Loading 120 Film Into Your Holga in 10 steps
April 15th, 2008 by DurkinPosted in Tutorials
This is a very basic tutorial to explain how to load 120 film into your Holga camera. Many people find this quite daunting when they open a camera like the Holga for the first time because everything seems so different
Here is the guide:
1. You will need a Holga camera (including a back), tape, a film, a spool and your ‘12′ mask
2. Start by unwrapping your film
3. Take off the tape holding it together but make sure it stays tightly wound!
3. Un-stick the ‘tag’ at the end of the film from the inside. (not all films are stuck down but mine was.) This will be used to thread through the 2nd spool later on.
4. Place the film into the left hand side of the Holga.
5. Making sure that you mask is clipped in. (For increased light-leaks, leave this out.)
6. pull out your film across the back of the Holga and thread the tab through the spare spool that you have. I always find it best to wind the film around the spool a few times before you finally dock it in the second spool area. You should get something that looks like this when complete…
7. Rip off the ends of your film box and fold them. Then place them under both the spools. This helps to add tension to the film enhancing the quality.
8. Begin to tape the back onto the holga. If you want light leaks use as little as possible, and more if you don’t want light leaks of course.
9. Make sure your selection is pointed at ‘12′ for square negatives! Advnance your film until ‘1′ appears. This is usually after some arrows and dotted circles.
10. Your ready to shoot! have fun!
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12 Responses so far
By william on Apr 27, 2008
Advance your film until 1 appears. The number are upside down? what am i doing wrong
By Durkin on Apr 27, 2008
I’m not sure how that is actually possible lol,
Are you loading it from left to right?
Does it look the same as on the pictures above?
I reckon it won’t actually matter, because its still just a piece of square film. It wont make any difference when you get the print back, do you see what i mean?
Thanks for leaving a comment, i hope this helps!
By Kerri on Apr 28, 2008
I just got my first roll of film back, and it pretty much came out ok. The numbers were upside-down for me too. I assumed this was dependent on the brand of film.
By Durkin on Apr 29, 2008
hi, thanks for the comment! I forgot to mention that yes. What brand was it that you used? I usually use Ilford.
By Colleen on Jul 23, 2008
I’m so confused, I loaded the film and there are little lines but mine doesnt have numbers. :S I’m using fujicolor reala 100
By Durkin on Jul 23, 2008
Make sure your button on the back is pointed at 12.
Have you wound the film on enough? What do the lines look like? It might just be the fact that you have not wound it on enough. I can’t think of anything else!
By Minyoung on Aug 6, 2008
I got my first Holga today and now I’m just struggling to load a film into it.
I wound it until the numbers showed up, however, somehow film advance know got really tight so I couldn’t rotate it easily. is it okay?
By Durkin on Aug 6, 2008
did you put the card under the spools? If so you may have put too much, this has happened to me before and i couldn’t advance at all. get in a dark room and take them out if you can!
By nahilsen on Aug 9, 2008
hi, I’ve just loaded a fujicolor superia cn120 roll into my holga and I can’t see any number at the frame counter window, except a text saying “start” after first couple of tours of wounding…(PS: I put the 16 frames film size mask and switched the frame number pointer to number 16 before loading the film)
By nahilsen on Aug 9, 2008
sorry everyone for my long comment, I got the problem. I did not wounded the roll enough, it is about patience
By Durkin on Aug 9, 2008
Glad you worked it out! good luck with the film