Applying The Aperture Mod To Your Holga Camera
August 27th, 2008 by DurkinPosted in Modification
Recently I have been talking a lot about the aperture mod on the Go Holga Forum, so i decided to complete it myself. The aperture modification is very popular because the Holga’s aperture switch function is useless out of the box. With this mod you will transform your unchangeable f.13 stop to a lens that has both f.10 (cloudy symbol) and f.13 (sunny symbol).
You will need:
- Super Glue
- Screwdriver (positive)
- Biro
- Your Holga
- And 10-15mins
1. Turn your holga camera over and unscrew the two screws in the back. They are highlighted on the image below:
2. Once this is done, the front will fall away. You will have two yellow cables…Don’t cut them! I did a long time ago to make a pinholga. Leave them attached!
3. Next you will need to remove the shutter assembly by unscrewing the two screws highlighted on the image below:
4. When done correctly you will get this result:
5. Now you will see her! The precious ring that you need to pop out with the biro pen.
6. Take this ring and super glue it to the arm that controls the stop of your lens. you will find it fits quite snugly. You may want to use something small to apply the super glue around the ring. I used my biro. You will want to also check that no light can leak between the hole in the arm and the outside of the ring. Looking back at this image it looks like i will have to open up my Holga again and sort that out.
7. Done! Now you just need to put everything back together…
if you would like to find out more about why the holga only has one stop out of the box, despite it having a switch, please read this article: http://photondetector.com/articles/holga-apertures/
thanks to sqaure frog for help.
Finn Margrie on Sep 2, 2008
Clever idea. I opened my up and put a little piece of ND2 gel over that square, so I can have (effectively) 200ASA and 400ASA in the camera at once. I really need to develop it and see how it comes out!
Durkin on Sep 2, 2008
woah that’s a really cool idea!
thanks for leaving a comment
Johnlebl on Sep 7, 2008
Mine came from Randy Smith (Holgamods.com) with the lens ring removed for F8, and the aperture arm carries an f215 pinhole.
Durkin on Sep 7, 2008
that’s pretty cool,
How much did you have to pay to get the holga with that mod? Sometimes I think his site is a little expensive, but he does have a lot of cool ideas.
justhesh on Oct 15, 2008
I just performed this last night. Unfortunately, the aperture ring was too flimsy and ripped in half. Luckily, though, I had a little cardboard ring that I had found that was roughly the same diameter.
I dremeled the inside to smooth out some bumps in the ring and stuck it in place with some rubber cement. Unfortunately again, the ring was too thick, so the arm wouldn’t swing when the shutter assemply was in place. So I had to take the arm back out and sand the ring down. It took me much longer than I had planned, but it’s in there.
Durkin on Oct 16, 2008
nice work with making a new one, i wouldn’t have known what to do. A metal washer may have worked a little better but its good you found an alternative!