Is the Holga Factory Closing?

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.