Hi all. I'm new here and just really getting started having developed a love of Black & White photography during my workshop sessions at Uni. I've had some experience with making a pinhole camera and am just looking to buy a Holga 120mm and a Canon Canonet QL17 GIII. So any advise you can offer would be very welcome. My area of interest is landscape and I am currently looking for anywhere in the UK that I can find ruins or abandoned sites that are accessible without having to gain permission, though I'm quite happy to contact people as well. Thanks in advance.
Welcome aboard. Looking forward to seeing your work!
However, I think this thread would be better suited for our film related subforum than this one. I suggest moving it there and can do so if need be.
As to advice, you may want to rething the Canon QL17 GIII thing - not because it's not a fantastic camera (it is!) but because those are sought after and rather expensive. Yes, it's near the pinnacle of the type (which the Olympus 35 SP reached as far as I am concerned), but not the only recommendable one. There are Canon, Konica, Minolta, Ricoh und Olympus cameras you could look at, and some of them are way less expensive. I see Minolta Hi-Matic 7s and 7s II cameras go for about half the price of the QL17 GIII; the 7s II isn't that hard to find; it does have its weaknesses, but isn't a lesser camera optically.
As to the Holga, well ... It's a fad. A fun fad, but still a fad. You can get way more interesting and frankly much better cameras (e.g. old folders from the 30s to 60s) for the same or even less money. The Holga has its avid fans, but you have to have a preference for suffering (masochistic tendecies?) to choose it over something more versatile. Trashing valuable 120 film for what's usually nothing more than an act of gratuitous hipsterism isn't my cup of tea.
That said, cheap, trashy cameras are their own thing and can be rewarding to use - if you can put up with the cost as well as frequent frustrations. I own a Agfa Click II that's only slightly better than a Holga (three-element lens, B, 1/30s, 1/100s), and that camera (a tube camera - cheaper than bellows) is actually quite fun to use, in spite of its numerous quirks (which are even more irritating because the camera is so simple). But it's made out of metal and was meant to perform as well as possible for its cost. It's not intentionally badly made as the Holgas are. Even at $40, Holgas are a rip-off - heck, even at half that they are.
So, instead of a Holga, I'd try to find an old folder (I prefer Zeiss Ikon ones, but YMMV, and of course, there are others that are just as desirable or even better - I just know my way around those). Zeiss Ikonta or Super Ikonta - or a cheap Nettar or Nettax, 6x4.5, 6x6 or 6x9. If you want it to be really cheap (which I can absolutely understand - I started out with the lowliest of the lowly and quite liked the simplistic experience), choose a simple shutter (Vario or similar - or even Singlo, Singlo II) and a Novar Anastigmat with a maximum aperture of f/6.3; you get your Holga experience plus surprisingly nice results that actually merit development. A Nettar 517/16 is what the Holga should have been. And it's jacket pocketable! I still love my first folder, a really bottom-of-the-line 515/2 with its 105mm f/6.3 Novar Anastigmat and its Vario shutter - it's all there, and you really need to know what you're doing to make it work, but work it does, and then some.
Anyhow, since I am obviously somewhat biased against your choices, others may have better tips for you.
M.
