Engelgrafik said at 11:31 a.m. on Nov 7, 2006:
Banafsheh makes a good point. If you do any manipulation in Photoshop, please specify so we can learn what happened or why you needed to do it. For instance, in my White Sands photos, I was already shooting ISO 50 and 100 film... and it was still overexposed (low speed is for bright sun... but this was REALLY bright)! That's because you can't change the aperture or shutter speed on my Holga. If I could have made it f16, I would, but Holga only does f8 and supposedly f11. I thought f11 would be enough, but it wasn't quite there.

Engelgrafik said at 9:22 a.m. on Nov 7, 2006:
Holga cameras have a unique aesthetic in the pictures they create. You don't have a lot of control, you wonder whether switching from "sunny" to "cloudy" really actually does anything, the lens is plastic (unless you have one of the newer snazzier models, like the Woca), and focusing forces you to guess if something is 3 ft, 6 ft, or 9 ft. Or is it 12 ft? I don't even know... see? There are actually disagreements on what the distances are for the focus symbols on the lens! But that's what makes the camera so fun... you still manage to get really interesting images from this crazy $25 plastic piece of junk (and I say that affectionately, of course).

There are many other Toy Cameras... not just the Holga. Holga is really just one of many, and it's still sold new. Lomo is another. In fact, there are probably way more Lomo users these days as they use 35mm film, as opposed to the Holga which is 120 size (medium format). Lomos are famous for their "4 in 1" type photos where there are 4 lenses, 4 shutters, all shooting slightly off one another so they capture different moments of the same action. They also have standard 1 lens cameras and the brilliant photos make for excellent photos enjoyed by enthusiasts around the world.

Then there are old classics like the Diana and its eleventy-billion (probably) copies (I heard someone once say there are probably more Diana clones in the world than there are actual Dianas). The Diana was the blueprint, in many ways, for the Holga.

Then there are just plain old drugstore type varieties, the panorama cameras and disposables. Some friends of mine swear by a recent CVS camera that takes amazing pictures with that same aesthetic we see with other toy cameras.