The GOLDEN HALF is a 35mm half-format plastic camera. I discovered it recently while browsing through some alternative camera sites, and since it takes odd 18x24mm pictures (that’s two in the space of a “normal” 24x36mm negative), I decided I had to have it.
After 4 weeks and several rolls of film, here’s my two cents.
I discovered this camera at the London Photographer’s Gallery, experts and stockists for plenty of Holga & Co schnick-schnack. At £35 not bad for Central London prices (hey, it even comes with a film in the box).
History
Rumour has it that the Golden Half was produced for a project by/for Ina Babylon and a book called “Life as a Golden Half”. I’m quoting from memory here, as I’ve not seen a copy of this book or found anything about this project. The name Ina Babylon may or may not refer to an actual person, it certainly is associated with the Superheadz Website, aka the makers of this rubberized pocket gadget. The entire site is in Japanese, a language fascinating yet very much a mystery to me.[singlepic id=436 w=320 h=240 float=right]
Luckily though, the manual is in English and even funny at times.
In a nutshell it explains the features of the camera and it all comes in a shiny plastic box, stating that you can take twice the amount of ordinary 35mm pictures (48 on a 24 roll, 72 on a 36 roll – you get the picture). It achieves this by taking a fairly small picture on a piece of film, comparable to that of 35mm motion picture cameras.
This idea isn’t new, and in fact goes way back. Had it not been for the ultimate source of all knowledge Paul Weston, I’d never have known. Apparently, Olympus made an entire SLR system around half format called the Pen F series. Very small cameras for the time (we’re talking the late 60ies here), and a whole arsenal of lenses was available. Paul even owned such a camera and says it took cracking pictures – until someone stole it from him in a changing room in Australia.
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The main oddity of half-frame or half-format is that while holding the camera landscape, you’re actually taking a portrait picture, and vice versa. It’s like using the 645 gate with a Holga. It’s odd, but you get used to it quickly.
The other side effect of half-format of course is the image quality.
Paul remembers that for 6×4″ prints you don’t see a difference, but of course if you go bigger than that, grain starts becoming very visible. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; I for one am immediately thinking of funky black and white effects and overdeveloped HP5 film for an extra scoop of spookiness (see examples).
What’s in the Box
The camera comes in a choice of black or blue. Mine is black with a rubberised finish – like some versions of the Lomography Sumpersampler.
- 1x Golden Half camera
- 1x hand strap
- 1x 400 ASA Kodak film (in a matching Golden Half box)
- 1x Lens Cap
- 1x tiny Manual, about the size of a 35mm film box. Cute!
There’s an inscription on the back, explaining the basic concept. It finishes with “So throw away your book and why don’t you go out”. I love it already!
Features
The Golden Half features a very wide lens, 22mm as the manual states. That’s probably the actual focal length of the lens, which means at a smaller frame size, this would appear even wider. A quick glance through the viewfinder confirms this – without fisheye distortion, you can capture A LOT at a time, making this an ideal tool of candid street photography. Cartier-Bresson would have loved it. Be careful though that you don’t go up too close, minimum focusing distance is 1.5 meters (60 inches) according to the manual. In reality, I’ve not had anything out of focus though.
I just received a Golden Half camera as a birthday gift. Really new to this. Trying to play around with it, but having difficulty even loading the film! I think I loaded the film correctly, but the film indicator doesn’t show “1” even though I took a few shots and re-wind a few times. So I took a peek just to make sure. True enough, the film seems to be securely inserted and it seemed to be winding. But still the indicator was at “S”. Is the indicator faulty? Or did I miss a step somewhere? Or should I just go trigger happy and finish up the roll not knowing if it’s actually working? Haa… Appreciate any advise!
Hiya. Sorry for leaving so many comments. I just realised that the counter is moving. 🙂 So no issues now. Btw, your review is great. Inspired me to really play with the camera.
The more the merrier 😉
Glad the counter is working – I was going to suggest to bring it back to the shop if you can. It does take forever for a roll to finish, and I think the counter is especially useful when you’ve got a roll in the camera and it takes you several weeks/months to finish it.
Happy Half-Snapping… and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Hi, i’m just bought Golden Half but since it hasn’t arrive yet to my house and i can’t wait to play with it, i googled it again and then I find your review 🙂 At first i was scared i bought the wrong toycam but because your great review i’m not worried anymore :p
Anyway, you say to use 400 ISO film or higher. If i use 200, is Goldenhalf still produce good picture?
Thankyou~
Hi Nei,
glad you’ve got it on order 😉 200 ISO Film will work fine too, as long as you’re outdoors and it’s sunny, or if you’re shooting indoors with a flash. With 200 ISO Film, Make sure you’re always on the “cloudy” setting.
Good luck 😉
hi! i’m currently using golden half too. but i have no idea how to use the settings. like, which setting should i put it when i’m indoors or at night?
Whenever you\’re not in bright sunny conditions (like indoors or at night) use the cloudy setting. I reccommend using a flash in those situations too – the Golden Half can be a bit unforgiving in low light.
i’ve order my 1st lomo camera which is golden half..i can wait to play it ..but i worry about the technical aspect especially bout the winding film , exposure and so on..luckily the roll film is cheap..so we dont worry so much..
That’s the spirit! Good luck with your first roll 😉
hi Jay~
I’m currently searching for a lomo camera in internet and suddenly bumped into your review^^
well, before reading through your review, i was totally confuse by different type of lomo camera..after reading it, “ah-ha” effect is coming on my mind… this is the lomo camera that i wanted to buy!!
Your review was awesome!! And i saw your photo in flickr too~ your first roll is nice^^keep it up..cant wait for coming rolls..
i wanna ask you, is it the photo outcome of golden half is two picture in one frame? if i wan to have a whole frame picture can or not?
Hi Jay!
Your review on Golden Half camera was great! I bought mine last week and Holga 12MFC today! Looking through the pictures you took, I was wondering, how did you take the pictures with the Sepia effect? Do teach me more tricks on using my Golden Half camera. Thanks!
Hi Katherine,
the Sepia effect comes from Photoshop Lightroom – that’s what I use to deal with my thousands of photos. It offers the option to tint a batch of photos, and I thought it was pretty. I like plain black and white too, but the “aged photo effect” really lends itself to the grainy quality of thoe Golden Half shots.
Have fun with your new Holga 😉
Hi Jay!
Thanks for your tips previously. However, there’s something wrong with my Flash, or was it my camera’s hotshoe? Somehow most of the time when I snap, the flash doesn’t work. Is there any solution to this problem?
Oh dear, that sounds serious!
How is the flash doing on other cameras? If it fires OK, you may have a problem with your hotshoe. Have you got another flash you can test with your Golden Half? It may well be the flash unit.
If you are using a professional Canon or Nikon flash, those have more than one contact at the bottom – see if those are aligned correctly on the Golden Half hotshoe. I use mine with a Holga 12 MFC flash which works fine.
Hey, great review! (: But I was wondering, do I turn the gear after every 1 picture or after 2 pictures? Oh and also, does the film shows the number of images I’ve taken or the number of exposures? Thanks for your help!
Hi Heidi,
you turn the wheel after you’ve taken one picture. Then you take the next picture. Each picture is half the size of an ordinairy 35mm picture – so after you’ve taken two pictures, you end up with a 24x36mm negative (which is the size of an ordinairy 35mm picture). Hence, when you bring it to the film lab, you’ll get prints back that display the two pictures you’ve taken side by side.
The film counter at the top counts the exposures you make. So every time you take a picture, it goes up by one. Hence, after 72 exposures (that’s 36 full ordinairy 35mm pictures) the roll is finished.
Hope this makes sense 😉 Happy Golden Half-ing!
Okay! Thank you for your great help (:
Hey! 🙂 Awesome review! But may I ask why whenever I finish taking one photo and after turning the gear, the numbers displayed at the film counter goes straight from 1 to 6?
Thank you XY!
I think the film counter only shows numbers as a rough guide. We see it through a loupe so in reality that little white disc is tiny and only moves in infinitesimal steps. It still counts correctly though, it only gets confusing when the counter stops between two numbers and you can’t remember roughly how many pictures are left on your roll 😀