The premise for making this lens is simple: I want a "digital" Holga for my Epson R-D1. For those of you who don't know the Epson R-D1: in short, it's the world's first digital rangefinder developed between Epson (yeah, the printer people) & Cosina-Voigtlander (Voigtlander was the renowned German optic maker est. in 1756 but eventually Cosina bought the rights to the Voigtlander brand). Ok fine, so it's only a few clicks away in Photoshop, even fewer clicks if you have a cool plugin. But, even with Photoshop there is a slight problem- I don't know Photoshop... There, I said it, I'm embarrased, what can I say? I never learned!

The proper way to combine the best of the digital and analog world is, of course, shoot with film, scan, and import to PC, or have the lab scan it on to a CD for you. Eventually, a small tab will become a big one as the result of buying, scanning, and developing film. Not to mention, Holga uses 120 films, and I don't see a lot of 120 Licky Brands at a local 99-Cents store. You can scan the negatives yourself, but unless you're running your own processing lab in the basement, you'll still need to spend at least $3 to $4 to get it processed. So digital is the way to go in a time of econ downtime. But why Holga lens, am I not satisfied with a fast and quality CV or Leica lens? Yes and no. Some times crappy picture is beautiful picture. Some times I can't accept the crisp and sharp image resulted from a quality lens to represent my vision. Some times all I want is distortion, flare, unreliable color reproduction, soft edges, out of focusness, plus a lot of fun to go along. Again, I can't Photoshop, so I'll have to DIY a rangefinder lens to fulfill my bizarre artistic needs.

Wait, wait, my disclaimer- NOTHING in this world can ever replace film! For those who have never wasted a roll of film, there is a magic that cannot be described. The uncertainty you feel after the shutter clicked, which might become total shit or masterpiece, makes you want to become a better photographer. I still bid 4-5 film cameras on eBay at once. A good film camera from 30 or 40 years ago are still being collected and circulated around the world. But finding a good digital camera is extremely hard and expansive. You're reading about one expansive Epson digital RF right now. End of disclaimer.

Before we start, EOS-Holga mod posted on Litratista.org, and aTanguay's Nikon-Holga mod posted on flickr are two must-reads. I started thinking "Hmm... what if" after reading their posts and came up the idea for my little project! However, they mounted their Holga on DSLR bodies which you can see the focus. On uncoupled lenses, you'll have to eyeball the focusing distance and set correct foucsing (or little 'flower' icon for near, 'person' for mid, and 'mountain' for far). All of this will be academic if I cannot build a lens that will have the correct focal length (60mm) to be in focus at infinite.

Drawing diagrams and reading math textbooks won't help, so I'm just going to build one and see how it goes. After pounding two cans of Red Bull, I am saying "Let's do this"!!!

I post many images taken with this experimental lens- HERE. Enjoy.