When the Holga first showed up in the art and photo world, I was as enamored as anyone with its low-tech brilliance and high art results. Never being able to leave good enough alone I quickly did a variety of the mods that are commonly discussed on enthusiast sites and blogs as well as adding a couple of my own. My favorite homebrew was gluing an orange gel on the 'aperture' arm so I could dial in darker sky's on a clear blue day when shooting black and white film. My Holga film of choice is Ilford XP2+ for its ability to shoot completely and utterly without thinking whatsoever, ease of processing and fantastic scanability. For some reason, when I load color in the camera, I still find myself thinking too much about light instead of just shooting without thought. XP2+ completely cures me of that.
The next phase of my Holga exploration comes in pieces, many of them. I started slicing and dicing the cameras up and to date have build a Holgablad, two Holgawides and most recently a Holgaroid, which shoots instant pack film.
The first creation I want to share was featured in the 2003 Book, Adventures With Pinhole and Homemade Cameras: From Tin Cans to Precision Engineering. If you are old enough to remember the 3D cameras of yesteryear there were two different manufactures, one was a Nishika, which was widely pimped by Vincent Price, full systems can still be found on eBay complete with VHS tape where the man of horror himself walks you through how to use your strange new camera. As cool as this is for horror film and Michael Jackson enthusiasts alike, you don't want to use this variation of 3D technology.
