so, i widened up the lens opening by 0.40mm and i am getting consistent exposures on a 12 exposure roll of film, both b/w and color rated at 400, indoors and outdoors with the standard (so they say) f/8 opening. i am so ecstatic. "no more wasting film."

my next target was  to create "f/11" to correspond to the "sunny" icon, since the "cloudy" is already represented by  "f/8". other "holga users" create another opening that rides on the swinging arm
window (which is a logical thing to do), and of course this should be smaller to give a full stop to f/11. while i was snipping my b/w negs. i got the idea of using the base acetate of the film to go onto this arm window instead of  trying to create a smaller opening with some other type of material. i measured the film acetate base using a light meter placing the film between a light source and the meter (an old minolta IV with spot), i consequently got a full stop reading.