Digital Holga?

The Yashica EZ F521

Digital Holga – really? No, not really, but to be fair to the company that bought the Yashica name, they never claimed it was. It's just a cheap 5MP digital compact with a plastic lens (hence the Holga comparison by some). It has some fun built in digital filters that can be applied before or after shooting – in camera. You can even stack several on top of each other. It has a strangely powerful flash and video capability.

Flashlit Graffiti

Another neat trick it does is bend images. There is no shutter, the camera scans the sensor from top to bottom, if you move the camera horizontally while taking a shot, it gets confused and bends vertical objects.

Bendyness

 

 

Colour filters

Like a Holga there is only simply focussing ability (normal or macro) but there is some exposure control, you can apply flash and exposure compensation settings through the menu options. One thing it does that real Holga photographers can only dream of, it can see what you about to take. It has a Holga like useless viewfinder or an LCD screen to where you can actually preview the image!  

Some owners have inserted a washer behind the lens to give Holga like vignette. I don’t see the point as I can easily add this in photo-editing software if I want to. But I suppose that if you don’t have the software it’s an interesting mod.

Strange red colour cast

B&W filter

Some digital vignette

If you want a digital camera that gives Holga images, sorry, you’ll have to wait. But if you want a fun featured – take anywhere – cheap digital, the Yashica is worth a punt.