Brian, I blame you for this!!!

[Xia_Ke]

LOL... couldn't resist after Mike's thread.

Carla gave me an early Christmas present from my wish list today, a Holga It's a 120N. I know these are notorious for light leaks. Any tips for sealing this thing up or any other mods to do to it?

[another view]

Cool! Brian and Megan are the Holga experts, but I did try one awhile back and found that a roll of g-tape (gaffer's tape) goes a long ways. I taped all the way around the back, especially including the latches that hold the back onto the camera. B&H and pretty much any pro-oriented photo store will have g-tape. It's like duct tape but has a texture to it and won't leave a residue. It's expensive but can be re-used.

I'm sure decent quality electric tape (like 3M 33+ or 88) could work the same way. Cheaper electrical tape will leave a residue if left on for even a short amount of time but should be just as light-tight.

[Xia_Ke]

I remembered that I still had plenty of seal material from the light seal kit I bought before. Used the thin strips around the edge of the back cover. Judging by the hanging negatives, seems to have done the trick perfectly.

I did make a huge goof though with my first roll. Had the 6x6 mask in but, accidentally had the back counter window set to 16... DOH! Can you say OVERLAP?!?!....LOL Actually worked out kind of cool though. Carla, Skyla, and I were out back playing in the snow. I got a cool little sequence of her making a snowman and looks like the overlap added a bit of character to it. I'll post some scans as soon as they dry.

Now that I've played a bit, Santa needs to finish wrapping presents while Carla and the munchkin are out...LOL

[mjs1973]

So, when is the Polaroid back for the Holga coming? The wife was thinking about buying me a Holga for Christmas. She found one in the "gift" section of a website. I don't remember the site, but the Holga "kit" they were selling was around $75!! When I told her how much they cost from a normal camera site, she decided not to order it.

[Xia_Ke]

Ouch! $75 is a rip off. Carla wouldn't say where she got mine from. She said she was going to order from holgamods but, couldn't figure out how to get to the ordering page...LOL The Holga negatives are pretty much dry now but, might be a bit before I can get them up. I have to mixup another batch of all my chemicals (time for fresh fixer and stop bath) then I have 2 rolls of 35mm and a roll of 120 from the Rollei that I need to get developed. At least all the presents are wrapped now and I have plenty of tequila to keep me company in the bathroom...LOL

[mtbbrian]

Right On!
I hope she at least bought it from www.holgamods.com, that will help signigicantly. Tell Randy, I sent you, he'll take care of you.
If it's not one from there, check out the site and follos some of the tips there for mods.
Other than that, use a lot of duct tape!
On the front, where the seam is from the lower part of the body and the upper half, cover that seam with some tape.
For the back, take a piece of duct tape fold it onto itself and and repeat so you have two.
Where the red window is for the counter, place one on one half and the other on the other half, so it folds over the other half. Make sense? It will cover the window and make it so you can fold the tape over so you can see the numbers when you advance the film.
See the pic!

As you can see from here and the picture on my site, I tape the sides and the back.
I do it for two reasons, one is for light leaks and the other is the ensure the back stays on, those metal clips are rather flimsy.
Check out www.toycamera.com too.
Film wise I shoot three films, Tri-X, Kodak Porta 400 NC or VC and Fujichrome 100 F Velvia.
I look forward to seeing what you come up!
If you have any other question email me!
Merry Christmas!
Brian

:thumbsup:

[Xia_Ke]

HI Brian. She didn't end up getting it from Holgamods. She won't say where but, it wasn't from there. The seal strip I put in the groove around the edge of the cover seemed to do the trick, though not sure if there was a seal problem to begin with. I will need to reinforce the back holders though as the seal strips stress the holding clamps. I'm going to try the velcro mod to see if that helps. I've only shot the one roll but, seems to be a fun little camera. If I like it enough I might end up ordering a deluxe one from holgamods. Here's a quick stitch job of the roll I shot earlier...

(click image for full size)

[mjs1973]

Ouch! $75 is a rip off.

That's what I thought too! But they do include a roll of tape. She found it on the Sundance site. I see they have it marked down to $40 now.

http://www.sundancecatalog.com/shopp...1&itemID=10931

[Xia_Ke]

For $40, that doesn't seem like a bad little package. So far seems like a fun little camera. I'm looking forward to getting out and playing with it some more

[photophorous]

I did the same thing as you on my first roll. When I got to shot number 14, I thought...this can't be right. Doh! I've had mine since last Christmas, but shamefully, I have not done much with it. I did however get some film recently, specifically for the Holga. And, as soon as this Christmas stuff is over with, I'll have a few free days to go shoot. I'm looking forward to having weekday time off, so I can go downtown and shoot while everyone else is working...haha...suckers.

[Xia_Ke]

Sweet, now I don't feel so bad...LOL

I'll be right there with you this week. I don't go back to work until the 2nd Not sure I'll be able to get much done for shooting the next couple of days but, Carla and everyone else goes back to work on Wednesday and then it's time to play :thumbsup: