Choosing 35mm film or 120 film

January 6, 2011 4 Comments »

Photographers choosing to shoot with hand held cameras using film have two main film formats to choose from. The 35mm film format is the most popular film format in the world. It is a very flexible format to work in. It was first introduced by Kodak in 1934. It can be found in just about any camera shop, or even convenience store, almost anywhere in the world.

There are many varieties of 35mm film as well. It is available in both color and black and white formats. Each type of film has slightly different visual characteristics, and many photographers have a favorite type of film that they prefer for the color representation or degree of clarity it provides. It is also available in different “ISO” levels, which defines the varying degree that the film is sensitive to light.

Another advantage to 35mm film is that is very small and portable. This means that the cameras that take 35mm film are smaller as well. This is probably the main reason that the format rose to such popularity, it allowed for the widespread use of small, portable, lightweight cameras that were easy to hold or travel with. Black and white 35mm film can be processed quite easily by hand, or sent to a lab for processing. The film negative can then be scanned, or manually printed using an enlarger. Color negative film must be processed by a lab, and can then be printed using an enlarger, or scanned into a computer.

120 film is a less popular format than 35mm, but it is technically a “superior” film to use. The increase size of the film negative allows for much more resolution and detail.

120 film is a bit harder to get a hold of, and you probably won’t find it at the corner store. The cameras that use 120 film are usually quite a bit larger, than their 35mm cousins, and the more professional models can be heavy and even a little unwieldy.

120 film also became more popular in the sub-genre of toy cameras. These are cheap cameras that are technically poor, but photographers use the low-fidelity look to gain a certain aesthetic effect.

Another important consideration for the film market is sustainability. With the drastic increase in digital photography, film has been put the way side with manufacturers focusing nearly all of their attention on digital cameras. Some film formats might not be around forever!

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Don’t forget The Darkroom can develop any type of film.

Learn more about our 35mm film developing and our 12o film developing. It’s only $10 a roll.

 

 

  • http://www.thechrisfaceproject.tumblr.com ChrisFACE

    There there fellas, cant we all just get along? lol

    it’s fine to have objections and different opinions but it seems to me the attitude in which these differences in opinion have been delevered are pretty disrespectful and unnecersary.

  • Appalled

    I’m not sure where you’re coming from, but 35mm is a format for snapshots, journalism, fast moving subjects, and things that don’t need to be blown up over 8×10 because it simply does not have the resolution to go higher. I could go into diffraction, lines per mm, number of silver grains, inverse square on the enlarger, etc, all providing for the greater resolution of medium format, but you could just go read The Camera, hit Wikipedia or Google, maybe read a book or two on optics, and get the to the same place.

    As for tonal graduation, the physical media is the exact same, just cut to a different size.  Giving the exact same grains per mm, tonal graduation, and all that.

  • JWR

    Baloney ! If all else is equal (lens quality, chemical emulsion on the substrate, etc.) the larger the format of the focal plane of the image the more chemical emulsion is there for the image and the higher the quality. Resolution is exactly proportional to the area of the focal plane image size, period. No film ever limited lens design. No credible photographer said that it did. Hasselblad’s research facilities have not changed physics. Misinformation is your realm, not the other guy’s.

  • Tracyd

    Jwr is totally right on.I printed negatives from all formats for years in a lab .. 35 mm-120- 6×7,6×9,4×5,5×5 6×6 ect… the larger the negative the better print you will get. The quality from a medium format negative is always better. It’s sad people don’t actually shoot with film anymore. I miss the “old school” film processing days! There’s nothing like processing and printing your own film!