Last night I saw a post on the A3C3 Facebook page, telling us that the Holga factory in China had closed and whatever stock retailers had would be it. Shocking! Freestyle Photo has a page up that
indicated this is the case, and it's not April Fool's Day. So, if this is true, it comes as a complete surprise. Holga has been the mainstay of toy camera users for nearly 20 years, and has been producing 35mm to 120 wide-format pinhole Holgas, twin-lens Holgas, etc. Still very basic plastic cameras, and probably cost a fraction to make compared to the selling price. I found this
Wall Street Journal article on the Holga factory, which is quite interesting. Hand-assembled. Maybe they cost more to make than I thought. In doing some searches,
I found this blog, which showcased some of my work from 2012!
After reading the FB post, I went online to Amazon and bought a spare for $31. I'll leave that one in the box until I actually need to use it. The plain old Holga 120N -- my favorite. You may love
this article I found from 2012.
So, stock up while you can. In 2002, I paid $15 for a Holga, and now they are over $30 each. You can also buy a true bargain, the
Debonair Camera from the FPP store for the very reasonable price of $19.99.
UPDATE: It's official. Phone call to Freestyle confirms closing of Holga.
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