Go Medium Format For A Bigger Experience
When we last looked at the options for shooting with medium format film cameras back in 2016, there was a bit of a question mark over the continued availability of rollfilm. It certainly tempered any enthusiasm for spending a reasonable amount of money on, say, a classic Hasselblad. While the choice of rollfilm stocks is certainly a lot smaller than it was when medium format was the choice of many professional photographers, the old favourites are still available in B&W, colour negative and colour transparency. And there’ seemingly enough interest to keep this going.
For anybody contemplating getting into (or getting back into) film photography, 35mm looks like the obvious choice as there is a huge selection of cameras to choose from, either second hand if you want an SLR or a rangefinder type, or new if you want something a bit quirky. But medium format adds a bit more to the experience with the handling of rollfilm and the camera operations, particularly with boxform cameras. There is also quite a variety of cameras from SLRs to fixed-lens rangefinder types, and not all are fully manual, mechanical machines as, latterly, automation did find its way into the medium format camera world. However, don’t expect the point-and-shoot convenience of a digital camera. Most medium format film cameras will make you work – some harder than others – but that’s part of the attraction. So is the size. Even the non-reflex designs are still pretty chunky, but something like the Mamiya RB67 is a beast – big, heavy and very noisy.
Rolling Up
Rollfilm was responsible for popularising photography at the end of the 19th century and, over time, there have been numerous formats with 120 slowly becoming the standard (although it dates back to 1901). Today, 120 is the sole survivor and this overview concentrates on cameras for this film size… which are all higher-end models from after the Second World War.
As the name suggests, rollfilm is a roll of film that is wound into a spool along with a backing paper. There is no light-tight cassette, but the backing paper ensures that the film can be taken out of its packaging in daylight without fogging the edges. Nevertheless, it was still always advised to load the camera in subdued lighting and certainly not in direct sunlight. Loading involves feeding the film’s leader paper onto an empty takeup spool – which would have been the loaded spool from the previous film, swapped into the take-up position when it was finished – then winding on a little, closing the camera back and completing wind-on to the first frame. Once the roll is completed, there’s no need for rewinding as all the exposed film is now on the take-up spool, ready to be removed from the camera and processed. To ensure it remains tightly rolled up – to avoid any fogging – a sticky tag is provided to secure the end paper. In the day, many amateurs were put off using medium format cameras because it was perceived that loading and handling rollfilm was tricky and it was too easy to make a mistake. In reality, it’s all fairly straightforward and it only takes a couple of loads before it becomes second nature. A few medium format cameras do have certain loading idiosyncrasies, so it isn’t always a straight thread from the feed spool to the take-up spool, but in most cases it’s pretty easy to work out the procedure.
“Most medium format film cameras will make you work – some harder than others – but that’s part of the
