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Holga 120WPC (Wide Pinhole Camera). If I remember correctly, I’ve only used it three times since I bought it because getting 6 shots (only) out of a roll fo 120 film is a bit too costly. Well if I were to be any better and be able to get 6 perfect (or decent) shots out of every roll … then I won’t be complaining.

I decided to perform some ‘operation’ on it and turn it into a 35mm camera. The next question is … HOW? I hate the idea of using a black bag to rewind the film etc. I hate struggling and groping in the dark and prefer doing it in the light (no naughty thoughts please!) … so I guessed that some modification was necessary. Why not just use the Gakken Pano Pinhole camera? Well one thing is that I hated the way the Gakken one works. You have to manually open the ‘lens cap’ to start exposure and then carefully cover it back when you are done. It doesn’t allow the use of a shutter release cable too! Hmm … maybe also because if the 35mm works on this WPC … it’s gonna be a longer pano! Wooohoo!!!

Here are few photos from my first test roll using a long expired roll of Kodak Gold 200. Managed to squeeze out about 7 shots from this 24exposure roll. Sorry about the lousy photos. They were all taken today around my office without a tripod. The extra knob at the bottom makes it impossible to stand on flat surface, so I had to make use of stuffs like ciggie boxes to make it ‘stand’.

After looking at the camera for a while, I decided to add in a ‘rewind’ knob. I digged my camera graveyard and found a ripped apart Chinese TLR and managed to salvage the film advance knob which I hoped could be easily planted onto the Holga WPC. The problem came when I was trying to make a hole on the underside of the WPC so that I can mount the ‘new rewind knob’. I do not have proper equipments, so I had to make do with a screw driver, a pretty large screw and a pair of scissors. Hahaha.  A drill will of course make things easier but I do not have one at home. Anyway … fast forward a little bit and it was done. I attached the rewind knob to the bottom of the WPC  using some Selleys Knead It. I found this hand kneadable fast setting epoxy puttyat a DIY store recently and it seems pretty good for such DIY work.

Next headache … finding something to attach to the rewind knob to turn the roll of film during rewind. The rewind knob from the TLR was for 120 film, thus I need something to handle 35mm film. Hmm … back to the camera graveyard and this time I found a ripped apart Gakken Stereo Pinhole camera. Aha!!! I took the small part from the camera where the rewind lever attaches to … and carefully (using Knead It) stick it to part of an empty 120 spool … so that I can make any necessary adjustment to it if I have to.

Sorry if what I was describing above sounds confusing. Haha. I ain’t good at explaining (or writing) … so I hope these few photos can explain what I did.

Overview of how this ‘freak’ cam now look like

Drill a hole where the new advance knob is gonna be … then carefully ‘mount’ the salvaged film advance knob using the adhesive of your choice (I do recommend Knead It)

Place an empty 120 film spool as the ‘takeup’ spool

The above 2 images show how I ‘created’ the small part that’s gonna be attached to the original 120 film compartment where the original film advance knob is. This part (let’s call it Part C) will later allow rewinding of the 35mm film back into the canister. Confused yet?

Above is the view from the back of the camera (with back open). You can probably see clearer on how it works. Note how the new knob (B) will act as a film advance knob and the (original) knob (A) will be used later to rewind the film back into the canister.

I figured out (through a simple test) that it takes 3 full turns of the advance knob to advance to the next (looooong) frame and so I made two marks to ensure that I align them after the 3rd turn.

For those who has used the Holga or the WPC before … you might be wondering how can we use the original film advance knob as the rewind knob, since it only turn in one direction. What I did was that I turned the knob real hard (ouch!) counter-clockwise until all the plastic ‘gears’ inside the knob are broken. It sounds scary but it really ain’t too hard (or heartbreaking). Hahaha. Once you manage to make a few counter-clockwise turns … the knob can now be turned in both directions. Tada~ Ready!

Don’t forget to tape up the 120 film window behind the camera … or else there will be a big time light leak disaster.

I’m so happy the test roll turned out fine (ok, nevermind the exposure etc) and one thing I forgot to mention … it can allow the film sprockets to be exposed too! Yahooooo!!!! I only scanned the sprockets for one of the shots in this test roll though.

Probably load another roll for another test this weekend. I hope what I wrote above makes sense to at least a couple of you readers. Haha. Please do not hold me responsible if you feel confused or suicidal after reading these.

Btw, this is not the cam mod I mentioned in a couple of my earlier blog entries. That one is way tougher and might take me another month or so to get it right. Hahaha. This wide pinhole one is an ad-hoc mod that took me just a couple of hours (with most time wasted on ‘drilling’ the hole with a screwdriver!)