The Diana Mini is great, and it has very different features – but you'll need a special adaptor for the flash, whereas the Holga takes a standard one. Keeps the price down, unless you're going for the Diana Mini plus Flash package (which I'd recommend over the non-flash package).

Speaking of flash: definitely recommended indoors on both cameras. Outdoors you're OK during daylight and sunshine, but beware of dark images during dusk/dawn or overcast days.

The Holga 135BC will automatically stop in the right position when you forward the film and has a proper film counter.

Hope this helps

also on the 135bc how do you know when to stop winding the film and have you found a flash to be necessary?

great to find help with this much depth.
thanks man

samuel

thank you so much for your lovely comment

Wow that Holga is one I’ve not heard of yet – but by the sound of it could be rather exciting! More TRL fun to play with. If you go for it, you’ll have a very different picture taking experience than with ordinairy viewfinder Holgas.

I’ve had great fun with my 120 GTLR. I have noticed however that the “sports finder” as they call it (to take pictures the “viewfinder way”) isn’t worth paying attention to, even less so than normal Holga veiwfinders. It’s just a sqaure hole in the back.

The glass lens is supposed to take sharper pictures, but compared to the plastic versions I don’t see a big difference.

Show us some pictures from this camera when you get it

I wantedto buy a 135bc, considering me as a newbie, but then I saw an online shop who sells 135BCTLR, with these specification:

-Glass Optical Lens, f/8 47mm
-Leaf Shutter, speed 1/100 sec
-135 Format Color or Black/White film
-ASA 100/ISO 21 or ASA 400/ISO 27 speed
-Eye level & Waist level finder
-Adjustable focusing
-G.N. of Flash: 12 (ASA 100/DIN 21, m)
-Hot Shoe for External Flash
-Size: 122x 118x 69.5mm
-Weight: 230g

it is a lil bit more expensive than the 135BC, but not much different.
so I would like to ask 4 your opinion and advices, since I cant seem to decide which to buy..

thank u vr much !

I didn’t know that the 135BC was available as a TLR. It’s a tough one to answer. If you’re starting out, and if you’re likely to use a photo lab to process your films, you’re probably better off going for the 135BC instead of the 120 – it gives you a good feel and keeps film processing costs down.

However, the Holga 120 give syou much funkier pictures, better vignetting, light leaking capabilities and of course the “classic Holga feel”. It’ll cost you more to buy and process films though.

I just bought my Holga BC as well ,i loaded the film and it wind but still the counter did’t change at all at ‘S’…anyhow i manage to bring this camera to a old town call ‘Melaca’ for a weekend trip.

Film still not finish but i do hope that everything is capture..

The Pinhole Holgas don’t actually have a lens – it’s only a very small “pinhead-sized hole” at the front which creates the picture. The smaller the hole, the sharper the picture. I think it’s the equivalent of shooting with an aperture of f197.

I never got into Pinhole Photography but I hear it can be quite fascinating. The downside here is that you always need to rest the camera on a tripod or a table because your exposure times will have to be between 2 and 30 seconds to get a picture. The fascinating bit is that you’re going back to the very beginnings of photography, and like you mentioned, get a massive depth of field.

The focus setting on the “normal” Holgas works just like on ordinairy cameras: say you take a picture of something about 3ft away and guestimate the distance correctly, you’ll get slightly a slightly blurred background in the distance. Likewise, if you’re focussing on infinity and have a close object in shot, the latter will be out of focus. The only remedy to get all these things in focus would be to shoot at a smaller aperture (which means modifying your Holga), or to focus on something in between.

It’s a trial-and-error experience – give it a try with a normal Holga first I’d suggest. It’s very rewarding and highly addictive

It depends a bit on your film processing budget. The 135BC takes 35mm film which makes it a bit cheaper when it comes to buying film and developing. The 120 CFN takes medium format, so your film will cost a bit more. Developing 120 film can be a bit difficult depending on where you live. The Lomo stores do it, so do professional labs. High Street chains foten have to send it away and it can be costly. If you’re developing and scanning yourself 35mm and 120 will cost you pretty much the same.

So I suppose my answer in short would be: go with the 135BC, and once you fall in love with it have a go at the 120 CFN