Holga 60mm f/8 Lens for Canon DSLR (Black)

Let’s be clear: this is a toy lens, and the image quality is objectively awful. Nineties-era flip phones captured sharper photos. But if you are buying a Holga lens, that lo-fi, unpredictable look is precisely the point. Build & Handling Focusing System: Manual focus works via a simple threaded screw mechanism. If you unscrew it too far, it physically falls off the body - classic plastic-camera charm if you are used to a traditional Holga 120, but worth keeping in mind. Viewfinder Darkening: Shooting through the optical viewfinder on a DSLR yields an almost pitch-black image. Plan on using Live View to frame and focus your shots. Optical Performance & Exposure Vignetting: Tested on a Canon 6D Mark II (Full Frame). The heavy black vignetting eats up roughly 40% of the image circle. It would likely perform better on an APS-C crop sensor, but on full-frame, the falloff is extreme. Aperture & Light Gathering: The advertised f/8 aperture feels optimistic; the tiny pinhole design acts much closer to f/11 or f/16. On an overcast day outdoors, I had to push my ISO to 12,800 just to get a usable exposure, then tweak settings to avoid blown-out highlights. Sharpness: Expect zero sharpness anywhere in the frame. The Verdict Is it a "bad" lens? Absolutely. But it is intentionally terrible, which makes it a fun, budget-friendly gimmick for experimental or vintage-style photography. It is far cheaper to buy this than to DIY a pinhole setup from scratch. While I wouldn't recommend it as an everyday creative tool, it delivers exactly the plastic-lens novelty look it advertises.

Okay, let's be honest here. From most carriers an iPhone 4 is free with contract, and Instagram is a free download. For your $25, you are giving a fairly expensive camera the ability to take ridiculously bad pictures that a cell phone cam, even on its worst day, can't lowball. But that's why you're considering a Holga lens to begin with, right? This obviously isn't an everyday shooting lens. The fixed aperture is very small, small enough to render the viewfinder almost but not quite useless. The focus mechanism is rudimentary and feels like panning on a cheap tripod. The build quality is... Chinese. And I don't mean "built-to-someone-else's-spec-with-dubious-labor-practices" Chinese; I mean "the stuff you find in the toy aisle at the dollar store" Chinese. "Crap" is the term we are going with here. Even disposables take better pictures than this. It's not so much a prime lens as a "grade D but edible" lens. But again, that's the point. The whole Lomography mentality, slickly marketed as it is, is to make the most out of intentionally substandard equipment. It's a constrained art form, very close to found art and musique concrete in its conception, and if all you want to do is play with it, this is the perfect way to get started. The pictures are obviously a bit fuzzy; the vignetting on an APS-C sensor is pretty soft (although I hear it's actually a little excessive on a full-frame sensor), and the focus capability just isn't that precise. As a video lens, it gives the impression of a dream sequence or a piece of slightly-deteriorated film dubbed onto a cheap VHS cassette. Because of the small aperture, it doesn't do low light well at all; you'll definitely want to use an external flash for any indoor shots. And the markings could be better -- the focus marker and mount guide mark are easily confused. So... after all is said and done, if you know what you're ordering, this lens delivers exactly what you expect from a Holga product. It's not out of the realm of possibility that you might prefer to do this kind of thing in post, which is a reasonably sensible approach, but I find with my personal work that if I don't set up the effects I want to use beforehand, I won't usually get to them later. So if you want to play with the toy camera aesthetic, this is as good a way as any to get into it.

I'm a hobbyist photographer with quite a lot of experience and pretty decent glass. Right now I shoot with a Canon R8 and my lens lineup consists of the EF 100mm f/2.8 L Macro, the 24mm f/1.8 Sigma Art, the RF 45mm f/1.2, the Sigma 17-35mm f/2.8-3.5 EXDG, and the EF 50mm f/1.8 II. I like nice glass, but I also appreciate value and fun experiments. Photography is an art and art *should* be fun. I have a Lensbaby Muse that I occasionally break out to toy around with, and the Diana/Holga Lomography craze has always pulled at me... But I just never wanted to deal with the hassle of film. I dealt with film a lot in my early days of shooting, and going back to it just isn't appealing So when I saw a $14 toy lens I could use with my R8? I was sold. (Please note that this lens is meant for Canon EF mounts and can only be used on a mirrorless R body with an appropriate EF to RF adapter. Also note that the price has increased slightly since the time of my purchase.) Is this lens sharp? No. It's a plastic toy lens marketed toward people who are looking to get vintage style soft focus. Someone buying this lens (even at its original price of $30) and expecting clinical sharpness? Well, that's someone who knows very little about photography. This lens isn't a tech marvel, it's not automatic at all, there's no adjusting it, and your photos are not going to come out looking like anything you'd get from a modern digital camera meant for sharpness and clarity and color accuracy. It's a plastic lens with a single hole drilled to let in light (fixed aperture of f/8) with a series of smaller holes drilled around that aperture to provide the signature light leak look of a Lomography style film camera. Anyone who appreciates this lens does so because they recognize what it *is*, not what it *isn't*. If you're looking for the best value lens to take stunning shots of your next vacation or document a family reunion, this probably isn't the lens for you. If you're looking for a fun way to get out of a creative rut and produce some unique images with your digital slr or mirrorless without having to use software in post, maybe give this one a go. It's not an expensive experiment. Note for anyone who buys this lens and can't get their camera to work with it: you either need to put your camera in Manual mode (since there is no electronic communication between the lens and your camera) or find and enable the "Release shutter without lens" option in your settings.

If you look at the back end of the lens, you see a small hole with 8 smaller holes around it. This is actually a sticker you can (with difficulty) peel it off to reveal a larger opening. They added this to force a vignette effect for APS-C sensors, which are much smaller than the 60mm film used by Holga cameras. Unfortunately, for closer pictures, you see a weird 8-blobbed vignette. I assume a simple one circle small hole would be too sudden of a vignette fade-in, but as they did it you can sometimes get an unnatural effect. So I removed that sticker entirely. Not all 120 cameras had an extreme vignette effect anyway. It works fairly well. On my R100 (with mount adapter) it seems to focus on infinity when adjusted not quite all the way to the distant end. Out of the box, it doesn't adjust closer than about 12 feet, but this is blocked by a removable screw (warning: removing this screw will allow the whole thing to fully unscrew). The R100, once set to release the shutter with a dead lens, makes a good effort to auto adjust exposure. Some cameras refuse to try with a lens like this and make you do full manual. It's not a bad quality lens, within expectations of a plastic single element. It can focus well at the center, and slowly becomes less sharp towards the edges. It's more zoomed in than you probably want if you aren't using a full frame camera, but that's unavoidable with the original purpose. Overall it's a fun cheap(ish) toy.

It's nice. It gives your pictures an antique touch. However, it's more like a toy. I wouldn't use it for professional photography.

Love this lens! It's so much fun! Yes, if you have PhotoShop you can create the same effect but if you don't this is always a nice alternative! I saw a couple reviews of people complaining about the quality of photos and the overall fact that the lens was plastic but PEOPLE, you must not be very familiar with Holga's, Diana's or any other such toy cameras because those cheap quality cameras are known for their plastic lens effects. We photo lovers loved its flaws from the very beginning! Now, I am a photographer, I love trying out new photography equipment-I do have Photoshop but I wanted to use this lens just for fun because some days-I just like to snap a quick picture and hope for a happy accident. This does the trick with my cannon camera. I wish you could record with this lens but you can't because your DSLR will not recognize this as a lens -obviously because this lens has no way of communicating electronically with your camera because of its plastic body. Overall, I loved this lens, its very fun-but only fun if you actually know how to use a DSLR and fix the settings to work with your holga lens. If you know nothing about cameras/ use the auto mode all the time, or are very impatient when taking photographs, I would not recommend this product for you. If your considering it, but are still not sure-I would do some research and find some holga photo inspiration. :)

This lens is a lot of fun. It takes me back to my photography days about 40+ years ago. Plastic cameras to take on vacation. Now I'm back into photography with a vengeance, so I had to add this to my collection. I even have a Holga Filter Wheel coming from Hong Kong. I have enough lenses to shoot the norm, but I like being able to be more creative. That's why I'm into Lensbaby's also. This lens has a 60mm focal length, but with my crop sensor camera with a multiplier of 1.6x, I now have a 96mm focal length. So on to picture taking. Surprisingly it takes good pictures. The pictures are slightly soft, but it IS a plastic lens. At f/8 this lens is better used outdoors or in good light. Remember, this lens is manual. There is no pressing the preview button to view the shot. Also, the aperture ring is stiff to turn. Set it to infinity and forget it ;-). I have taken around 100 shots of desert landscapes, sunsets and sunsets reflecting on the mountains before posting this review. What I have learned is that I need to look at my histogram more. ;-). Lots of my shots are overexposed, but what I have learned is that because it is a plastic lens, you can capture sun bursts. Chromatic aberrations; neat effect. My proud picture is of a sunset reflecting on the mountains. With the slightly soft effect and the vignetting, this picture wasn't even considered for post-processing. For this kind of money, how could you go wrong. 5 stars for fun.

This lens is great for the price. The Holga 60mm lens is designed to mimic the vignetting and the general feel of a vintage, inexpensive 120 film camera using your DSLR. The lens is built cheaply on purpose, but works exactly as intended. Some customer reviews mentioned loose fitting, but the lens I received fit perfectly. One thing to keep in mind is that this is a completely manual lens; you'll need to adjust the focus, ISO, and shutter speed manually as you go. You don't necessarily need to be a pro to get the most out if this lens, but you'll definitely have more fun with it if you're not afraid to switch your camera from "auto" to "manual". I definitely recommend trying it out.

I love post processing and I love vintage film photography so after a shoot (even a small one) with my (moderately) expensive gear I spend a hefty amount of time processing the photos, often selecting a few well composed photos to turn into vintage photos. I also love the sort of story told by much older lenses or, even, toy lenses--the emotions they evoke can be very powerful. So, having spent many a wee hour making photos taken on expensive camera gear looking like they were taken on crappy camera gear I thought I should stop mucking around, cut out the middle man and just turn my expensive camera gear into cheap crappy camera gear. Enter the HL-C! So, anyone interested in vintage photography will have heard of Holga and the gloriously distorted, colour burnt, heavily vignetted moments they capture. Whilst this lens is undoubtedly 'crappy' it is perhaps not crappy enough! When it arrived I rushed home from work and had 15 minutes or so before the house would fill up. I feverishly jammed it onto my 650d (yes it's plastic but it feels fine and solid going on the camera), put the shutter and aperture at fairly neutral settings (it wont make a great deal of difference anyway), headed outside on an overcast English early-evening and started snapping. Having read reviews I thought it would struggle in the dim light but it sucked in plenty of light! The 60mm (on a crop sensor camera) is good length for snapping things and the simple-to-understand focussing ring (4 settings--fairly close, portrait, group portrait and mountain!) doesn't do much so there was no real need to worry too much about focussing. Even on a cloudy day it was clear enough in the viewfinder to 'attempt' to focus. I did try it indoors and no, dont bother. (you can find the results of a no-thought quick shoot on my flickr stream). So, the most important bit, what did these first few rushed shots come out like? Well, they may not be for everyone but if story telling is more important to you than crystal clear sharp images then you'll enjoy this lens. To be honest, at 15 quid or so you weren't really expecting to hit the front covers were you? But, there is no reason why you couldn't. For me, photography is story telling and this lens tells stories. Sometimes it tells stories from 30 years ago but that is part of the point. The colours are wonderfully vibrant at times, muted in other places. Playing with colours produces a multitude of results as the lens saturates colours differently as they pass through it. The end result is simply wonderful. Purples, yellows, limes, even reds, all are usually fantastically vibrant. The grain is excessive and attempts to post-process these photos beyond any additional cropping are fairly futile, it is what is it and the images are what they are. Post sharpening--don't bother, embrace the wonderfully soft and grainy finish. Post colour balancing--again, don't bother, this is part of the glory of this lens. Post spot removal--don't worry about spots on your photos, leave them, it's too grainy anyway. In short: * This lens will not be for everyone but I suspect that those who like this lens will love this lens. * Your technique is stripped back to only composition and because you are zooming with your feet you are an even more active part of the scene. * Mundane becomes interesting with little photographer skill. * Your mindset as a photographer changes as you embrace the challenges this lens throws at you. * For £15 this is a fun addition to your kit.

Obiettivo carino, è un giocattolo rispetto ad altri obiettivi, ma l'effetto delle fotografie è molto simpatico! Consigliato a chi ama togliersi degli sfizi!

nice

I bought this on a whim to use when heading out to shoot areas I frequently visit and continue to challenge myself with new ideas. This did not let me down! You have to understand what you’re getting (imperfect lens with lots of flaws in the image), but it open s up a whole new way to look at the world. If you are considering it, take the plunge!

It’s very good