Picked me up a neat new toy at the SPE conference this weekend! A Woca GF.... which is basically a Holga but with a glass lens instead of the plastic one with flash. And 10 rolls of BW 120 film. I've actually been pining for one for a long time and when I saw them there I couldn't resist. Stayed tuned for some seriously fuzzy, over-exposed, under-exposed, light streaked images. In case you haven't noticed I'm a stickler for sharpness and perfect exposure.... so this is definitely a test in letting loose, and giving up all control over what happens....

I recently picked up one of the Holga's, but no shop around here processes 120. I'm moving in a few weeks, so I can get started then. It'll be interesting to see your creations before I get around to starting mine.

I've got a Holga sitting on my shelf. I am actually going to convert it to a pinhole camera when I get some free time. Already built a weighted bracket that attaches to the bottom and will allow me to mount it on a tripod. The shims I'm looking at will give me an f-stop of either f/126 or f/158. -=>Donald

oohh..cool. cant wait for the new pics. i got an old italian camera that uses 120 film. i've shot half a roll, may go back to it soon. was thinking of turning it into a pinhole as well. it doesn't have much control and anyway, it was cheap on ebay.

Well I'm an idiot on this one...never heard of it...must be ancient. lol. I do look forward to seeing what you create with your mind and eye....congrats!

Not long ago I purchased a Polaroid Land Camera 215 on eBay. I believe it was manufactured around 1968 (?) or therabouts. Yes, I've been trying it out, and playing around with it. It takes surprisingly good shot. My digital is still my favorite camera, though. :c)

Where did you get batteries for it Syncopate? I have two that I bought from ebay a 420 and a 450.... and I'd like to be able to use them.

I remember the Polaroid cameras from that era, and I don't think they used batteries. The flash used a bulb, and I don't recall and exposure meter, just match the weather-symbol. And then you pulled the film out between two rollers that broke the chemical packets and spread them out, and waited. Messy but magical.

Sorry but, yes they do use batteries. Both of my models do... the shutter will not trigger without them, nor will the flash. They just no longer manufacture this type of battery any longer.... it's a three volt, with what looks like a 9v connectors on either side. The 450 has the Carl Zeiss lens and came with a set of batteries the flash and film inside. Unfortunately the film is so old that it's falling apart. So I'd like to buy new batteries before this set totally expires.... and some film to try it out. I had bought the cameras in hopes of doing some polaroid transfer and emulsion work, but I'm probably better off buying a daylab and using slides with the Polaroid film.

450 Land Camera.....

Which, alas, shows why so many cameras will be useless now. I've been shooting with a Russian Fed-2 recently, and not a battery in sight. The real trouble are the cameras which used a mercury cell -- there are workarounds but you cannot get the original-spec battery. For 120 I have a Russian Lubitel somewhere, a very basic TLR, but there is a local lab which can handle the film.

Attached Link: http://www.photobattery.com/index.html

@Michelle - Ahh ... the old Polaroids. That battery is a 532 (think it was also called a PX24). Go to the above link and do a CTRL-F (Find on this page) for 532. Don't use their SEARCH option on the page as it will just take you back to the same page without pinpointing where it is on the page. I use these guys when I'm trying to find batteries and stuff for my old cameras (and for computers and other batteries, I use www.batteries.com). -=>Donald

Ooooo Donald I owe you extra smootchies for this one! Yes they have them! Thank you, thank you, thank you. :~*

All this talk of Batteries is getting Me excited :]

Just to calm down Tedz, a camera and exposure meter which don't need any batteries.

How can You be sooooooo cruel....I like getting excited...sigh....how old are You ....to have such antique equipment.....a wee Hugz for thinking of Me...sigh

Looks like a sweet camera you have there....! :~) Love the leather case.... and no batteries.... ahhh those were the days!

Just to revive things... The camera is a Russian Fed-2, one of the earlier variants, manufactured about 1957, the the 50/f3.5 collapsible lens, while the meter is a Weston Master III of broadly similar age. The Fed-2 is sometimes described as a Leica copy, but is arguably a better design than the screw-mount Leica cameras of the same period. The Russians did copy the Leica, and the Kiev was a post-war copy of the Contax. In the fifties, they started improving things. The screw thread Leica design is a bastard to load film. You need to cut a longer leader, and it's a slow job, since only the baseplate of the camera opens and you have to thread the film in. It also has the rangefinder and the viewfinder with seperate eyepieces. The Fed-2 has a Contax-style combined rangefinder/viewfinder, and the base/back of the camera remove to load film; still a bit slow, but much easier than the Leica design. Anyhow, this morning a parcel arrived from Russia, and I have a different lens I can use, coming from the Contax/Zeiss line of development which the Russians cheerfully moveed over to the Fed and Zorki Leica-style cameras. A Jupiter-3, which is a 50mm/f1.5, and I am itching to get some prints shot and processed. OK, so the extra aperture isn't going to make any difference to the viewfinder image. This isn't an SLR. And the coupling between lens and rangefinder is rather important at f1.5 -- will things be in focus or not? But the extra aperture makes a big difference to the usable range of light levels, for shooting hand-held indoors without flash. Now, should I get a wide-angle or a telephoto next?