Overview
So yeah - a Holga lens. Plastic fantas... ok no it's trash. That's the entire charm though - using something so technically inferior in order to focus instead on creativity and vision. At least that's what the acolytes of lomography would have you believe. To me it's an interesting special effects lens that's fun to use occasionally. I do find it funny that for such a cheap low quality lens I've had to buy it three times now. The first two times the shipment was lost and it took me years to get around to trying to ordering again.
Specifications
Mount: F Mount
Focal Length: 60mm
Aperture Range: f/8
Minimum Focus: 1.5m
Weight: 38g
Filter Thread: n/a
Data Source: All Photo Lenses
Collection Information
Date Acquired: 05/12/2019
Serial Number: n/a
Purchase Price: $15
Going Price: $15
Condition: Does it even matter?
Lens Review
Oof... ok this is going to be a rough one. So it's a Holga lens right? The build is utter trash. It's 100% plastic (even the optics) so it weighs almost nothing. It can't even engage the spring on the lens mount under its own weight. There are no aperture controls at all and the lens outright lies. It claims f/8 but in truth there is a second plate in the rear of the lens that causes heavy vignetting and reduces the aperture to roughly f/22. The focus ring is basically the entire lens and completely lacks any kind of distance scale. This is all expected quite frankly though so complaining about it is redundant.
Ouch even harder. Performance is utter trash. The entire frame is covered with a veil of haze. The center is reasonably sharp but the corners are a disaster with vignetting so severe that it's impossible to even make out the corner most of the time. In the few cases where it's rendered they are extremely soft. Chromatic aberrations are present over the entire image. Flare amusingly seems decently controlled if only because of the simplicity of the design. Bokeh is basically non-existent at that minuscule aperture.
The ergonomics are terrible. The focus ring is extremely stiff and difficult to use. With the huge depth of field and poor image fidelity I ended up just setting the focus to something intermediate and shot hoping for the best. The dim f/22 aperture makes focusing incredibly difficult frequently resulting in a slow and stuttering EVF. I can only imagine trying to focus using an optical finder.
Photo Tests
Normally you'd see the full suite of photo test here but really it'd be redundant. We know it's bad so this is just adding salt to the wound. I've included one test image to show you what you can expect. Hint - you shouldn't expect much.
Should I get one for photography?
Yeah - I actually think you should get one. It's refreshing to shoot knowing that the lens isn't going to render images with very high fidelity. It forces you to focus on the act of shooting and ignore the technical aspects of photography which is a nice change of pace. Plus with the super cheap price of the len it's not like it's going to cost you much money to get this toy.
Should I get one for a collection?
Definitely not. If you want to collect a Holga just buy the full camera and not this toy lens.
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