Holga Wide and Tele Lenses, Part I
Summer has returned, and I slept in, because I took our international guests to the airport very early in the morning, but when things finally started rolling I decided to take the new Holga lenses for a spin with the Polga back (or Holgaroid, if that’s what you prefer).
Not knowing what to expect I also took a Holga without a back to take some film comparison shots as well. A good call as I soon found out. Now the film shots will have to wait till tomorrow, but let’s have a quick look at the Polaroid shots.
As you can see, you can’t see much. I was wondering how they’d turn out, and it didn’t really surprise me that only a small part of the film was exposed. Why? When you use the Polga back (I really prefer Polga over Holgaroid :), you need to add a lens that makes up for the added distance of the film in the back to your lens. It’s further away than normal film, and the lens is there to correct it.
When you add another lens on top of that you make the distance even longer, therefore making the tunnel of light reaching the film even smaller. I put the wide and tele lenses on top of the Polga converter, the other way around doesn’t seem to work very well, since the only way to get the converter on either of the lenses would be with a lot of force, and I’m not interested in breaking it. So if you have a different Polga back (I have the original Polaroid one), your mileage may vary.
I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s not great, but of course it was only a test, and I’m glad I did it, because now I know that Polga and the lenses don’t mix. The wide and tele lenses sport a hole not as big as the one in the converter, and it’s obvious that the small hole is pretty much causing the much smaller tunnel. But zooming in, you can see the effect of the lenses at least. More details tomorrow.
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