Shoot Lo-Fi Photos Using Your Expensive DSLR and a Cheap Holga Lens

  • Michael Zhang · Mar 03, 2011
 

If you want to play around with lo-fi photography, you don’t have to venture into the world of analog or hack together a DIY lens for your DSLR. There’s cheap plastic lenses you can buy for a toy-camera look, and one of them is the Holga HL-N lens available for both Canon and Nikon mounts.

Here’s a photograph taken with a Holga lens mounted on a Canon 5D Mark II:

You can buy one for yourself for $25 for your Canon or Nikon DSLR from the HolgaDirect Shop.

Holga Accessories (via Boing Boing)

Image credit: Hollywood Holga by puck90

 

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  • http://www.facebook.com/chungdha Chung Dha Lam

    That picture has been photoshopped too much to see what is actually caused by the Olga lens.

  • http://twitter.com/WeiseStudios Dana Weise

    I’ve been wanting to actually buy a Holga Camera for some time, but I only know of one place to develop the film in my city so… I caved, I bought one only 25$ and if I wasted it, then at least I wasted it on an uber-cheap lens for my canon.

  • Bleach 426

    The picture is definitely played up a lot. I searched flickr tags for lens examples and it’s not nearly the same. I wish it was! For the money though it’s still a good find for the Holga look.

  • http://www.orangejuice-etc.com/ Elias

    You’re still not going to get nearly the same effect as you would with a Holga. There’s just no substitute for real film. You can’t get genuine light leaks with a 5D. And it’s still going to look like digital unless you put a film effect on the photo. But why go to all that trouble when you can just use a real Holga?

  • http://twitter.com/nicholassmith Nicholas Smith

    I just bought one after seeing it BoingBoing and the level of snark. It was £20 with delivery to the UK so I’ve not spent a lot and I’m sure I’ll have some fun for a few hours at the very least.

  • Pingback: New Holga and Lensbaby add-ons for Nikon DSLR | Nikon Rumors

  • Neiltringster

    You can get a Diana F mount for Canon and Nikon which enables you to use the Fisheye, wide angle or standard Diana lens. Gives you the same analogue feel you get with Lomo Cameras

  • Chepe

    I received mine for my Nikon yesterday, no way am I getting the results I was expecting. You’re better off placing a clear plastic bag over your real lens and snap away. Those might actually look better!

  • Kelly Fitzgerald

    Hi Dana, you can mail your film to thedarkroom.com http://thedarkroom.com/

    Happy shooting!

  • http://fotosimile.com beeveedee

    Yep. Ditto to Chepe. Got mine and I’m not impressed. Granted it’s “lo fi” and yes, it doesn’t look like the film shots (in the first place, you don’t get the nice square format on a DSLR). I thought it would be a chance to try out a lensbaby-type effect on the cheap since I’ve been ambivalent on spending the money for a lensbaby, not knowing if I’d really use it or not. I think now I might be happier with the lensbaby, but will try to play around with this a bit more first. I think you need to use it on the right kind of subject. I also think I’d be just as happy simulating the effect in post-processing.

  • Holga HL-N User

    Here are some more positive experiences of using the lens:

    http://ryanmlong.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/holga-hl-n-on-digital-nikon-d300/
    http://davewares.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/holga-hl-n-first-outing/
    http://currentphotographer.com/review-holga-hl-n-lens-for-nikon-dslr-cameras/

    Important to note that version 2 of lens has a stronger Holga like effect than version 1 so make sure you know which you have…

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