 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(June 2009) |
120 is a film format for still photography introduced by Kodak for their Brownie No. 2 in 1901. It was originally intended for amateur photography but was later superseded in this role by 135 film. 120 film survives to this day as the only medium format film that is readily available to both professionals and amateur enthusiasts.
The 120 film format is a roll film which is nominally between 60.7 mm and 61.7 mm wide. Most modern films made today are roughly 61 mm (2.4 inches) wide. The film is held in an open spool originally made of wood with metal flanges, later with all-metal, and finally with all-plastic. The length of the film is nominally between 820 millimetres (32 in) and 850 millimetres (33 in), according to the ISO 732:2000 standard. However, some films may be as short as 760 millimetres (30 in). [1] The film is attached to a piece of backing paper longer and slightly wider than the film. The backing paper protects the film while it is wound on the spool, with enough extra length to allow loading and unloading the roll in daylight without exposing any of the film. Frame number markings for three standard image formats (6×4.5, 6×6, and 6×9 [4:3, 1:1, and 2:3 aspect ratios]; see below) are printed on the backing paper.
The 220 format was introduced in 1965 and is the same width as 120 film, but with about double the length of film and thus twice the number of possible exposures per roll. Unlike 120 film, however, there is no backing paper behind the film itself, just a leader and a trailer. This results in a longer film on the same spool, but there are no printed frame numbers. Because of this, 220 film cannot be used in cameras that rely on reading frame numbers through a red window. Also, since the film alone is thinner than a film with a backing paper, a special pressure plate may be required to achieve optimal focus if the film is registered against its back side. Some cameras capable of using both 120 and 220 film will have a two position adjustment of the pressure plate (e.g. the Pentax 6x7, Mamiya C220 or Mamiya C330) while others will require different film backs e.g. the Pentax 645 or Kowa Six.
The specifications for 120 and 220 film are defined in the ISO 732 standard. Earlier editions of ISO 732 also provided international standards for the 127 and 620 film formats.
120 film allows several frame sizes.
| Nominal size (cm) | Aspect ratio | Actual size (mm) | Exposures | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 120 | 220 | |||
| 6 × 4.5 | 1:1.35 | 56 × 41.5 [2] | 15 or 16† | 30–32 |
| 6 × 6 | 1:1 | 56 × 56 | 12 or 13 | 24–27 |
| 6 × 7 | 1:1.25 | 56 × 70 | 10 | 20 |
| 6 × 8 | 1:1.37 | 56 × 77 | 9 | 19 |
| 6 × 9 | 1:1.50 | 56 × 84 | 8 | 16 |
| 6 × 12 | 1:2.1 | 56 × 118 | 6 | 12 |
| 6 × 17 | 1:3 | 56 × 168 | 4 | 9 |
| 6 × 24 | 1:4 | 56 × 224 | 3 | 6 |
†User selectable on newer cameras, if a roll is only partially used then a "kink" may appear in the film where the roll touches rollers in a film back magazine and this may end up on a frame; this is not a problem when 15 exposures are used as the gaps between exposed frames is larger, nor if the camera is not used intermittently.
The 6×9 frame has the same aspect ratio as the standard 24×36 mm frame of 135 film. The 6×7 frame enlarges almost exactly to 8×10 inch paper, for which reason its proponents call it "ideal format". 6×4.5 is the smallest and least expensive roll-film frame size.
The wide 6×12, 6×17, and 6×24 cm frames are produced by special-purpose panoramic cameras. Most of these cameras use lenses intended for large format cameras for simplicity of construction.
Cameras using 120 film will often combine the numbers of the frame size in the name e.g. Pentax 6×7 (6×7), Fuji 617 (6×17), and many 645s (6×4.5). The number '6' in general, and the word 'six' are also commonly used in naming cameras e.g. Kiev 60 and Pentacon Six.
The 105 format was introduced by Kodak in 1898 for their first folding camera and was the original 6×9 cm format roll film. The 117 format was introduced by Kodak in 1900 for their first Brownie camera, the No.1 Brownie, 6×6 cm format. These formats used the same width film as 120 film, but with slightly different spools. The 105 spool has a much wider flange, similar to the 116 spool, while the 117 spool's flange is slightly narrower than the 120. The 105 and 620 spools also have much thinner flanges than the 117 and 120 spools (0.635 mm (0.0250 in) vs. 1.524 mm (0.0600 in)); as a result, an unmodified 120 spool will not fit a camera designed for 105 film, such as a No. 1 Folding Pocket Kodak, as the overall length between the outside of the flanges is too long to fit the width of the film chamber.
The 620 format was introduced by Kodak in 1931 as an intended alternative to 120. Although mostly used by Kodak cameras, it became very popular. The 620 format is essentially the same film on a thinner and narrower all-metal spool (the 120 spool core was made of wood at that time):
Hence the 620 is sometimes referred to as "small hole" 6×6 or 6×9 as opposed to 120 "large hole". The 620 format was discontinued by Kodak in 1995, but it is possible to rewind 120 film onto a 620 spool in the darkroom for use in 620 cameras. According to Kodak, the narrower metal spool allowed building smaller cameras. Nonetheless the 120 format cast-metal bodied Voigtländer Perkeo remains smaller than any 620 format camera.
8 mm film is a motion picture film format in which the film strip is eight millimetres (0.31 in) wide. It exists in two main versions – the original standard 8 mm film, also known as regular 8 mm, and Super 8. Although both standard 8 mm and Super 8 are 8 mm wide, Super 8 has a larger image area because of its smaller and more widely spaced perforations.
135 film, more popularly referred to as 35 mm film or 35 mm, is a format of photographic film used for still photography. It is a film with a film gauge of 35 mm (1.4 in) loaded into a standardized type of magazine – also referred to as a cassette or cartridge – for use in 135 film cameras. The engineering standard for this film is controlled by ISO 1007 titled '135-size film and magazine'.
127 is a roll film format for still photography introduced by Kodak in 1912.
126 film is a cartridge-based film format used in still photography. It was introduced by Kodak in 1963, and is associated mainly with low-end point-and-shoot cameras, particularly Kodak's own Instamatic series of cameras.
110 is a cartridge-based film format used in still photography. It was introduced by Kodak in 1972. 110 is essentially a miniaturized version of Kodak's earlier 126 film format. Each frame is 13 mm × 17 mm, with one registration hole. Cartridges with 12, 20, or 24 frames are available on-line. Production variations sometimes have allowed for an additional image.
DX encoding is an ANSI and I3A standard, originally introduced by Kodak in March 1983, for marking 135 and APS photographic film and film cartridges. It consists of several parts, a latent image DX film edge barcode on the film below the sprocket holes, a code on the cartridge used by automatic cameras, and a barcode on the cartridge read by photo-finishing machines.
Roll film or rollfilm is any type of spool-wound photographic film protected from white light exposure by a paper backing. The term originated in contrast to sheet film. Confusingly, roll film was originally often referred to as "cartridge" film because of its resemblance to a shotgun cartridge.
Medium format has traditionally referred to a film format in photography and the related cameras and equipment that use film. Nowadays, the term applies to film and digital cameras that record images on media larger than the 24 mm × 36 mm used in 35 mm photography, but smaller than 4 in × 5 in.
The autographic system for roll film was launched by Kodak in 1914, and allowed the photographer to add written information on the film at the time of exposure.
The Holga is a medium format 120 film camera, made in Hong Kong, known for its low-fidelity aesthetic.
Large format refers to any imaging format of 9 cm × 12 cm or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the 6 cm × 6 cm or 6 cm × 9 cm size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras, and much larger than the 24 mm × 36 mm frame of 35 mm format.
Advanced Photo System type-C (APS-C) is an image sensor format approximately equivalent in size to the Advanced Photo System film negative in its C ("Classic") format, of 25.1×16.7 mm, an aspect ratio of 3:2 and Ø 31.15 mm field diameter. It is therefore also equivalent in size to the Super 35 motion picture film format, which has the dimensions of 24.89 mm × 18.66 mm and Ø 31.11 mm field diameter.
616 film was originally produced by Kodak in 1932 for the Kodak Six-16 camera.
828 is a film format for still photography. Kodak introduced it in 1935, only a year after 135 film. 828 film was introduced with the Kodak Bantam, a consumer-level camera.
Analog photography, also known as film photography, is a catch-all term for photography that uses chemical processes to capture an image, typically on paper, film or a hard plate. These analog processes were the only methods available to photographers for more than a century prior to the invention of digital photography, which uses electronic sensors to record images to digital media.
Half-frame cameras, also called single-frame or split-frame cameras, are analog cameras compatible with 35mm film types. These cameras capture congruent shots that take up half of each individual frame in the roll of film. They can be still frame or motion picture cameras and are the standard format of 35mm movie cameras. This is commonly expressed, more technically, as 18×24 mm using 18×24 mm of a regular 135 film. It is closer to the normal frame size of a 35 mm motion film. This leaves half frame cameras to derive their film plate size from the aspect ratio, and frame size that was first designated by Thomas Edison at the dawn of the motion picture industry. Traditionally, the additional film width on motion picture film is used for audio in later film standards, although the original patent for sound on film is derived from the 1880s.
Standard 8 mm film, also known as Regular 8 mm film, Double 8 mm film, or simply as Standard-8, Regular-8 or Double-8 is an 8 mm film format originally developed by the Eastman Kodak company and released onto the market in 1932.
ISO 732 is an ISO standard for medium format photographic film. The second (1982) edition of the standard specified the dimensions for 127, 120 and 620 roll film, backing paper and film spools. The third (1991) edition dropped specifications for the 127 and 620 roll films, which had become largely obsolete in the photography industry and added specifications for 220 roll film. The current (2000) edition incorporates the now withdrawn standard ISO 1048 on identification of exposed roll films.
The Pentax 6×7 is a SLR medium format system film camera for 120 and 220 film, which produces images on the film that are nominally 6 cm by 7 cm in size, made by Pentax. It originally debuted in 1965 as a prototype dubbed the Pentax 220. Since then, with improvements, it was released in 1969 as the Asahi Pentax 6×7, as well as the Honeywell Pentax 6×7 for the North American import market. In 1990, it received a number of minor engineering updates and cosmetic changes and was renamed as the Pentax 67.
The Pentax 645 is a medium format single-lens reflex system camera manufactured by Pentax. It was introduced in 1984, along with a complementary line of lenses. It captures images nominally 6 cm × 4.5 cm on 120, 220, and 70 mm film, though the actual size of the images is 56 mm × 41.5 mm.