End of the line for Holga

[zuiko85]

This is more opportunity for Lomography I would think. They must have a source for plastic cameras since they have brought back the Diana, and in several formats.
I do not have an interest in these plastic cameras but I know some do. David Burnett has had several of his Holga photos published in national magazines.

 

[Roger Hicks]

This is more opportunity for Lomography I would think. They must have a source for plastic cameras since they have brought back the Diana, and in several formats.

Quite. A very small number of people, who are unable to understand the availability of other toy cameras, new and used, are slightly inconvenienced. THESE are the brain-dead hipsters, not the people who make a choice to use toy cameras.

I apologize to those who misunderstood my original post, but I hope this clarification will help them to understand what I actually said.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

At my age I can't see me as user of plastic Holga, but wooden Brownie, which brings me close to film roots and they are bw, not color. Don't know why, but BW with Holga and Diana makes no sense for me.
I also see no support for Holga, Diana cameras as 120 color film cameras from film industry. Where are some not very expensive 120 color films, but they are not so easy to get locally and next to impossible to process and scan. And even if you'll find lab locally, cost and processing time is not for young generation.

Holga and Diana lost momentum with sticking to 120 film instead of jumping on instant as Fuji did. And despite I have seen takers on Instax only couple of times, Fuji cameras and instant films are sold almost everywhere locally for years now.

So, Instax killed Holga, not digital.

 

[ray*j*gun]

I love shooting with film although I have now embraced digital gear. Any negative news regarding the products around film photography saddens me. I also felt a twinge when I read that Bessa cameras where no longer being produced.

 

[back alley]

this has to be a hard hit for the film crowd...

 

[Roger Hicks]

At my age I can't see me as user of plastic Holga, but wooden Brownie, which brings me close to film roots and they are bw, not color. Don't know why, but BW with Holga and Diana makes no sense for me.
I also see no support for Holga, Diana cameras as 120 color film cameras from film industry. Where are some not very expensive 120 color films, but they are not so easy to get locally and next to impossible to process and scan. And even if you'll find lab locally, cost and processing time is not for young generation.

Holga and Diana lost momentum with sticking to 120 film instead of jumping on instant as Fuji did. And despite I have seen takers on Instax only couple of times, Fuji cameras and instant films are sold almost everywhere locally for years now.

So, Instax killed Holga, not digital.

Interesting argument, with a lot to commend it -- too much disposable income chasing a short-lived fashion, viz., doing Lomography the hard way -- but I'm not totally convinced. There is a separate magic to "real" film.

As I tried to argue earlier, we need to distinguish between those who make an artistic choice, and those who jump on a bandwagon. It doesn't matter if the bandwagon is Leicas or Holgas: the cameras stop selling in large enough numbers when the partially witted (all right, not brain-dead -- I exaggerated) go for the next short-lived fashion because they don't really understand what art is, let alone have any impulse to create it.

Leica attracts enough people who are not partially witted, short-sighted followers of fashion. They needn't be great photographers, but they aren't buying into a cheap, gimcrack fad. Holgas didn't have that advantage. They did not attract enough people who were not partially witted, short-sighted followers of fashion. They attracted modest numbers of those who made an artistic choice, but there weren't enough of them.

This is why I specifically mentioned the disappearance of brain-dead hipsters as the downside. They helped support those who DID make the aesthetic choice, so their absence is bad news. I could have made myself clearer, but unfortunately I didn't.

Cheers,

R.

 

[JoeV]

Some in this thread are throwing around the term "hipster" like they know what it means. Perhaps it's like pornography; they can't define it, but know one when they see one. 🙂

I see cameras like Holgas to be the descendant of the Brownie box camera, one shutter speed and a dodgy viewfinder.

I saw the writing on the wall when, well over a year ago, Urban Outfitters quit stocking Holgas and instead focused on Instax and IP.

~Joe

 

[Keith]

They've been watching Leica. They will release a limited edition commemorative version in about five years and make an absolute killing.

 

[zuiko85]

It's kind of like the pinhole crowd Roger, a very few doing interesting work.......and then the other ninety nine precent. The muddy, fuzzy, unrecognizable blobs that passes for.....what? Can't say I really know.

 

[Rick Waldroup]

I have a Holga lens for my m4/3 cameras. It is really fun to shoot with. I used to shoot a Holga camera and other toy cameras back in my film days. Toy cameras are cool.

 

[photomoof]

Roger!!!

On another note -- the Wall Street Journal published an article on the Holga creator T.M. Lee, almost a year ago, that pretty much implied Holga production might be over soon, due to of lack of sales.

"Still, the digital tide rolls forward, and the rising cost and hassle of buying and developing film has created new challenges for Mr. Lee and his company, Universal Electronics Industries."​

http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2014/02/19/holgas-unlikely-story/

Some in this thread are throwing around the term "hipster" like they know what it means.

If Roger lived in Williamsburg Brooklyn he would be considered an aging hipster, due to his dress, hair and beard, and accounting background. Ditto myself. In France probably not so much.

 

[kbg32]

Williamsburg is a parody of itself. Just like gentrification, while good and bad, ruined what was the East Village, and is slated to ruin every neighborhood in the 5 boros. Patti Smith had a lot to say about this recently. I've lived here since 1977. While there are many artists living here, there is no thriving arts community like there once was. Affordable housing and studios are a thing of the past.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Roger!!! . . .If Roger lived in Williamsburg Brooklyn he would be considered an aging hipster, due to his dress, hair and beard, and accounting background. Ditto myself. In France probably not so much.

Dear Fred,

No: more of an aging hippie, I think. Or possibly an elderly eccentric. And I really don't think that a few months (three or six, I forget now) as an articled clerk actually qualifies as an "accounting background". The company certainly didn't.

Do hipsters go in for Tibetan shirts? Or fishermen's/artists smocks? French work blues? Actually, maybe they do. The great thing about the word "hipster" is that nobody really knows what it means. To me, it means "wannabe", whether what they want to be is [taken for] original, [taken for] individualistic while wearing a uniform, [taken for] an expert on beer, [taken for] creative, [taken for] ahead of the latest fad when actually they're behind it. They understand talking the talk, but aren't so good at walking the walk.

The brain-dead versions are the same, only brain dead.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

It's kind of like the pinhole crowd Roger, a very few doing interesting work.......and then the other ninety nine precent. The muddy, fuzzy, unrecognizable blobs that passes for.....what? Can't say I really know.

Indeed: this is what I was getting at in the original post. If you're capable of producing interesting, original work, you are probably capable of working around the absence of new Holgas.

It's interesting how many people are convinced that it doesn't matter whether you use a Leica or a Canon or a Nikon, or a Hasselblad or a Bronica or a Mamiya; but that if suddenly one toy camera is no longer available new, their entire photographic vision is destroyed.

Cheers,

R.

 

[photomoof]

Dear Fred,

No: more of an aging hippie, I think. Or possibly an elderly eccentric.

Not sure "they" know about hippies these days.

I like to think of myself as an elderly eccentric, but as the second oldest in a building full of young families, with preschoolers, who know how they refer to me? They are friendly. 🙂

 

[Hsg]

Dear Fred,

No: more of an aging hippie, I think. Or possibly an elderly eccentric. And I really don't think that a few months (three or six, I forget now) as an articled clerk actually qualifies as an "accounting background". The company certainly didn't.

Do hipsters go in for Tibetan shirts? Or fishermen's/artists smocks? French work blues? Actually, maybe they do. The great thing about the word "hipster" is that nobody really knows what it means. To me, it means "wannabe", whether what they want to be is [taken for] original, [taken for] individualistic while wearing a uniform, [taken for] an expert on beer, [taken for] creative, [taken for] ahead of the latest fad when actually they're behind it. They understand talking the talk, but aren't so good at walking the walk.

The brain-dead versions are the same, only brain dead.

Cheers,

R.

Hipsters don't look very sympathetic in photos, unlike Tibetans.

 

[Dpingr1]

Sorry to see Holga go -- it was a valid concept IMHO. I tried one a couple of times and got interesting results, but I never inhaled. Oh well, long live the noble Agfa Clack!

 

[HHPhoto]

A sad time!
The biggest problem is processing.

No. There are so much good to excellent mail order labs.
Also self-developing at home is very easy and cheap, BW, E6 and C41.

Holga, Cosina. Who next?

Samsung. It's already officially confirmed by some national Samsung subsidiaries.

As to Holgas: I remember an interview with the Holga CEO in which he said more than 1,4 million Holgas were sold.
So there is a huge amount on the used market for those who want one.
And Lomography is offering lots of different Lo-Fi cameras for the formats 110, 135 and 120 new.

And there are millions of cameras like the Agfa Clack, older simple folding cameras and so on for such photography styles.

There is no bottle-neck at all for such kind of cameras. More than enough for the next decades.

Cheers, Jan

 

[KM-25]

this has to be a hard hit for the film crowd...

Nah, we have plenty of great tools to use, don't you worry about us now.

Now then, the Holga will be replaced by two cameras from the legal pot movement, the Blowga and the Ripster. Both will allow the user to either take a puff or take a pic.

The Blowga will look like a Holga but have a mouth piece on the back and when you push the shutter button, it will light the oil in a special compartment adjacent to the film area. You will have the option of having some of the vape blow onto the film for effect.
The Ripster will look like a bong but will operate like a TLR, take a rip or take a pic, either way looking down cradling it like a Rolleiflex.

In both models, special varietals of weed will be offered in that it will create effects much like reticulation on the film, almost like gas hypering of Kodak Technical Pan film for astrophotography.

Both cameras will include a medical marijuana card and a coupon for AARP members and those who suffer from not often talked about LSC which stands for "Luddite Superiority Complex" for a discount off of support meetings as a means to better understand how to become more relaxed, zen like and accepting of their fedora wearing kin folk.

It's possible that if the Blowga and the Ripster take off, they will also make the Brownie. It will be shaped like the famous old camera but you won't be able to take a photo with it since it will be a rather large pot brownie. The camera makers figured there is no point in making it able to take photos since the person who consumes the Brownie will be far too incapacitated to do so.

Film at Eleven...

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Ah, too bad. Surely someone will buy the brand and create a new line of cheap cameras? It seems like the concept still has life in it.

"Hipster" is a nonexistent category of person. It basically means "person whose taste I don't like"