The Holga Lens Filter Sets

Not only does Holga have some of the coolest toy cameras on the market, but they also furnish them with a wide variety of accessories, one of which being their lens filters, which are a great addition to any Lomographer’s bag of tricks.

The standard Holga filter set is comprised of the filter holder (LFH-120), which mounts on any Holga with the standard lens barrel; the color filter set (CFS-120), which includes a red, blue, green, and yellow filter; the split image filter set (SILS-120) which comes with three prism-like filters in various shapes; and the soft surround filter set (SSFS-120), which includes red, blue, yellow, and clear/gray filters with all but the center colored in such a way as to make it appear out of focus.

Additionally, there exist three other related products that exist out there: the double filter holder (ALFH-120), which sits on the front of the LFH-120 and allows you to have two filters at once; the graduated filter set (CGFS-120/135), which contains filters that go from red, yellow, blue, and clear/gray to clear gradually; and the double color filter set (DCFS-120/135), which the combinations red/yellow, yellow/blue, red/blue, red/gray, blue/gray, and yellow/gray.

Note: test shots were taken with a Holga 120 FN loaded with 35mm film, and thus are not 100% accurate of what you should see when using the appropriate film type.

These products have two kinds of appeal to the Lomographer: the technical aspect, which is mostly that depending on which kind you use, you can drop a whole one to two stops (aperture sizes) lower than normally possible with your camera, and the coolness factor of being able to color shots in the daytime, do crazy color splits, have soft focus pictures with sharp centers, etc., etc. The possibilities really are endless, and other than just with color negative films, the color filters can do wonders with black and white film to up the contrast (especially reds and yellows), and we all know what happens when you add a little color to a cross processed slide film shot: magic.

So, my recommendation to anyone with a Holga 120- or 135-type camera: get some of these bad boys and take them for a whirl. After all, who doesn’t want pictures that look like they were taken with a kaleidescope?

written by nation_of_pomation on 2010-07-22 #gear #review #soft-focus #holga #split-image #lens-filter #soft-surround #lens-filter-set #double-color #filter-holder #holga-green-blue-red-yellow-prism-color-gradient