The Holga and the Zero 2000 pinhole cameras both are 6x6 and bring an astetic I like that I can’t get with either my 35mm or medium format kit.
I started in photography in 1964 with a 35mm rangefinder, a Ansco Super Memar. From that, I went on to a Kodak 9x12 Recomar and occasionally a 6x9 Speed Graphic. Then a 4x5 Calumet view camera and back to 35mm with a Contax 2 (nothing at all like the Contax we know now). Then working in the big color labs I had years of experience finishing the work of others in every conceivable format, it became clear to me how similar, and how different the different formats are from and to each other. Continuing, I regularly used Leicas, my great (simple!) Linhof Teknica III, the Kodak Master View 8x10 with brass mounted dagors and protars I bought for $40 from my employer at the time. It had been Chao Chen Yang’s camera (he was a pioneering color photographer who became well known for his food photography in Seattle).
I’ve pretty much always worked with antiquated equipment. Each had its own nature and demanded absolute obedience to it’s design. I continued to work with much of the same stuff for the next 50 years.
But it wasn’t until I had been working for 10 years or so, in 1975, that I built my first pinhole camera (stereo) out of a quaker oat box. THAT was the camera that changed my life! It quickly disintegrated, of course, but it set me to building camera after camera, always cobbled together from what I had around and often departing from the traditional geometry with the objective placed centrally relative to the film. They were always built for a particular purpose. I became a frequent contributor to Pinhole Journal. I still do everything else that I want to for whatever reason, but pinhole is my ground floor.
Now, at 82 years old, I’m contemplating my next camera. It will be a refinement of an eccentric design I’ve been working with for 40 years. I’ll probably build it of black matte board, glue, and tape because we are downsizing and I’m abandoning my shop. It will have my own sterling silver pinholes. With luck I might get to actually use it.
Something else that has changed everything for me is my discovery of the Horseman Back, which has enabled me to use 120 roll film without having to use those awful Graphic backs that drive me crazy. It’s not just the camera.
I’d never dream of buying a pinhole camera. To each his own.