Unpopular opinion: I chose a $50 plastic Holga over a used Polaroid for street shooting

Everyone at my camera club said I was crazy to pick a Holga... they kept pushing the Polaroid for instant feedback. I stuck with my Holga for 3 months straight, only shooting medium format at a flea market in Portland. The blurry corners and light leaks actually made the photos look like memories, not just snapshots. The Polaroid guy's shots were sharp but boring, mine had that dreamy feel nobody can fake. Has anyone else gone cheap on gear and gotten better results than the expensive stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

abby83616d agoMost Upvoted

Read somewhere that some famous street photographer, maybe Moriyama or someone, used cheap point-and-shoots on purpose because the flaws made the photos feel more alive. Totally get what you mean about the Holga giving that memory vibe. The sharp, clean shots from a Polaroid can be boring even if they're technically perfect. Sometimes the gear limitations make you work harder for a good shot, which is way more satisfying in the end.

avery_walker3015d ago

Man, tell me about it. I once spent like 2 hours trying to manually focus a fancy vintage film camera and ended up with 37 blurry shots of my thumb. My buddy's Holga? First try, snapped a pic of a cat in an alley, and it looked like the ghost of that cat's grandma was hovering over it. Way more interesting than anything I've ever done with a lens that cost more than my first car.