Choosing Film
The Holga was built for 120 roll film. This is a medium format film which usually results in twelve 6×6cm negatives (with the square mask in your Holga). As the Holga has a fixed shutter speed and limited aperture switch, film choice is the only real exposure variable available to you.
What speed film?
When starting out, a film speed of 400 (or 400 ISO) is recommended, as this allows you to use your Holga in various lighting situations, such as indoors (with a flash) or outdoors in overcast conditions (no shadows). Once you have shot a few rolls and know how your Holga behaves, you can feel free to experiment with different speed films. As a rule of thumb, 100 ISO can be used in bright daylight (sharp defined shadows), 200 ISO (soft hazy shadows) can be used in bright cloudy situations, 400 ISO is for very overcast days and indoors with artificial lighting. 800, 1600 and 3200 ISO films are usually reserved for low light situations like museums, concert venues and sports stadiums.
Each increase in film speed gives you an extra stop of light, but also increases the amount of film grain on your negatives. Having said that, if you are using 120 roll film, the grain is usually finer than the equivalent 35mm film. Check out the exposure section for more advice on which speed film to choose.
What type of film?
There are two basic types of film; negative (C41) or slide film (E6). Negative film is more flexible than slide film in terms of exposure so it would be recommended for Holga users. Negative film is reasonably tolerant of under and over-exposure. In fact, negative film handles overexposure so well, it's worth slightly over-exposing your film to ensure you get good shadow detail. Negative film is available in colour or black and white, and also includes speciality film such as infra-red.
Slide film on the other hand, needs to be exposed correctly. This makes it much harder to use in a Holga, due to the lack of control over your exposure. See the exposure article for advice on choosing the right film for various lighting conditions. People commonly use slide film in order to get the film cross-processed.
Expired film
You may notice that film has an expiry date printed on the box. This is usually a very conservative figure, so a great source of cheap film is your local labs bargain bin. These are usually full of rolls which are close to expiring, at less than half price. I've used rolls that are a year or two out of date and the results have been perfectly fine. If film is stored well (see below), it can last a long time. Most of the time 120 roll film is stored well as professionals use it often.
Favourite films
Every Holga user has their own favourite films; my current favourites are Ilford HP5+ B&W film and Kodak Portra 400VC colour film. If I'm cross processing, I enjoy Kodak E100G, as the colours seem more or less normal but with a huge amount of contrast.
How should I store my film?
You'll want to put it in a cool dark place. Most film boxes tell you to store it at a temperature of 24° Celsius or lower. If you want to keep your film in good condition for a few months, put it in your fridge. If you want to keep it longer, then you'll need to put it in your freezer. I have a whole fridge compartment full of film!
This is especially important for exposed film. Exposed film, ideally, should be processed straight away. If it's going to be a couple of weeks before you get it developed, stick it in the fridge or freezer to stop any deterioration. Having said that, I found a roll of HP5+ that had been in the bottom of my camera bag for two years, and that developed just fine!