I bought a toy camera over the summer, a Holga 135BC with an awful lens, a peeling name sticker, and cheap plastic body. It’s lovely, I just got a film back from the developer.

Completely unpredictable, confusing and fantastic. The Holga 135BC is the successor to the Holga 135, itself an adaption of the original Holga, which was produced as a simple camera to saturate the market for low cost, low tech cameras in China in the mid eighties. My Holga thankfully take 35mm film, but keeps the characteristic black corner vignetting that was lost in the 135.

It’s fun, it’s easy to tote around, and it seems people tend not to notice (and therefore preen and pose) quite so much as with a hefty digital SLR. It’s occasionally infuriating and the film rewind handle has already fallen off, but it’s still a great little camera.

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