Faulting the Plastic Holga Lens

I bought a little Holga lens thinking it would producing interesting effects. Hmmm, I ain’t so sure anymore.

What, I hear you cry, this lens is the latest biggest craze on the market! People are buying it left right and center, and shooting interesting images the world over. But I don’t find many of the images produced all that interesting!

I bought mine after seeing friend’s photographs on Facebook, so wanted to emulate their results. But so far I have not experienced the fun they’ve had. This lens has features that I didn’t realise would be so popular to an audience who relish in colourful HDR.

I discovered the aperture is almost non existent, and focusing is impossible. The vignetting gets on my nerves. The effective focal length is 60mm, yet I see nothing effective about it all.

I’m not sure I have any real use for it, but will leave on my old Canon 400D and test it out in various ways before I make final decision on whether I wasted my money.

Here are a few shots taken over the last few days that prove fairly useless the lens is, at least to me.

Photograph of nearby power lines.

Shutter speed: 1/10 seconds. Exposure program: Manual. Aperture value: f/21. ISO: 100.

Photograph of freshly cut grass of nearby yard.

Shutter speed: 1/15 seconds. Exposure program: Manual. Aperture value: f/21. ISO: 200.

This is is my face the day after I face planted the bitumen during a night-walk.

The side of my face was all swollen, plus there were several abrasion points between my eye and jawline, down my cheek. Not fun. This has healed already, though there are a few little marks.

Shutter speed: 0.5 second. Exposure program: AP. Aperture value: f/21. ISO: 1600.

This lens is like a 50mm fixed lens – but without the fun of focusing on one part of the shot.

As for the Holga product range of plastic lens, I am yet to find any redeeming features. I’ve decided I wasted my money. Having no focus and no DOF simply annoys me! I welcome your suggestions on how I can better use this toy lens.