Making a "HolgAgon"

Steve Barnett had fitted a Schneider Kreuznach 90mm f6.8 lens and shutter to a Holga 120 Pan toy
camera using readily available fittings and hand tools. He lent it to me for a weekend. I was
delighted with the results and decided I had to build one myself.

The components were ordered (on eBay actually) and it was first a matter of waiting for things to
arrive, mostly from China.

Materials:
Holga 120 Pan Camera
M42 to Nikon adapter
12 -17mm M42 - M42 Helicoid
M42 Metal Body Cap
90mm Lens, Shutter and Retaining Ring
4 off 2mm x 6mm countersunk head self tapping screws
Black opaque PVC electrical tape
Epoxy adhesive
Spirit Level Accessory for Right Hand Hot Shoe
Range Finder for Left Hand Hot Shoe
Home-made, Plastic Springs (cut from a supermarket milk bottle)

There were a few consummables needed:

Masking Tape
1 sheet of P240 Wet and Dry Paper
1 sheet of P600 Wet and Dry Paper
Matte Black Paint
White Paint
Contact adhesive

The hand tools required were simple enough:

Thin bladed table knife
Small, long-reach, cross-headed, screw driver
Exacto razor saw (or flush side cutters)
Half round file (100/100 medium cut)
1.5mm twist drill bit
2mm twist drill bit
Bead reamer countersink tool
Dremel or similar small power drill
Pencil
Calliper or Vernier
Compass
Thick Card

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The camera arrived unharmed in a damaged box! Here is what you get to start with.

After carefully removing the internal lining by lifting the sides outwards gently and lifting it out and
putting it safely to one side, then unscrewing two, self tapping screws, from the inside, the lens and
shutter come away easily. The wires to the flash shoes need to be removed as they will be
redundant. I just pulled mine out but it might have been safer to cut them at first and deal with the
bits later. The front light baffle has to be removed because a flat surface is needed on which to
mount the M42 to Nikon lens adapter ring.

I used a razor saw because I had one. Steve used flush side cutters because that was what he had to
hand. I immediately scratched the front of the camera because I failed to mask off the vulnerable
parts with masking tape before I started the sawing off.

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The dust from the sawing seemed to me to be a potential long term problem if it was accidentally
retained in the camera, so I decided to completely dismantle the Holga to work on the front away
from the rest of the body...

To do this the top of the Holga needs to

come off. The first step is to remove the
winding knob by sliding a thin, table knife
blade under it and carefully prising the
knob upwards until the rubbery glue that
holds it on gives way and lets you pull it
off. Here you can see that there is not a lot
of glue to break, not a hard job if you go
slowly.

There are three self tapping screws holding on the top, once removed the top simply lifts off. `

This lets you get at all the bits of white tape that held in the wires for the hot shoes. It also reveals a
number of holes that might lead to light leaks...

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 There are a total of eight self-tapping screws
holding on the front of the body. Three at the top
are accessed by poking a thin, long reach, cross
headed screw driver through three holes at the
back of the camera at the top edge.

Underneath those are two countersunk headed

self-tapping screws to undo and then three more
plain self-tapping screws along the bottom edge.
The front lens mount comes away readily once all
these screws are removed.

Lift it away carefully! There are some interesting arrangements underneath to serve as light seals.

To get the front face of the lens mount flat and smooth a sheet of P240 wet and dry paper was taped
to a flat board and then holding the mount in two hands concentrating on keeping it flat to the
abrasive surface, it was drawn back and forth until all signs of the cut off light baffle had gone. Then
the process was repeated with the P600 wet and dry paper to make a smooth, flat, front surface that
remained parallel to the rear. Then a piece of thick card was cut to fit tightly inside the lens mount
from inside and pressed up to behind the rectangular hole at the front. With the aid of a straight
edge, two pencil line diagonals were drawn on the card from corner to corner of the rectangular
hole to determine the centre of the hole. The external diameter of the bayonet part of M42 -Nikon
Bayonet adapter was ascertained by careful measuring and a pair of compasses set at half that

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diameter. Then, using the centre marked on the card, a circle of that external diameter was scribed
onto the front face.

A series of holes all round the inside of

the circumference of this scribed circle
was drilled using a fine drill bit and a
small power drill, (a Dremel on loan from
Steve). The holes were joined up by
running the drill bit along them and the
waste fell out cleanly. Then the hole was
made smooth and opened up to the
correct diameter by careful hand filing
with a medium half round file. Lots of
checking ensured that the adapter fitted
snugly.

An essential job was that of plugging the hole

caused by the conduit that originally held the
wires connecting the shutter to the hot shoes.
This was easily done by coating a cocktail stick
in epoxy and sliding it through the conduit and
cutting off the waste flush with the ends of the
conduit

The wood was made invisible on the outside by

a dab or two of black marker pen.

Four holes were drilled in the flange of the M42

to Nikon adapter. Two to line up with the
convenient reinforcing lugs that are conveniently
built into the front of the camera at 12 o'clock
and 6 o'clock, which in turn were drilled to accept
two of the 2mm countersunk headed screws.
The other two holes were drilled in the flange at
3 o'clock and 9 o'clock and then through the
plastic front face.

The adapter came with a large slotted hole drilled into the flange. This came so close to the main
hole that it would leak light. It was blocked with epoxy resin and the inside was painted to prevent
light leaks. The adapter was then glued with epoxy resin adhesive and screwed into position. Once

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it had dried, the camera body was reassembled but with a lot more taping up and blocking of holes
to preclude any future light leaks. The hardest part of this job was getting the winding knob to stay
glued on. Steve came to the rescue with some stronger contact adhesive.

It proved necessary to spin the diameter of the heads of the countersunk screws down by holding
them in the Dremel chuck and spinning them gently against a file. This was to allow the helicoid to
screw completely flush into the M42 thread of the adapter (now flange).

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The only other engineering to do was to drill and file out a hole in the M42 body cap to allow the
Synchro Compur Shutter and lens to be mounted in the body cap. This then screwed into the front
of the helicoid to complete the installation.

Lens and Shutter

12 -17mm
Shutter M42 Body Cap Retaining
M42 - M42
assembly Ring
Helicoid

It is advisable to obtain or make, as in the picture, a suitable spanner for tightening the retaining
ring. When buying a lens and shutter make sure the shutter comes with its retaining ring as these
are incredibly expensive to replace, for such a simple "nut"!

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 The distances of various landmarks were checked and
focused on using a fresnel screen clipped to the film
plane with rubber bands. Marks were made on the
helicoid with white Tippex to give a distance "scale" for
focusing. So far these seem to be reasonably accurate.
There is some play in the helicoid but the results seem to
indicate that this is nothing to worry about.

12 -17mm M42 to Nikon 2mm

M42 Body Cap
M42 - M42 Adapter Screw
Helicoid x4
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