dianacamera.com

Welcome,

The purpose of the website is to share my images and techniques. I like to work with plastic or toy cameras, especially Holga, Diana camera, and Jamcam III. Fun with plastic!

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–Kai

This is a video I made of the eBay adapter, out of the “box”.

You should also check out my written review:
http://dianacamera.com/?p=125

This was taken at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco during our visit last spring. It’s a beautiful garden, next to the new De Young museum in Golden Gate Park. The afternoon light was perfect.

Camera: Holga 120N Film: Tri-X 320, processed in D-76.

I took this photograph in San Francisco last spring. I love the quality of the light from the sun coming through the fog.

Camera: Diana+, Film: Tri-X 320, processed in D-76

A look at the Diana+ Wide Angle Lens and Close-up, out of the box!

Other videos on this website can be found here:
http://dianacamera.com/?page_id=108

Do you get the 35mm Rewind Dent in your thumb every time you try and rewind your plastic 35mm camera? Here’s a simple solution. Make a rewind helper by drilling a 1/8 inch hole in a 35mm plastic film container. Can’t picture it? Watch the video.

Other how-to videos can be found here:
http://dianacamera.com/?page_id=108

This is a quick update on how to use 35mm film in a Diana camera. I haven’t got all the kinks worked out yet, but this is what I’ve done so far.

These photos are from the first roll of 35mm film I tried running through my Diana+. I gave up on the eBay 35mm film adapter. In the Holga conversion, they use foam rubber, but that didn’t seem practical because of the Diana’s physical design. I used a wooden tongue depressor, cut to the height of a 120 film spool. A popsicle stick would also work, but I like the wider tongue depressor, because there’s more area to tape to. I think it makes the 35mm cassette more stable. I taped the film to that, to position the cassette in the center of the film path. I didn’t use the 16 frame mask.

From the first roll results, the first thing you notice is the red circle in the middle of the frames. I had taped up the open window from the inside of the camera, so I thought I hadn’t done a good enough job. Then I realized that I had only taped the open window, not both counter windows. The leakage is from the window that was covered by the plastic counter slider. It isn’t light tight, so next run, I’ll be taping up both windows.

I had no idea how far to advance the film, but I had read somewhere on flickr, that 2-1/2 turns works for the Diana. That’s about twice what you need. The width of each frame is about 11 sprocket holes. 2-1/2 turns is about 21 sprocket holes at the beginning of the roll to about 23 sprocket holes by the end of the roll (it changes as the roll increases on the takeup spool). Next time, I will try 1-1/2 turns. I made a mark with a sharpie pen on the winder knob, so I could tell how far I was turning it. I might have skipped a few details here, but I will write this up fully when I am done. I also will try and figure out how to use 35mm film with the 16 frame mask in the Diana+ and a vintage Diana camera.

I have been exploring the possibility of using 35mm film in the Diana+. I’m not ready to post any results yet, but I did want to take a look at those kits that have been appearing on eBay.

I purchased one adapter kit. The item title was some variation of:
Capture 35mm With Your Diana,Diana+Etc Camera SHIP FREE

The kit came in a little box, which turned out to be hand-made out of a frozen swedish meatball dinner (box turned inward). The packaging seemed to be a little cellophane package that was stapled closed. It might have once held cookies. The “Kit” contents:

The adapter - a little bit of formed metal to hold the cassette
2 vinyl masks (probably 35 mm slide masks)
2 bits of tape to hold the mask in place.
Instructions

The masks are useless, since most 35mm users in Holgas or Dianas like to see image in the sprocket holes. If the sprocket holes are not desired, they can be cropped out. I suspect their purpose is to pad the contents of the kit. Without them, the kit would seem very light.

There was also a set of instructions which failed to indicate how far to wind the film after each frame. With 35mm film, you have no way of telling how far to advance the film, so this is an important piece of missing information.

I wrote the seller, who wrote back:

the 35mm film needs to be advanced same distance per frame as the 120 film for proper image capture

The other potential problem with this “kit”, was that the metal cassette holder had double stick mounting tape, which meant that it’s installation is more or less permanent. It doesn’t say in the brief directions, but it might be possible to install this and still use 120 film with it. It might even provide the added benefit of keeping tension on the film roll.

I haven’t had a chance to try and install it. I will only put this in my diana, if it looks like 120 film can still be used without having to remove it. I plan on checking this out this weekend, and will report on my findings.

I am also experimenting with alternative methods of using 35mm film, and will post those results as well, when I am done.

You should also check out my video of the adapter, Out of the “box”:
http://dianacamera.com/?p=146

Have you ever had the back of your Holga unexpectedly pop open? This is the Holga mod for you! In this video, I show you how to apply velcro to keep the back from falling off, and to protect the counter window.

All my how-to videos can be viewed here:
http://dianacamera.com/?page_id=108