The" Velcro Mod" for Your Holga

You want to keep the back of your Holga on, but you don’t want to deal with that sticky tape? Here’s a simple solution.

This mod is a fairly popular one, but I thought I’d make a tutorial for those who didn’t know about it.

After taping up my lovely Holga 120 3D for the first time, I thought “Man, I’d really like to never do that again.” I had tape all over it, and I didn’t like the idea of my shiny new camera being covered in sticky residue when I pulled it off. So after researching a few different ways to keep the back on, I decided the velcro mod would work best for me. Although in this tutorial I’m modding my 120 3D, I imagine this would work on any Holga you’d want to do this to.

What You Will Need

  • A Holga camera
  • Scissors or an X-Acto knife (I ended up using the knife because it allowed more control over the cuts.)
  • Industrial strength velcro (You can but this at any craft store; I actually got mine at a grocery store. A pack of 3 sets was about $3; that’s enough for one camera mod + a little extra in case you screw up. A pack of 5 sets would probably be enough to do two Holgas.)
  • Something to cover the fuzzy side of the velcro (I used some leathery looking stuff I had lying around. You can use just about anything (fabric, felt, maybe even duct tape), just make sure it’s durable!)

Step One: First, I covered the fuzzy side with my fabric. Just peel the plastic off the sticky side and lay it one the “wrong side” of your fabric. Then, trim the excess fabric away, so all that is left is a fabric covered fuzzy rectangle. Then, set it aside.

Step Two: Next, measure the area of your camera that you want to cover with the rough side of the velcro. (I just eyeballed it and made two tiny incisions to mark where I needed to cut for it to fit in the area I wanted covered.) If you look closely, the rough side makes a sort of grid, which makes cutting a bit easier. Just take your time and cut carefully so everything is nice and straight.

After you’ve done that, peel off the plastic and stick the piece you just cut on your camera. – Tip – Stick it on very lightly and carefully, because once this stuff sticks on, it’s hard to pull back up! Once you know you’ve got it positioned correctly, then apply pressure and push down on it so it sticks well.

Step Three: Now you want to take the part that you cut away from, and use it for the back of your camera. For this camera, the part you see to the left of the knife was the perfect size, so I just cut straight down the middle (as shown in the picture) and used the left side for the back. This may be different for other models, just measure and cut like you did with the front.

Then take what you’ve cut, and stick it on the back like so:

Step Four: Take your fabric covered fuzzy part and stick it on the rough part on both the front and back of your camera.

You want to leave it a bit longer than the rough part so you have something to grab when you want to pull it off. Mine was a bit longer than I wanted though, so I trimmed some off.

After you’ve done that, repeat these same steps to do the other side of your camera.

Now there is an option to cover up the red window with velcro as well, but at the moment, I’ve decided not to. But if you want to do this….

1. Take a piece of the rough side that will cover the shiny plastic part around the red window. (You will be covering up the 16/12, so make sure you remember where each one is!)
2. Cut a little window out of this that will leave the red window and arrow visible/free to move. Then, stick it on your camera.
3. Cut a piece of the fuzzy side that will cover the rough side.

This will stop the sun from burning through the red window.

And there you have it! Now your Holga’s back should stay on and you don’t have to deal with any fussy tape.

2013-06-10 #gear #tutorials #camera #tutorial #holga-120 #tipster #modification #holga #velcro-mod #holga-back #holga-solution

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