# toy cameras



## willg133 (Feb 26, 2005)

anyone take shots with toy cameras such as the famous holga? I have always been facinated by photography with toy cameras.


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## Jeff Canes (Feb 27, 2005)

yep there are few holgaer around the TPF

a holga thread is themes
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6345


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## siv (Feb 28, 2005)

n/m


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## Meysha (Mar 1, 2005)

Hi guys,
I was just wondering, why are they called toy cameras?
They don't really seem like toys to me and require a fair bit of work to get interesting shots from them.

Vicky


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## terri (Mar 1, 2005)

The Holga is built too cheaply to be called anything but a toy.       Besides, it was marketed as a toy in China.   It just so happened that, when one taped up the back to fix the light leaks, those cheap plastic lenses gave images a unique appearance, so it got to be a fad.   

A fifteen-dollar entrance into medium format photography....that is hard to beat.       I enjoy using mine.   

Here's one from last year (sorry, small image):


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## siv (Mar 3, 2005)

how do you use medium format cameras? do you put the film in, in a darkroom, then shoot the shot, go back in the darkroom and take out the negative and put another back in to take another shot? or is there a way to keep light off them out on the shoot?


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## terri (Mar 3, 2005)

No, what you're thinking of is sheet film - where the film negative is a single sheet, usually 4x5, and that's used for large format cameras.   Medium format cameras take regular old roll film, 120 film or 220 (same size negative just more frames in the roll).   

The Holga is fun because it's such a cheap plastic thing, but you can tape it up and drop a roll of 120 film in it and still get a great medium format image.


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## Alpha (Mar 16, 2005)

siv said:
			
		

> how do you use medium format cameras? do you put the film in, in a darkroom, then shoot the shot, go back in the darkroom and take out the negative and put another back in to take another shot? or is there a way to keep light off them out on the shoot?



It depends on what type of camera you have. Some load the film into the inside of the camera, meaning you just open up the camera, load the roll, shoot, rewind, take it out and close it, and load another. If you've never seen a roll of 120 film before it's quite a bit taller than a 35mm roll, maybe 2.5 times as tall. You open it up by breaking or pulling a way a little piece of paper holding it shut. There's no metal canister that it's contained in, so you have to be careful about loading it so you dont expose it. After  you shoot the film, there's a little sticky thing like a stamp that you wind around the film to close it, and it's best stored in a dark place, even if you think you've wound it tight. With more advanced cameras (and by that i generally mean non cheapo or twin-reflex) you can/do use what are called filmbacks, which hold the film and which you use for advancing and rewinding, but they are separate, and they lock onto the back of your camera. They generally have what's called a darkslide, which is a plate that goes in between the film and the back of the camera that you use when you want to switch films mid-roll. The backs can be quite expensive, generally selling for $50 at the absolute cheapest and in most cases around 80 to 100 dollars. Then there's sheet film, which you can alternately use (on the same camera that is, even going back and forth between the two if you like). You buy a sheet film holder, and you load individual sheets of film into it in a darkroom. A few companies make premade ones which of course are more expensive than doing it yourself. If i recall Kodak makes ReadyLoads and Fuji makes QuickLoads. I personally use 120 filmbacks, but sadly i dont have any darkslides for my backs. However I have had good results loading them normally and then just sticking them on the camera and shooting the whole roll. I think only once did I accidentally partially expose the first exposure while loading. Hope that helps.


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