Report on a Fringe Project

[Stephen Puckett <spuckett@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Last week I got back my first prints from a similarly-twinned 
pair of Holgas that I had bought a couple of years ago.  The price 
was about $US10 (now $US13.50) each from Porter's - a price which 
allows some experimenting.  The results (per print) were remarkably 
good, rather like smearing vaseline somewhat unevenly on a filter.  
The fact that the camera was MF helped because the 4"x4" print was 
enlarged from the larger 6x6 negative.  The result compared very 
favorably with a similar experiment I had made with a pair of 
Yamesheta cameras (which are cheap 'premium' cameras) and 
some inexpensive Kodak cameras.  The stereo base was about 5" 
between lens centers which resulted in hyperstereos that were OK to 
me for distant subjects.   

The big problem IMO of using KrappyKameras for stereo is that the 
unevenness/distortion (different between cameras) interferes with 
my brain forming a 'clean' stereo image.  It is similar IMO to the 
problem when there is a large amount of grain.  With 2D the Holga 
print looks like viewing the scene thru a light mist - which may be 
acceptable for an inexpensive 'mood' picture or portrait. In 3D it 
looks to me like viewing thru jello (not bad to me but certainly
not my preference).  There were also sharpness problems at the 
edges.  In the resulting stereo view, any problems with the print 
seem to me to be squared, not just doubled.

The prints from the Yameshetas were similarly uneven but the 
35mm negative was smaller leading to less sharpness than the Holgas 
when enlarged.  They also had several film transport problems which 
led me to never wanting to try such cameras again - I had to unload 
the cameras in a changing bag and rewind by hand).  The Holgas were 
fine in this regard.  My neighbor had a Yameshita in his yard sale. 
I offered him my 2 for free for his sale but he did not want them.  
I finally trashed them - I did not want to turn off some a neophyte 
Photographer forever.  Now that I recognize that I am also a 
Collector, though, I should have kept them  ;-)  Maybe there will
be a Princess Yamesheta or Holga some day and the same magic would 
make them as attractive as the cheap Diana cameras are now.   

I had no apparent problems with light leaks - a couple of stout 
rubber bands per camera seemed to prevent that.

Since the Holga is plastic and inexpensive, this would lend itself 
to hacker projects for those so inclined - especially for the film
transport portion.











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Name:  Stephen Puckett; C17A; 321-6144
Dept.: Business Technology Services
mailto:spuckett@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Date:  12/16/98
Time:  13:05:46
TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY