 35 mm film. Correct?
My bad. The camera is the WOCA 120 GF, not GN.
@Mary
I think maybe the problem is that the cable release is stuck in it’s ‘on’ position. There should be a small metal collar around the hole of the bit where the plunger goes in. If you press that collar down, it should release the cable and the plunger and needle should pop back into place ready to use.
@Marshall
Squarefrog has the answer for 220 film here:
http://www.squarefrog.co.uk/holga-troubleshooting-220.html
Dont forget to cover up the little window on the back!
Awesome, Thanks, This is what I needed. Didn´t know about the no paper on the roll. It´s been a while since I shot film again.
H!i If you were to choose between the holga 120 n and holga tglr or tlr, what would you choose?
Hi Jobert,
I’d go for the 120n, it’s the simplest, the original (apart from the 120s), and is the best to start with. The TLR is larger and a bit more cumbersome.
Did you take all those pictures of the holga with a digital camera?
Here are the pictures from the Holga GFN (without C): http://is.gd/28aDA
And the Holga 120 M-iniature: http://is.gd/28anK
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just wondering if anyone knew how to fix a holga 120 lens… ? i dropped it and now i’m stuck on portrait, any ideas?? please email!!
Hi Sam,
This has happened a few times with me before too. The lens has basically dislodged itself from the screw ‘rails’ that it sits on. Giving it a bit of gentle persuasion should forced it back onto the threads.
cheers for that, gentle wasn’t the word though haha
holla…!!!
i wish i hve 1…!!!
how about th price n where can i find this holga????
reply me at my mail ok…
hii i’m from mexico and i have a problem, the advance wheel is broken how could i repair it thank’s
Very useful guide to the perplexed! (as I remember I was when a newbie).
One thing I think is important to add is the key difference between the 120S and 120N is the new tripod thread and bulb mode.
I have a holga 120cfn and am really srtuggling loading the film – the manual says the numbers appear in the frame on the back telling you when to stop winding but I wound the whole film and saw no numbers. Obviously I had the reload the film and try again and it got stuck winding. And STILL no numbers – how am I supposed to know when to shoot?!
Hi Roxanne,
Check the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jlkRw37IgA
Are you definitely using 120 film and not 220?
Are you using the square mask, if so, they switch has to be pointing at ‘12′ so you see the numbers on the back(although you should see some numbers not matter where the switch is).
roxanne, what brand film are you using? some of them (i’m thinking ilford) are harder to see the numbers.
i have a question, would be great if someone could give me the answer to it…. can i use the fisheye lens for the HOLGA 135BC?
[...] I’m still very keen on a Holga [...]
[...] are often ‘way out of whack. You’ll see what I’m referring to on websites such as http://www.holgablog.com/2009/04/09/the-massive-guide-to-all-holga-cameras/, and at Urban. Find the good price for the simplest of simple cameras, and grab several at a time. [...]
Hi,
Is there any cable release for the Holga model 120WPC? from the website i bought it from it doesn’t show that it comes or available with any cable release, the only available is from the N, FN,… models without WPC, so is that correct?
Also the box i’ve got came with one mask only [i think it is 6x9], so i read somewhere even from the same website i bought from that there is 6×7 mask included, and on the box it is written only two frame size: 6×9 and 6×12 (cm), so i am confused about that.
to brigette kopp:
type “Holga 0.5x Wide Angle Lens” into google or ebay. i’ve just ordered mine for £15.