Lucky Holga 120WPC

[renon]

I found finally the time to remove the vignetting from my Holga 120WPC

First a picture before the modifications with a unsymmetric vignetting
Attached files

[renon]

Now a test shot after the modification. Stupidly I took not in account that the Holga 120WPC has such a large angle of view leading to an unwanted shadow on one side. The lighter area on the left upper side is not caused by a vignetting. I made a handheld picture of a not so perfect wall.

Attached files

[renon]

The main reason for the vignetting is the metall shutter. The opening in the horizontal direction is not larger enough. Also the opening in front of the shutter is too small. The picture shows the parts after the modification. I'm sure you can do it better, but it works.

Attached files

[renon]

But this is not enough also the opening between the two black paper shades must be larger in horizontal direction. On both sides I cut a little bit away with a cutter.

Attached files

[renon]

And finally you have also to enlarge the opening in the front part from the front side. Wide angle without vignetting caused by parts of the camera is not easy to get, but a lot of people like cameras with such a vignetting. This is probably also the reason why this camera has a lot of vignetting. Without vignetting some people cannot get the right Lomo-feeling.

Attached files

[renon]

My Holga 120WPC (and I) is not only lucky as the vignetting is removed, I used also Lucky film for the first test pictures. In the picture below you can see a kind of reflection on the right side. This occurs not in all pictures. I think it comes from the metall part of the shutter which reflects light. I have to blacken it.

BTW Lucky film is flat and does not curl. Immediately afte drying I could scan the negatives. The grain is extremly fine. 100 ASA is probably a little bit optimistic. I have to test it more seriously.

Lucky SHD100 @ 100 ASA developed in home-brewed Stoeckler 2-bath developer Attached files

[Doug K]

Good to know about the curl of Lucky film. I've found that Shanghai GP3 curls lots, though it wasn't as bad to straighten as Forte Fortepan 400.

Also, nice modification. Too bad you have to do it with a commercial camera...

[renon]

Too bad you have to do it with a commercial camera...

It's a Holga. I think I have no Holga without any modifications. But the good thing is that you can easily dissasemble any Holga and make your own improvements. And if something goes wrong, you can buy a new one for little money.

In fact the Shanghai GP3 curls a lot. Fomapan: rollfilm curls more than 135 and sheet film, but still acceptabel. The Lucky film was really a surprise for me. Drawback of the Lucky film so far as I could see on the first roll is the quality of the emulsion. Every film has a few defects in the emulsion, but the Lucky has remarkably more. Nothing what you cannot correct in PS but a little bit annoying. An ideal Chinese combination would be the film base of Lucky plus the Shanghai emulsion.

[Isis]

I wonder if you can use the negative as a centre filter and balance the light fall off at the edges?

[renon]

Isis, I had the same idea, but I have to take a better picture of a really evenly lighted surface. Then I can use this picture as a layer mask.