What Were the Old Camera Films called in the 50's,60's, 70s?

Question

What were the old battery shaped films called? Roll Up film or something? Let me know if you know (in the 50's, 60's, 70's)

Answer 1

go to howstuffworks.com

Answer 2

roll, which is where the expression, "a roll of film" comes from. roll film has the negative layer sandwiched between a paper roll on a spool. the paper kept light off the negative when on the spool. on the back side it had numbers and marks to tell you where to stop cranking when looking through a small window on the camera back. you did not rewind roll film, once it was on the take up spool it could be removed, and the supply spool moved to the takeup position, an early form of recycling. you would want to tape down the end of the paper so it didn't unravel on the way to the processor. roll film was extremely poplular because unlike glass plate or sheet film, you could take a lot of exposures before messing with the film. They were not exactly battery shaped but mounted on a spool that was wrapped in a foil paper until ready for loading in the camera.

35mm is not roll film, it is a later version called a cassette. the cassette did not have the roll of paper but relied on the narrow slit in the can to keep light off the negative and sproket holes to advance the film. at the end of the film, it had to be rewound back into the cassette, a process that many oldtime roll photogs might forget about. Frame numbers were counted by the camera and not the film. many 35mm cameras would count up frames even with no film loaded! other popular cassette films were instamatic and APS.

A variation on roll film was film packs. These were poplular with larger film sizes which don't roll up on spools. The film pack had the paper sandwiches, but each was advanced by a pull tab on the paper. The most successful version of the film pack was for Polaroid film where the tab was pulled through rollers that released the chemical onto the film surface and developed the polaroid print. the frame number was printed on the pull tab.

Answer 3

That's medium format roll film. Kind of looks like an oversized AA battery, which is what I think you're referring to.

Generally speaking, today we have 120 and 220 roll film as the existing formats. The difference between 120 and 220 is that 120 film has a paper backing, while the 220 film doesn't. 220 film is therefore thinner and allows for more film (and thus, more exposures) to be wound onto a spool. This difference in thickness means that generally a medium format camera needs different "backs" for each type of film,as the pressure plate is different.

In the 50's, you might also have found 620 film, which was essentially 120 film wound onto a slightly different sized spool.

To use:
You loaded the film into a camera back, stretched a paper leader onto another spool, made sure it was taut, then attached the back and wound the film to the first frame. When done, you had to wind to the end, then tape the paper end around the roll to prevent light leakage.

Really fun and cool cameras. Many such medium format cameras are available on eBay for thousands less than what they sold for originally, thanks to digital.

Answer 4

There have been numerous roll film formats over the years, however the most popular is 120 followed by 127 as a distant second. 120 is about 60mm(2 1/4") wide. It's used not only by Brownies and the like, but also by numerous professional cameras such as Rolleiflexes, Hasselblads, and Mamiyas. 127 is about 40mm wide. It looks like a shrunk down version of 120. 127 was mostly used by Brownie and other box-type cameras, although there were a few decent cameras that used 127 including the Baby Rolleiflex and Yashica LM44.

Answer 5

The most common were/are the 35mm film cameras like Nikon, Minolta, Pentax, Canon, Olympus, Mamiya Sekor, Konica, Leica, Contax, & Yashica. They used 35mm film cassettes and were the cameras of choice for photojournalists, hobbyists, and most serious photographers.

More advanced users used medium format cameras like Hasselblad, Mamiya, Bronica, Kowa, Rolliflex, Yashica, & Pentax. They used 120mm rolled film. These cameras produced the clearest images and easily made the the best enlargements of any portable camera type. You'll find their photos in many coffeetable books and hanging in many museums.

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

Just films as far as I know - was around then. There didn't seem to be any other kind. Made by Kodak et al.

Answer 7

They were, and still are, called film casettes.

Answer 8

Do you mean 35mm fil? Still around.

Answer 9

reels i think and slid shows