i'm gonna buy a holga

The Holga is a bit of an acquired taste. It has a lousy lens, poor build quality, questionable reliability and light sealing.

It does, however, have a cult following, and in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing can produce stunning results. The vogue for these stems from the whole "lomography" business, about which you can form your own conclusions.

My advice would be to decide what you want from medium format - if you want the clarity and beauty of a large negative, an old folder of some sort (an Ansco Speedex maybe) will be cheaper than a Holga and yield better results (provided that you get one with intact bellows etc). A cheap TLR (an Autocord maybe) would be a good option too. If the Holga look is what appeals, go for that.

Edit:
Some Holga stuff from forum members;
https://www.nikoncafe.com/vforums/showthread.php?t=106596&highlight=holga
https://www.nikoncafe.com/vforums/showthread.php?t=104804&highlight=holga
https://www.nikoncafe.com/vforums/showthread.php?t=104543&highlight=holga

And an external site;
http://www.perrydilbeck.com/truckfarmers.html

Regarding IR film, I know Efke do theirs in 120 roll, and Ilford's "near infrared" SFX film is available in 120 roll.

 

I bought a Holga a few months ago....shot a few rolls and really thought it was very interesting. I am planning on buying the Polaroid Back from Freestyle Photographic Supply near my house in LA. It should be a really cool street camera.

 

Hey Drew - I don't think anyone can go wrong getting a Holga to play around with. I've done a fair amount of playing myself - they really lend themselves to experimental type photography. Don't think that you are going to get optics like a Mamiya or Hassy though - the lens is plastic, it's fixed both at f/8 (although they claim an f/11 position is available, looking closely shows that that option does nothing) and it's about 1/100th of a second. I have found that a wide latitude 400 speed film is the best choice.

You can try either Rollei or Ilford 120 sized IR film, but it's hard enough to get thoise to work in a good camera! One especially fun things to do with a holga, is to put 35mm film in it - you don't need an adapter or anything. Just wrap it around the take-up spool. Be sure to tape up the red window, as there is no paper backing on 35mm film!

Most of all - HAVE FUN!!!

 

Definately go for the Holga! They are a lot of fun. I actually just modified mine, so it has an f/8 and an f/16 aperture. It was suprisingly easy to do. A quick search for "Holga Aperture Mod" should show how to do it.

 

Sounds like fun. Searching now...