Homemade pinholga floppy disc shutter

Will Luo's DIY pinholga floppy disc shutter

Check out Will Luo‘s sweet 3rd-generation homemade pinholga floppy disc shutter. He writes:

the third incarnation of the pinholga’s shutter. i got the idea of using a floppy disk from this blog entry. this one is customized for the holga though. it was much easier and faster to make than the last version:

1. cut off the part of the disk that has the spring-loaded protector. the disk i got had some soft paper coating inside which i removed as well.

2. make a small cut here and bend the corner up to make a small "handle" that can be used to push the floppy door open. i glued a little piece of foam there to make it less slippery for the cable release…

Continue reading at Luo’s Flickr photostream.

Call for entries: The Holga Show at Photomedia Center

The Call for Entries category has been mighty thin due to my refusal to post any that require entry fees, but this one looks decent: Holga, no entry fee, electronic submission. It’s an electronic show that reqires a print donation if your work is accepted.

ATTENTION fine art photographers working with HOLGA cameras!

In December 2006, the Photomedia Center will be featuring artists who have been invited through an open submissions process to exhibit their photography which was created with the assistance of the Holga toy camera. This plastic miracle has produced a track record unexpectedly beatuiful results in the hands of skilled image-makers.

Artists are welcome to submit up to 8 images for consideration for inclusion in the show. Final decisions will be made by the Photomedia Center staff and board of directors. Accepted images will be shown online at www.photomediacenter.org as the featured exhibit of the month and archived online in our "previous exhibitions" section of the site thereafter. There is no cost to enter your work, but if your work is selected, we ask that you donate a print of your image to the Photomedia Center for its permanent collection.

I contacted them to clarify the camera hacking situation, and they replied:

The requirements are pretty open… any image is acceptable as long as it was made in some part and process with a Holga toy camera. Using modified versions of the camera, including lenses, is fine.

More info at the Photomedia Center’s Web site.

Via Randy Smith at holgamods (get your modified Holga from him!)

Homemade underwater Holga enclosure

moominsean writes on his excellent blog, moominstuff:

I’ve been wanting to turn my Holga into an underwater camera for awhile, and finally got around to building a waterproof casing. I spent many hours on the design and implementation, making sure the seal was absolute, as you can see…

Check out his sweet home-built underwater Holga enclosure and sample photos—this thing has to be seen to be believed!

Polaroid to discontinue 80-series peel-apart instant films

Fucking hell, Polaroid are killing yet another range of films! This time it’s the 80 series (84, 87, 88, and 89) 3.25 x 3.38-inch peel-apart pack film—the stuff you shoot in Holgaroids, supershooters, and squareshooters. Each product page bears the following message:

Please be advised that Polaroid will be discontinuing 8[x] film within the last 3 months of 2006 due to the phasing out of components used in the production of this film.

I guess it’s time to figure out how to hack a full-frame back as a Holgaroid replacement… hopefully the 3.25 x 4.25-inch 600 series pack film isn’t going anywhere for a while. Although, with Time-Zero and type 85 pos/neg discontinued, who the hell knows?

Glazer’s Camera pinhole/Holga photo competition

Paul Beard of A Crank’s Progress blog writes:

You’d think they might mention it on their website, but alas, no.

Anyway, they’re running a contest from July 1 to August 12 [2006]. Any Holga or pinhole images is acceptable (need not be a modded Holga—not that that stopped me from grabbing one of their kits: $25 for a Holga, 2 rolls of film, and a few feet of gaffer tape on a 120 spool).

Call Brent @ 206 624 1100 for more info.

Via the f295 Pinhole Forum

Holga lens for Canon EOS cameras from Holgamods

Randy from Holgamods continues to kick ass: he’s now selling a Holga lens mounted on a body cap for use on Canon EOS cameras (Rebel XT, 20D, 30D, etc.). US $34.95, order here.

I’ve ordered cameras from Holgamods before and recommend him strongly. If you want a Holga and don’t want to modify it yourself, this is the place to go. (I have no relationship with Randy other than being a satisfied customer.)

Verhoeven/Bell pinhole & Holga phototography show, Yokohama, JP

This show features color pinhole photographs done in Kyoto, Japan by Fred Verhoeven and black and white Woca Plastic Camera Photographs of northern Japan by Court Bell.

Fred Verhoeven is a photographer from San Francisco, CA. Court Bell is a American Photographer living in Sendai, Japan. This show is presented as Japan viewed through American eyes.

Gallery is located minutes away from JR Kannai Station in Yokohama.

Gallery Otamachi
3-35-2 Otamachi
Naka-ku
Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan

Dates: Monday, June 05, 2006 – Sunday, June 11, 2006
Opening reception: Thursday, June 08, 2006 at 05:00 PM

Artist websites at www.fred-verhoeven.com & www.courtbell.com

Via Pinhole Visions