Tough (to) Love

I took a walk into Old Town about nine in the morning.  I thought I might find some people and maybe a few old cars around the Plaza as I had last weekend.  However, the place was nearly empty, looking a lot like a graveyard on a slow day.

Well, no matter; I was out mostly to familiarize myself with a camera that had been given to me some time ago, a Holga 120N.

This model, in addition to the Optical Lens, features zone focusing, two f stops, bulb and instant shutter settings, a flash connection, and a fixed speed of around 1/100.  The camera uses 120 roll film and can shoot either 6x6 or 6x4.5 if you have the frame mask.

I decided to use Ilford FP4+ for the inaugural outing.  That proved to be a poor choice for a couple of reasons.  What I found in trying to load the roll of FP4+ was that the cartridge would not fit into the film chamber.  The X-shaped holes at the spool ends were just a little too small to permit wedging the cartridge in place.  So, I ended up re-rolling the film in the darkbag onto another spool which gave me just enough wiggle-room to get the cartridge inserted.

The other problem I ran into with the FP4+ was that, like a lot of other roll films these days, the framing numerals are small and dim, making it very difficult to advance the film without overshooting a frame unless the ruby window is exposed to bright sun.  I managed to lose two frames on the roll due to winding too far, but I was glad to see in the end that there were no light leaks in the vicinity of the window.

A 60mm lens is a bit on the wide side for a 6x6 camera and the viewfinder on the Holga shows quite a bit less than what is going to show up on the film.  The vignetting in the images came as no surprise, but the contrast and sharpness were a bit less than I expected from the meniscus lens.

If I can talk myself into shooting another roll of film in the Holga I think I'll likely get images I like a bit better knowing more now about what to expect from the camera.  Simple compositions that are not over-reliant on capturing fine detail are clearly advisable, and it seems like it could be interesting to try some portraits.