I recently bought a Holga 120n off eBay, on a bit of a whim. I had read few blog posts here and there about customising them and thought it might be fun to give it a go. You can see the result of my hacks in the pictures above. But for prosperity, here they are –

1. Hack 1 – Holga’s have a sheer piece of plastic on the back so you can see how many shots you have left. Very useful, but also a light leak culprit responsible for burning a orangey-red rectangle into your pictures. Some people advise taping it over (which works) but I saw a hack on a photography forum recommending buying some velcro and creating a removable ‘cap’. I went one step further and bought some cheap leatherette from a local fabric store and gave my light-plug a stylish finish. My film window it now light-leak free and I can remove remove my light flap whenever I need to check on my films progress
2. Hack 2 – The Holga’s film backs are held on with some flimsy metal clasps. These pose a couple of problems – (a) they are easy to accidentally knock open. No-one wants to ruin a film! (b) they are another prime source of light leaks. With the help of some trusty velcro and leatherette I created some ‘camera-ends’, which stop unhappy accidents and also make the camera a bit nicer to hold
3. Hack 3 – Holga’s don’t have a filter thread, but its pretty easy to add one! I purchased a 46mm-52mm step up ring from eBay (all of $2.99) and carefully screwed into the Holga’s plastic end. My Holga can now take 52mm filters, an ND for long exposures or perhaps a yellow filter to get some great high contrast black and white
4. Hack 4 – It’s not really a hack, but I found an old Nikon lens cap in my camera bag and it fits perfectly on my new 52mm filter thread

Here are a few pictures I snapped with my new and improved Holga –