Tuesday, August 22, 2006

The Underwater Holga

I've been wanting to turn my Holga into an underwater camera for awhile, and finally got around to building a waterproof casing. I spent many hours on the design and implementation, making sure the seal was absolute, as you can see:


A very complicated mod. I did tape the end up, to make sure the zip in the Ziploc didn't unzip. Laugh if you will, but it worked! The images aren't perfect, but the concept works.




I had no problem advancing the film or turning the focus knob. The focus is off because I'm focusing through water, I'm sure. The dress was a bit busy and blends in with the water. Next time I'll probably try her in a swimsuit or something darker for contrast. The mess on the second shot was a developing error from film overlapping. The last shot was supposed to show her hair floating towards the camera, but it mostly just looks goofy. I couldn't really see what I was aiming at, so the shots were somewhat random. Not much else to say about this experiment! Simple, somewhat effective, and worthy of future usage.

11 comments:

  1. Wow, that's awesome! I'm gonna have to try that with mine! I love the blog. Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12:13 AM

    Yes I am laughing but only because it´s a great idea!!! Thumbs up again!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous1:16 AM

    i did something similiar when i was in jamaica... this reminds me to find those negs...

    especially love that first shot, the hand gesturing!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10:25 AM

    oh, i need to try this! can't wait to see if you experiment more.

    ReplyDelete
  5. room temp here is like 84 degrees, and it's 102 outside, so condensation isn't a big problem!

    ReplyDelete
  6. these are great! i don't know if it's the bag or just the fact you had trouble focusing, but that blur is really great!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hmmmm, do you even need the plastic bag? How would it be just using the Holga underwater? I bet in a pool the chloring might bleach the film. The focus might also get messed up. Maybe I'll try it at the beach next time.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous11:48 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous7:06 AM

    What if you were to put a rubberband tight around the lens, so the plastic bag was tight and didn't cause any medium image. Just thinking out loud, but I might give it a try and let you know how it works.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous9:03 AM

    Amazingly simple and wonderful solution!

    How did you get the exposure underwater?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous9:49 PM

    that's awesome ! I have been wondering for ages how to take it underwater and never thought the answer would be a ziplog bag ! inspired. like the images too !

    ReplyDelete