Holga 135BC - Fujifilm 200 ISO

I finally decided that I wont sell my Russian Zenit E camera. I had a friend of mine come home from being deployed (Yet again, and again...) and he had caught me at work the other day and asked me if I still had it. Kindly I explained to him that it was not a casual 35mm shooter and it would need to be babied. He then turned down his offer. Which I was kind of happy about. That being my first real camera.

On another note, I got a message from the stubborn chinese man behind the ebay account between me and a plastic camera. He said that "The holiday time was crazy, and that the item was shipped." Only took me what, two weeks of messages everyday to get a reply. Nonetheless it is on its way here to my abode.

The Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim came. New and still in the gift wrapping. Total cost was about $22 dollars and well worth it. I have not loaded it. But Will post some pictures soon with it.

Also been following some ebay auctions recently but I am becoming more fond of the buy it now function. A user posted an ad for a buy it now, Vivitar panoramic camera new, for $2.99 buy it now. I couldnt wait. I watched the numbers of available cameras he had and said, "Screw it, I dont have a panoramic yet..." If it was anymore I probably would have waited, but what can I say?

Testing out the Special Moments 35mm plastic camera still. I hope this thing works long enough for me to get the pictures in the roll developed. I feel really unsafe and uneasy with it. Super light and totally plastic. Does not feel "Solid" in the least bit. Gave a few to friends and family members and will be glad to see if ANY of them actually used it. I even gave film away with it... sigh.

Currently I just got started on flickr. Pretty cool. When I feel like I have established myself on there more I will post links on here to it.

And before I forget the biggest news. Operation "Plastic Ninja." If you do not know what I am referring to I am talking about my recently broken Holga. I am sure I mentioned it on my last blog. The take up spool on my Holga broke, so I went and got a new one, for the fantastic low price of $53.66.

I actually didnt pay that. I take that back. I NEVER would pay that much for a Holga. Operation "Plastic Ninja" was to return the broken one inside the box of the new one. I saved you enough suspense, it worked. And I have to say the new Holga feels beefier and more mechanically sound than that of the broken one I magically swapped. The new one has metal inside of it. METAL! Its like a whole new camera. Well. It is a whole new camera. We will see if it makes a difference and if it lasts through 4 or more rolls. I would put my money that the new one will.

Im $53.66 cents richer, with a new camera, and a feeling of satisfaction. Screw that getting jipped on a camera. No I dont feel bad. Thats what happens when your products are shit and your quality control guys are sleeping on the job.

The picture posted was the last roll to go through the broken Holga.

Christmas

I have lots of new things to blog about, just have not made an attempt to get it on here as of late.

First off. Been ebaying way to damn much. There are 12 step groups and Im bound to search them out at this point. I was really doing good until lately. But ill get to that.

My Holga 135BC take up spool is friggen broken, after only 3 rolls. Im plotting to exchange that this week sometime since Christmas is the time for returns. By the way, Im pissed about it. I was planning on using the thing.

I splurged (Ebay) and went ahead and ordered a Lomo camera really really cheap. It was the actionsampler chrome. Its the one with 4 lenses. Pretty cool got it for $8 bucks. And it came with a lomo book too.

Also searching for trashcams online found a Dollar store camera that is fairly sought after. I went to 3 local place and found one that had some. I bought all of them. All 40 of them. Want one? Email me and ill give you a price.

Ebay again, has found a way to let me know cheap Asian companies make cameras, and I being a collector of sorts think I should buy them. Specifically a 3 lens lomo style camera. I went ahead and got one of those too. Cheap. $4.25 cents to be exact. Problem here is that the seller doesnt speak a lick of english to my knowledge and fails to let me know if the thing is shipped. And hes pissing me off now to the point where I feel like I should have just paid the extra $75 cents for an english speaking ebayer.

And finally. While Christmas shopping I found another camera. The pop cam, its like the 4 lensed actionsampler but its in Andy Warhol-esque color filters. Like a pop painting every shot.

I have lots and lots of new things to do with photography. I also managed to get my kit for my main camera, which is now the Cannon Rebel G. Bought a puffer diffuser for it and a couple of cheap lens filters as insurance. It works awesome. Also been trying to sell my ZENIT E but to no avail. Turns out no one wants Russian cameras! Not even the biggest local camera store in our area.

Things worth about $165 bucks refurbished if you got it from lomos website. I would have sold it for $30 bucks probably two weeks ago. Now I decided im keeping it for better or for worse.

Lastly. I been really really good about finding info wether it be on Flickr or on Google in general. Since I stay away from wikipedia I usually get good info on cameras. The trashcams thing took alot of my time up. So I can learn from modding the lot of 40 cameras I took up. But at the same time I was hounding ebay (I notice how much I say it because spell check hates ebay) for a rare rare rare plastic cam. The Vivtar Ultra Wide camera is the more expensive of the finished non production plastic cams. Quit making them some time ago. But its the brother of the oh, Lomo LCA. 22mm lens takes insane wide shots, blurs, dark corner, everything. Well I got one.

At the time of this post, some of the cameras I won, I am still waiting for replies (from english speaking friends of Hong Kongs ebay sellers) or waiting to just receive them in the mail. I will post pics of the new additions soon.

And Happy Holidays. Get ready to make resolutions. New Years will be here soon.

I know what mine is. "Shoot more 400 ISO and higher film, and only buy black and white."

Purgatory.

As stated before in my previous blog, I had said that eventually I would like to enter the world of Digital Photography. But really not in the sense that most people do.

For the most part, the casual photographer will pick up a rather cheap box digital camera to tinker with. On the other end a serious "Money making" photographer will go out and dish the amount of a pretty nice used car for the next money making camera. I stand right in the middle somewhere.

I want a digital SLR camera that I can adjust the settings on it to take the holga-esque dark edges pictures I like. This is proving harder than originally planned. I did find out that I can adjust the settings enough to start getting this effect on my own with the Canon I do own now. Have I achieved that? Not really.

After a half roll of expired Kodak 400, I did get a few good shots. Along with the other 14 or so that were not mine but the original owners. Strange. Pictures of people I dont know.

Turns out also, that there is no filter made as of this moment that I or anyone at the local camera shops know that just do the masking I want for dark corners. Seems easy enough. I guess its because on that "money maker" end of the spectrum, they pay to just use photoshop. Which is so lame.

Im using a decent 35mm Canon SLR and basically totally relearning how to do these things. On my own may I add. This is why I waited so long to even touch this camera. Its so in depth, so far over my head, that its scary. But not so much now.

Figure that by the time I spend about 20 bucks on film and developing, I should have a firm grip on what I need to do to get the dark corner effects with a Mid Ranged priced SLR camera.

I did order some really cheap lens filters from ebay to screw around with. Got two UV filters for around $4 with free shipping. And Im bidding on a vintage soft filter to take portraits with. Get on ebay or craigslist and save some money. Now, you can modify with custom things to make a cheap UV filter into a artsy point and shoot auto-focusing powerhouse. To an extent.

Looking to get a puffer too so I can get better pictures up close with this built in flash. I wish I could turn it off sometimes.

Moving to more digital is daunting. Its kinda scary at times. But now, I feel like I have no excuses to capture the best pictures I possibly can. The holga being a loose firing cannon is a mulligan machine. You either make great shots or well, you know. They come out burnt.

Awesome still in my book.

By the way. The auto focus is great. My manual focus shots came out good as well. This is all new to me. They recommend using AF, because the brain inside is smart enough to figure all the bugs out on its own. However, to capture what I am looking for which is essentially the problems most people despise in professional photography. Seems I can use either AF or MF to achieve beautiful imperfections.

Dont get me wrong about the huge jump to wanting DSLR. I still like 35mm and always will. Its so warm and analog-y. Its inviting and pleasing to the eye. I dont think I can love digital nearly as much as 35mm. Its kinda just feeling like I need to make the switch because the market is getting better.

"I was thinking Pentax, Kx. Stormtrooper white? Yes. Thank you."

Come to the dark side, we have memory sticks.

Recently. I have not spent a whole lot of time shooting 35mm film. And for that matter, I have not been shooting 120 either. I was kind of stunned after having a person at Walgreens tell me that they can develop 120 medium format film. Only to find out from person #2 at Walgreens, they indeed do not.

Speaking of which. I have a roll of 120 half way shot.

After some surfing on ebay (as usual) I found out that I can get some filters that can emulate the mask in the Holgas. The soft dark edges I am oh so fond of, could easily just be a filter thats slipped on the barrel of a SLR camera.

And with it being now December. I guess I shouldn't torture myself with looking at Digital SLR cameras. The better idea about such a matter would be to search for lightly used camera stuffs and save some money. But then again, this wouldn't even be close to possible until after the holidays.

In turn. Ill be getting out my Cannon Rebel G, the kind of the 35mm flavor to play with until I can figure out some sort of plan to get a Digital SLR. Maybe start a fund? Put some coffee cans with a picture of me on them at the local gas stations? I can see it now.

Regardless, I couldn't afford one now at any rate. With holiday time here you got tons of items and things to buy for family and loved ones. This merchants holiday is specially horrible mainly because every one is guilt tripped into this sort of annual period. I personally hate this time of year. The only good thing that comes out of it is seeing family, watching children open presents, and the skyrocketing suicide rates.

Its just another day of the year. And a good day to take pictures I have to remind myself. Its not all bad.