Holga 120WPC Wide Angle Pinhole: Field Test

April 21, 2009

Now we’ll turn out attention to how the Holga 120WPC performs in the field.

I took the Holga out into the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and Prospect Park, two areas which I’m very familiar with.   I brought a couple of rolls of Fuji Acros 100 and a single roll of Fuji Astia 100F, a slide film which I have used a few times in the past.  Its the start of cherry blossom season so I wanted to see how the pinhole would render color (and we’ll have to wait on the lab for the answer to that question I’m afraid).

For this review I’ll cover:

1. How to compose with the Holga 120WPC
2. Exposure and Considerations
3. Problems

Composition

First, let’s look at how to compose with the Holga.   The camera lacks a viewfinder and relies instead on 4 knobs that are situated on the top of the camera’s body.  These knobs are set up in a triangular pattern and represent the angle for the 6×12 format.  The 6×9 format rests slightly within that span and as this is a holga its customary to guess.  To compose you simply bend down and line up the middle two knobs in your field of vision.  The knobs on the left and right then describe the rough edges of your frame.  This leaves the vertical composition.   That you’re going to have to wing.  If someone has a method for determining where the vertical frame lines for the camera are, please share your technique.

The bubble level is fairly useful to getting your shots level.  Unlike the Horizon Perfekt which will distort due to the rotating lens when taken off either axis you can feel free to tilt the frame as desired.  Even if you’re changing the pitch of the lens its nice to have the horizon level and the bubble is useful for this purpose.

Holga wasn’t kidding when they said Wide Angle.  The angle of view is about 120 degrees when using the 6×12 format.  I’m not sure what the 35mm equivalent would be for the pinhole would be but its a bit wider than a normal lens.   Its actually a bit wider than I expected and my next jaunt out will try to compensate for this.

Exposure and Considerations

I covered exposure calculations in the first section of this review so I’ll just briefly mention that the key to pinhole exposures is to create a table that you can use to relate your exposure at a f-stop your light meter can handle to the corrected exposure for the pinhole’s f-stop and then add the additional factor of the reciprocity failure for your specific film.

From a practical standpoint its best to use at least a one second exposure.  You’ll want to be able to count “one mississippi” as judging a fraction of a second exposure is going to be extremely difficult.   Even using a kitchen timer or stopwatch would rely too much on your reflexes to get the proper exposure.  I would strongly suggest shooting a slow film, 100 ASA at the maximum to ensure that most of your exposures will be of at least a second, even in bright sunlight.  For a one second exposure using Fuji Acros (which doesn’t have reciprocity failure for exposures under 2 minutes) this translates to 1/30 of a second at f/22 which is fairly doable even in bright sunlight.   Dim conditions or night photography may require the use of a high speed film unless you enjoy standing around for a several minute exposure.  I’m not an astrophotographer so I don’t know why someone would get down with waiting on a 5 hour exposure.

One second is a long time.  Lots can happen in a single second.  Especially if the wind is blowing hard.   The soft focus in the top photo is not due to any property of the lens.  It was a 3 second exposure and only the wooden rail held still during that time.  The wind shook the trees in the distance and the water did what water does.  Time will be an element in your compositions.

This can have some interesting effects.  For one thing, on a multi-second exposure anything moving through your frame will most likely dissapear or only leave a ghost of an image on the film.   The photo above is a nine second exposure during which a couple walked into my frame.  They’re only visible as a very wisp of an image along the path, their approach through the right side of the frame is entirely invisible.

Imagine getting a 50 or 25 speed film and shooting in a crowded area over the course of 10-60 seconds.  Using a pinhole takes away elements of control in terms of focus and exposure.  Take control of the ones you do have.

Problems

As I mentioned before there’s no way to determine the vertical frame lines for your composition.   As we say in the software business, this isn’t a bug, its a feature.  The holga was never meant to be especially accurate with the framing so you’ll want to move your most important subjects well within the framelines.

One key issue with composition is flare.   Shooting into the sun without a shade can produce flare in the best of lenses and this camera is especially susceptible to it.  A common hack for holgas in general is to flock the inside of the camera using matte black spray paint.  This procedure is detailed on the Holga Hacks website.  The masks inside is a matte surface but the camera back remains bright and shiny which will cause internal reflection and lower your contrast.

Again, more of a feature than a bug is the low-impact plastic that the camera is manufactured out of.  This might survive a fall and if it doesn’t you might be able to fix it but don’t assume that this camera is in any way sturdy.  The 120WPC is especially long and as a result feels a bit flimsier than the traditional holga’s squat frame.  Be careful.

Conclusion

Approaching pinhole photography as someone who generally works with wide apertures and sharp lenses has required me to think about how I approach a shot differently.  I typically use a narrow depth of field to isolate my subject out of the scene and now I’m forced to compose with everything in sharp(ish) focus.  Its frustrating but interesting.

The one thing I will do before going out again is to flock the inside of my camera’s mask and back plate.  The low contrast images bug the hell out of me and I’d like to do as much as I can to sharpen them up.   Others prefer the dreamy, low contrast quality but I guess I’m a zone kinda guy and I like my tones to go from 0 to X.

You can find more examples of what the Holga 120WPC can do on the Dark Corners flickr group.

Posted in Product Review