My hands get all itchy when I’m bored! After a couple of rolls on the Holga Wide Pano (WPC) camera, I got a bit bored of having to lug along a tripod for shoots. So I thought ‘Hmm! If only the pano camera works like a normal Holga (ie. non pinhole) … how cool will that be?!’. Didn’t take me too much effort to see that the WPC and the normal Holga’s ‘body’ were of the same thickness (or perhaps very close). Aha!!! I could try do a transplant and move the normal Holga’s lens/shutter over to the WPC, and I might be able to shoot pano photos handheld! How cool will it be to be able to get 6×9 or 6×12 (the WPC offers these two options) photos without the pain of using a pinhole camera?
It took me just 5 minutes or less to do the transplant, but it was just a very rough job as I didn’t wanna glue the stuffs permanently (yet) in case it doesn’t work and I’ll need to make sure both cameras can still work as they should.
Here’s a photo of this Frankenstein I created this afternoon …
Looks crappy eh?
So does it work? Hell yeah! It works great! I was using it like a normal Holga and I could get it to focus fine (or at least okay … since the Holga ain’t suppose to be that perfect after all)!!!
That’s the good news.
Now for the bad … I screwed up! Okay, stop grinning! I know … I always screw up. 🙁 I totally forgot that when using the WPC, we are supposed to advance and shoot only on odd numbered frames (as the pano format takes up 2 frames)!!! So since I exposed the roll on every single frame, this means I end up with the entire roll of overlapping frames! Oh hell!
Had no choice but to make do with scanning the entire roll as a looooooooooooooooong pano image. Pretty hell having to cut the film strip, scan and stitch them in Photoshop but hey … at least I know the Frankenstein Holga works!
I’ll definitely burn another roll or two again next week after I get it nicely glued up and light sealed … yeah … this time advancing film the correct way 😛 Meanwhile … here’s the ultra long pano (might take a while to load too). My first time trying to embed a pano pic in my blog, so do leave me a comment should you not be able to view it.
Hi Unker…. If use the holga lens, is it still wide enough to create a pano look ar? Great photo! (tempted to use series here)
Mike … I din’t too sure yet. Let me try another roll to find out 😛
cool sia! make me wanna buy just to hack only. cheaper than any full frame pano outside.
Love the images, I wouldn’t bother winding on to the proper next frame, it works so well with the blends. Can you scan across the bed, I often have to do this and never cut my negs!
Haha! You guys make me wanna screw up my next roll on it again! Thanks!
Hello uncle ndroo! nice experimental! i have been wanting to do this with a normal holga but using 35mm film instead.
prob 1 is i dun have a film scanner. =(
prob 2, i bet uncle mike is gonna strangle me for making him scan and cropping like mad.
wat film scanner are you using btw, may i ask?
ahwaikor, thanks. You might hafta pay uncle mike a bit more to do this 😀
I am using an Epson V500 to scan my stuffs.
oo okok thks. =D
Great work, this is what the fun side is like. I have thought about this creation myself but was unsure how to go about it without completely destroying two good cameras. Any chance of you letting out your process of creating this. I would love to build one to but would like to know just how you did it. Again great job.
Thanks
Paul
Paul, it ain’t too difficult doing this. First … you need to remove the lens/shutter assembly from the 120 Holga. Just remove the few screws (I think there are 3) from the inside of the camera and the assembly will pop out easily. Oh, that is provided your Holga is the one without flash or hotshoe. Otherwise, there will be a cable attached to it. Then you’ll have bigger headache on how to remove the cable (or cut it! oops!).
Next, remove the front plate from the WPC (where the pinhole is). It’s easy too … just my removing few screws from the inside of the camera.
You’re now ready to make the camera. Just put the Holga 120 lens/shutter assembly on the ‘hole’ which is exposed after you remove the front plate from the WPC. Tape it onto the WPC ‘body’ making sure no light leak and that’s all. The camera is now ready for testing.
Hope this helps.
Thanks so much for your help, I can’t wait to see what happens. I will try and show you my results.
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