A simple Holga question (I hope)

darkosaric · Jun 9, 2017

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Harry Stevens · Jun 9, 2017

As for the original question I had the some problem on a German TLR regarding the flash setting M or X covering lever, which one was selected?

Sirius Glass · Jun 9, 2017

Harry Stevens said:
As for the original question I had the some problem on a German TLR regarding the flash setting M or X covering lever, which one was selected?

X is for strobes and M is for M class flashbulbs. X fires immediately and M has a delay for the bulb to get up to near full brightness.

removed account4 · Jun 9, 2017

MichiTimm said:
Apparently Holgas are too complicated for me.
Above the lens there is a switch for selecting one of two apertures. On one side of the switch is a picture of the sun. The other side has what I think is the sun with some clouds in front of it.

I assume the "sun" setting means a smaller aperture, which would let in less light on bright sunny days and the cloudy setting would be a larger aperture to let in more light on cloudier darker days.

Simple enough, right? My question is ... if I was to select the "cloudy" larger aperture do I move the switch so it covers the "cloudy" picture? Or do I move the switch so it covers the "sun" and reveals the "cloudy"?

My first instinct was to move it over so it covers the clouds. But every time I glance down at the lens I see the uncovered sun picuture and wonder if maybe the symbol I can see is the symbol that is set.

Anyone?

For what it's worth, this is more of a theoretical/curiosity type question - because in practice I've noticed absolutely no difference in photos taken with either setting.

hi michtimm
you have realized the charm of holga.
the slider does absolutely nothing. it actually
slides a LARGER hole over a small hole so ... nothing

bvy · Jun 9, 2017

jnanian said:
hi michtimm
you have realized the charm of holga.
the slider does absolutely nothing. it actually
slides a LARGER hole over a small hole so ... nothing

That's not true of later versions. That so called "charm" was a legitimate (if not glaring) manufacturer's defect. It was eventually corrected. If the sun is pictured, you're shooting at ~f/20. If the clouds are pictured, you're shooting at ~f/13. These values are optimized for 400 speed film, since the shutter speed is constant. But I wouldn't get too fussy about exposure control with a Holga. I almost always leave it wide open (clouds).

To see if you have a working aperture switch, take the camera back off and set the camera to Bulb setting. Now hold the shutter open under each aperture setting. It's pretty easy to see if the size of the hole changes.

MattKing · Jun 9, 2017

Harry Stevens said:
As for the original question I had the some problem on a German TLR regarding the flash setting M or X covering lever, which one was selected?

Sirius Glass said:
X is for strobes and M is for M class flashbulbs. X fires immediately and M has a delay for the bulb to get up to near full brightness.

Harry's problem wasn't that. It was: "How do you select X (or M)? By covering it with the selector, or uncovering it with the selector?"

M Carter · Jun 10, 2017

I've been able to figure out the shutter speeds on my old/toy cameras (Hawkeyes, even Isolettes) - but I have a video camera that shoots up to 120fps. I shoot a few clicks, open the file on the computer, count the frames and do the math. So my Hawkeye is about 1/25 - 1/30th; the Isolette I use the most, all shutter speeds are about half what they say, so I leave it a 1/300th and it works out to metering at 1/125th. Geeky but easy to do if you have a camera that does that level of slowmo.

mooseontheloose · Jun 10, 2017

M Carter said:
...all shutter speeds are about half what they say...

Randy from Holgamods has recently said the same thing - he's never found a Holga to be more than 1/60th of a second, in all of his years of working on them, despite the fact that common knowledge puts them at around 1/100.

M Carter · Jun 12, 2017

mooseontheloose said:
Randy from Holgamods has recently said the same thing - he's never found a Holga to be more than 1/60th of a second, in all of his years of working on them, despite the fact that common knowledge puts them at around 1/100.

I was referring to my Isolette shutter - I chopped up my holga before you could just buy the lens, mounted the lens on a couple springs and shot a music video - I could twist and move the lens that way to get crazy burns and distortions. Looked really pretty, too:

removed account4 · Jun 12, 2017

M Carter said:
I was referring to my Isolette shutter - I chopped up my holga before you could just buy the lens, mounted the lens on a couple springs and shot a music video - I could twist and move the lens that way to get crazy burns and distortions. Looked really pretty, too:

thank you for posting these, they are beautiful !

M Carter · Jun 12, 2017

jnanian said:
thank you for posting these, they are beautiful !

Thanks, those are just screen grabs, too - looked pretty sweet in motion!

A simple Holga question (I hope)

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