So I bought a Holga 120 Pan.
When it arrived, I thought I'd been sent an empty box. It's a lot lighter than it looks like it should be. As my first Holga, I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of quality but I would say it's better than I expected. A quick check over suggested everything worked as it should. The only issue was one of the clips holding the back in place was loose and needed a bit of adjustment.
The 120 Pan is clearly made up from parts originally made for the 120 WPC (pinhole). The top plate has the field of view lines on it that would be used with the WPC but for the Pan, a viewfinder has been added. The viewfinder is clear and has only mild barrel distortion. The left and right limits are a bit vague but, although I didn't test it, I suspect the viewfinder only shows maybe 80% of what the camera is taking. Also on the top plate are two hot shoes and they are proper 'hot' shoes with the centre contact wired to a flash trigger on the shutter. The two shoes on mine seem to point slightly outwards. Whether this is intentional to spread the light farther or whether it's just poor assembly, I don't know. I've not tried the camera with flash and have no plans to. Also on the top plate is the film wind knob which has a healthy ratchet sound when turning it. There's a redundant white line next to it as well as a similarly unecessary arrow moulded into the top plate.
The back of the Pan comes completely off after sliding down the two catches at either end. The catches double up as strap lugs. If they are used as such then checking to make sure the latches can't move upward beyond their closed position is worth checking. One of mine did easily and this would have meant the back could have come open if I'd hung the camera from it.
The back is another part from the WPC and has a red window with a slider that uncovers the relevant section depending on the neg format being used and the number of frames. But the Pan is supplied only with the 6x12 mask and the slider has been glued in place leaving a red window with the number 16 by it which seems confusing. In fact, you wind on to number 1 then each odd number after that (3, 5, 7 etc.) for a total of 6 frames.
The 6x12 mask isn't. That is, it's not 6x12. I measured it at 52mm x 119mm. Pretty good on the long side but very short on the short side. I would have liked at least 56mm. There doesn't look to be any options to open it out either.
Getting around to the busines end. The lens is 90mm which is about a 28mm equivalent.
The shutter is a rotary type and is simple but effective and gives a single speed, specified as 1/100th sec. However, my shutter speed tester measured it as 1/140th sec. so a bit fast. I guess it might slow down with use as the spring weakens.
There's also a B setting. The shutter is self setting and is operated by the lever to the side of the lens. There are two, unspecified apertures indicated for sunny and overcast/flash use. My tests suggest they are approximately f/4.5 and f/6.5. The lens can be focussed but there's no scale, just the usual pictures ranging from a mountain to half a person. Closest focus is specified as 1.5m.
Besides the tripod bush on the bottom that's about it.
In use, there is very little to it. Loading is fairly easy though the spools can be a fiddle to get in and out. There are two pieces of foam which press aginst the film to keep the spool tight. A bit crude but it seems to work and the film came out tightly spooled. There's just about enough leader to the backing paper to get it engaged in the take up spool before the start arrow appears. The instructions suggest winding on a couple of turns before refitting the back but I only wound to the point where the start arrow appeared which was less than one turn but I had no problems with the film not taking up.
Results are, I guess, typical Holgaish though the fall off in exposure towards the corners wasn't as great as I expected. All the examples here were taken with the larger aperture so I assume exposure would be a bit more even with the smaller aperture.
