3 Plastic Fantastic Holga Hacks!

We're celebrating Holga Week at Fotodiox with gear reviews and creative tutorials featuring Holga film cameras all week long! Holga week is a celebration of all things Holga, and runs from October 1-7. In today's blog, we're going to look at three plastic fantastic creative hacks for your Holga 120 camera.

1. Take That Mask Off!

No, we don't mean the one you’re wearing for Covid, keep that one on when necessary! But you can easily take the mask off your Holga 120 camera. It's simple, just reach in and pop it out.

Now your images will bleed right to the edge of the film and have a lo-fi, uneven frame line. Here's an example of an image captured with the mask on and one without it. If you're going for a rougher, more messy lo-fi look with your Holga photos, you’ve gotta go maskless.

2. Don't Follow the Mask Rules!

Again, we're not talking about face masks! We're talking about the masks in your Holga 120 camera. Holgas come with two: a 12 and a 16 mask. Depending on which you use, you can capture either 12 square photos or 16 rectangular ones on a normal roll of 120 film. Just follow the numbers on the film’s backing as viewed through the film window selector.

But if you don’t follow the rules, if you put in the 12 mask but follow the markings for 16 photos on the film’s backing, you can blend every photo you capture into the next one, making for some pretty trippy and sometimes strangely perfect results like these!

3. Sprockets in your Pockets

Nothing is quite as lo-fi cool as exposed 35mm film sprockets, and getting this look is easier than you might think. Start by placing a roll of 35mm film into your Holga 120 camera’s left side.

Now you just have to figure out how many clicks of the film advance wheel it takes to advance one image captured on the 35mm film past the film gate--we found it takes about 41 clicks. Close the camera, cover the film window with light tight tape like gaffers or black duct tape, and you're ready to shoot. When you can't advance the 35mm film anymore, take your Holga camera into a pitch black room or a film changing bag, remove the 35mm film and roll it back into its cartridge. Develop and scan, and voila! Sprocket photos!

Like our hacks? Got any more? Drop us a line and let us know, and stay tuned for more Holga Week content, including this video where Sean takes a look at the entire Holga camera line!