My first Holga 25mm footage: Joplin Tornado Aftermath

[filmstox]

The postman dropped off my new Holga 25mm the morning I was to board a plane for Joplin, Missouri to film an episode of American Trucker. I took the GH2 along and captured the following short video as we drove through town.

Overall I am very pleased with the quality of image that the Holga provides. I am a fan of trying to keep a little mystery in the shooting process and love the unpredictability of the Holga. It's soft at times, sharp at times, vignets in a non symetrical way and is generally a ton of fun. I also shoot with my lens baby and enjoy it for many of the same reasons. Sometimes the blisteringly pure sharp images that come so easily with modern optics need to have an antidote.

I'm thrilled with what the Holga has to offer and will be happily find moments to shoot with it from now on.

My thoughts and prayers go out to anyone touched by the tornado in Joplin. I had a chance to witness first hand how much of a difference volunteers are making in trying to get Joplin back on it's feet, If you have the inclination please support the volunteers in Joplin:

Donate to Samaritan's Purse


Donate to the Red Cross

 

[VidE]

Very sad, a lot of lives as well as property trashed... For some reason I find the B&W footage especially effective with the Holga. Both this lens and the SLR Magic lens have this effect of drawing interest to the center by softening the edges. And somehow, in the 1st drive-by shot, the receding planes of houses/trees/stuff going by almost seem to flatten into a 'cardboard cutouts' look with the parallax motion holding the depth. Just kind of a sense of that...

I'm trying to decide whether to get a lens or two or use something like Magic Bullet Looks and mess with the image in post.

 

[VidE]

Oh, and some very nice camera work. Nice pan to the car on the divider/wall at the end.

 

[filmstox]

I would grab the lens. There is so much that happens with flare and the strange vignette shape in the Holga, that I just don't think you will recreate in post. You can do some very interesting things in post, the Hipstamatic App on the IPhone or Vignette on Android give you some fun looks but I think the messiness of the optics on the "toy" lenses give you instant results that are more spontanious and fun.

It's certainly not my go to lens, and there are many situations where it wouldn't work... but for those moments when stark harsh reality are too much, the painterly squint of these lenses just feels right.

Here are a few stills I took in Joplin using the 14-140 as well as the Holga for comparison. They have a very different effect on me emotionally. And for whatever reason, the Holga chokes me up and brings me back there more than the clean shots. Even on the 14-140, I felt the need to add some vignette in Lightroom. It's obviously purely subjective, I'm just very happy to have the option, and for only $20, it's unbeatable. And I agree, the Holga loves the Smooth B+W profile on the GH2.

Lumix 14-140:

Holga 25mm: