Types of Film Formats

135 35mm film

This 35 mm wide film is perforated on both sides, making it the equivalent of standard motion picture film. It is wound in metal film cartridges and protrudes from the cartridge with the so-called film tongue. Its length varies. It is available as 12, 24 and 36 mm film, which means that images of 24×36 mm are exposed. This corresponds to a film transport of eight perforation holes each.
In the case of so-called half-format cameras, the film is only transported by four perforation holes, which results in an exposure format of 18×24 mm, i.e. half the 35 mm format of 24×36 mm.
For the 35 mm format, there is by far the largest selection of film material in black and white, color and slide.
Loading these films into cameras has only been simplified in recent years. In the past, the film tongue had to be carefully threaded onto the spool, which unfortunately all too often led to mishaps.
Today, spools are equipped with various film catching devices. These automatically catch the film leader, provided the film is advanced to an appropriate mark.

120 roll film

This 60 mm wide film tape is attached to a 64 mm wide black paper tape and wound onto a plastic spool. Since the paper tape is much longer, it extends about 35 cm beyond the actual film tape in the front and about 40 cm in the back. The paper tape is threaded into the same empty spool and then transported forward to where the film tape is attached. There, on the back of the paper tape, the image numbering begins. Images of 41/2×6 cm, 6×6 cm, 6×7 cm, 6×8 cm, 6×9 cm or 6×13 cm (panorama format) are taken on these films.

Sheet films

In so-called large format cameras, so-called sheet films are used. Standard sizes are 9×12 cm, 4×5″, 13×18 cm, 5×7″, 18×24 cm and 8×10″. Sheet films are available for black and white, color images and slides, as well as for a variety of technical films and layers. Packs have 10, 25 or 50 sheets of film.

(Nearly) Extinct film types

• The 620 was a film with similar masses to the 120. However, its spool core was only 7.2 mm in diameter, versus over 12 mm for the 120 film.
• The 127 was a similar film to the 620, with a very thin spool core. However, it was only 41 mm wide and designed for 4×4 cm and 4×6 cm shots.
• The Rapid Cassette: The 135 35mm film was loaded into special cassettes developed by Agfa, with an empty Rapid cassette inserted in the cameras rather than a spool. The exposed film was simply slid over from one cassette to the other.
• The Disc Film was widely promoted by Kodak in 1980, it disappeared by 1990. On a disc of about 60 mm in diameter, 15 exposures could be made in the 8×11 mm format. We remember, this is the format of the Minox miniature camera. Consumers were not satisfied with the image quality achieved, which speaks for the quality consciousness of consumers.
• The “Advanced Photo System” APS was considered the new world standard for 35mm format films. Advantages included – especially for compact cameras – the smaller spool diameter, which allowed even flatter cameras, and a lot of information for automatically correct further processing in the laboratory. The photo industry wanted to sell new films and cameras and lab equipment. However, the format did not catch on.
• A variation of the 120 roll film is the 220 format, which allowed 24 instead of 12 6×6 cm exposures. However, these films can only be used in cameras or film magazines specially designed for this purpose, because the paper tape protecting the back of the film is missing over the entire length of the film.
• 126-lnstamatkfilm – In these cassettes we found the 35 mm wide motion picture film, but it had only one perforation hole after each 35 mm. Again, a spine scans the film and locks the transport at the next perforation hole. Instamatic negatives are 28×28 mm. They therefore allow quite large enlargements. Unfortunately, the plastic lenses of these cameras were not of the best quality. That’s why these pictures are rarely very sharp.
• 110 pocket film – The confection of this film is similar to the Minox film, but the film strip is 16 mm wide and has a perforation hole every 25 mm. The 15×20 mm negative is exposed between these holes. A spike in the camera scans each perforation hole and blocks the transport mechanism there.
• Minox miniature film: The 9 mm wide film is wound in a small cassette. It has no perforation. 36 8×11 mm images can be exposed on the approximately 50 cm long film strip. A 9×13 cm copy must be enlarged as much as if we were to enlarge a so-called 35 mm negative to the poster size 30×40 cm. This means that Minox prints look relatively coarse.