The Holga's Aperture
What the fudge is an aperture? It's the hole where light comes through into your camera. Basically, the smaller the number the greater amount of light is let through. An aperture of f/2 is much wider than f/16. The smaller the aperture, the more is in focus in your picture - this is called depth of field. If you want in depth knowledge, check out Wikipedia.
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| Diagram of decreasing aperture sizes adapted from a Wikipedia.com diagram. |
What is the Holga's aperture?
The Holga comes with a stock aperture of f/13.3 (thanks Nicolai). Un-modified, the sunny/cloudy switch does absolutely nothing. Don't believe me? Open up your Holga, or look at Nicolai Morrison's 'The Facts About Holga Apertures' article. Basically, the problem is the smaller aperture is placed in front of the larger aperture. This is like putting a window in front of a spy-hole in your door - you cannot increase the amount of light coming in.
So what can I do about it?
You can bust open your Holga and do the aperture mod, or buy a Holga from Holgamods. The advantage of buying one from Holgamods is that you get apertures of f/11 and f/8, rather than roughly f/10 and f/13 if you do the mod detailed on this site. You can even request larger maximum apertures!
