Holga HL-N Lens for Nikon DSLRs

Holga.

An inexpensive, medium format 120 film toy camera, made in China, known for its low-fidelity aesthetic.
-- Wikipedia

We've all seen them - countless atmospheric low-fi photos produced by these cheap mass-produced plastic cameras. (No? Take a look at flickr...)

Now the "legendary" optic that helps produce those photos is available in Nikon F mount - so, does it work? Can a digital SLR really capture the same kind of images that the toy cameras burn in to their rolls of film? Read on to find out.

The lens comes simply packaged in a plain white box with a yellow sticker that reads "HL-N, Holga Lens For Nikon DSLR Camera". Opening the box reveals the plastic lens along with a basic instruction sheet, which starts as it means to go on:

"The installation of the HL-N Adapter Lens to a Nikon camera will bring about the characteristics of pictures taken with Holga 120 cameras to the pictures to be taken with the Nikon Camera. Enjoy!"

Operation

The lens itself is quite literally a Holga lens mated to a plastic Nikon F mount. To fit to any Nikon DSLR, just align the white mark on the mount to the mark on your camera, and fit as you would any other lens. It's not a snug fit, but this is no precision optic.

There is no adjustable aperture - you are forced to use the lens fixed aperture of f/8. Of course, this means no real Program or Aperture Priority operation, though cameras that allow you to enter non-CPU lens data should still provide metering. If your DSLR doesn't support non-CPU lenses (eg the D3100) then you'll be using Manual mode only. Any other mode will just give a "Lens not attached" error. It has to be said though, that even on bodies that allow metering with the HL-N you're better off using Manual mode anyway as the metering is not reliable.

The only control present on the lens is a focus ring. Or rather, pretty much the entire lens barrel rotates as the focus ring - and the distance scale is a simple "portrait, group, large group, landscape" graphic as per the film cameras of yesteryear. These, according to the instructions, correspond to approximately 0.7m, 2.0m, 6.0m and 10m. Of course, there is no autofocus here.

Results

The first thing you might notice on looking through the viewfinder is that it's pretty dim - a result of the f/8 fixed aperture. Twisting the focus ring does appear to shift the focus somewhat, but it's quite stiff and not at all accurate. On a DX camera, it is incredibly hard to see what is actually in focus, or if anything actually is in focus. And there's the problem - this lens produces images so soft that focus becomes an almost irrelevant concept. You will not be producing anything containing bags of detail with the lens. Just guess focus, fire the shutter, and call it art.

As the HL-N was originally designed for larger-than-35mm 120 rollfilm (the Holga produces negatives of 6x4.5cm or 6x6cm, depending on the film mask you fit), you're also going to miss out on all the attractive natural vignetting that this lens offers, especially on DX cameras - though there is precious little on FX either. Obviously you get no film grain either, though you'll probably have to shoot at a fairly high ISO to counter the limited light transmission of the lens. Both light falloff and grain can be added in post, but if you're going to do that why not just shoot with your usual lenses?

Conclusion

Take a look at the images in the gallery below. If you like them and have a spare $25 (plus shipping) burning a hole in your pocket, by all means order one of these and have an hour of fun with it. Otherwise, don't bother.