Taking pics and videos with the Olympus Pen E-PL3 and Holga Lens

I finally tried taking some pics and videos over the weekend with the Olympus Pen E-PL3 camera and a Holga lens (thanks Snap Shop). Holga lenses give your digital photos the classic Holga look with the dark corner vignetting and the soft focus so beloved by the analog crowd.



Here's a picture of the Olympus Pen E-PL3 with its standard Olympus M.Zuiko 14-42mm zoom lens.



And here's the Holga 25mm lens on the Pen. Weighing only 38g thanks to its plastic body and lens, the Holga lens has a fixed f/8 aperture and a manual focus ring. Focusing is a nightmare on the lens because the focus ring is so tight but if you're taking a lot of outdoor shots then just leave the focus on the lens to infinity. Some shots with the Holga lens below.






If you're into the lo-fi effect craze started by Instagram and Hipstamatic, then the Holga lens would be a cool lens to have for your digital camera. Note that the images you get with the Holga is far inferior than the ones you will get using your standard lenses. It is after all, a plastic toy lens.



I was more interested to shoot videos with the Holga lens using the Olympus Pen's diorama mode which gives the video a miniature model look thanks to its tilt-shift and time-lapse effects. Here's one that I took. Watch the video (HD link) above.



And lastly, another diorama video (HD link) taken using a combination of the Holga lens and the Olympus M.Zuiko 14-42mm zoom lens. Pretty nice aye.

If you're interested in getting a Holga lens, do check out Snap Shop. They specialise in analog photography.