I bought a Holga lens for my camera. I have been looking at them for a long time thinking they may be fun to play with. Well... I finally broke down last week and bought one off of ebay. It arrived yesterday fresh from Hong Kong.
First impressions is its not to bad for a plastic Chinese lens. Feels OK in your hand. The focus action is a bit heavy, but smooth. And the lens is not just glued to a body cap. The base is one piece. It does not fit tight to the camera. But it does not seem to be a problem either.
It gives a horrible vignette on the images. Holgas are a medium format camera. So why is it giving a vignette on a 35mm camera? The answer is it has a "baffle" on the back that creates it artificialy with a bunch of holes. Luckily it comes out very easily.
You can see the vignettes flower shape in this pic...
Same subject with and without the baffle...
Over all I am happy with it. For $15 what more could you ask for. With a bit of playing in post it is very easily to get a film feel to the images. I think this will be more than $15 worth of fun. And I have not left my back yard with it yet.
Now to find a model and some strobes.......
