What camera uses negatives that are 2-1/4 by 2-1/4 square???

Hello Everybody,

I dug up an old box of photos the other day at my folks place and came
across a whole bunch of these 2-1/4 by 2-1/4 inch negatives. I personally
have never seen negatives in this size and was wondering what type of
camera uses film like this. As a point of reference the negatives date
back to the mid 1960's.

Thanks in advance.

james

 

any decent camera is the short answer. these negatives were likely taken on
a vintage Argus Argoflex or something similar.

the format is called 120 or 220.

 

The Hasselblad 500 series. The first choice of the world's leading
photographers for nearly half a century.

 

There are many ... most notably

Rolliflex / Rollicord ... most models

Hasselblad ... all models.

and many, many others. It's usually called "medium format."

 

Sounds like 126 film.

 

Sounds like 126 film.

Or actually I meant 120 film.

 

Medium Format. The film is either 120 or 220. My Mamiya TLR shoots square
in this format.

Another way they measure is in centimeters, and 2 1/4 square is the same as
6x6 centimeters, or just 6x6, is very common.

Medium format on 120 or 220, depending on the camera, also frames as 6x4.5
, 6x7, 6x9.


Patrick

 

There were many cameras that used the 2-1/4X2-1/4 format with either 120 or
620 film. Some are still available. Most notable are the twin lens reflex
cameras - made by Mamaiya, Yashica, Rollei and others. There have also been
several notable single lens reflexes that used this size - Hasselblad, Kowa,
Plaubel, Pentacon, Bronica, and others. There were even a few rangefinder
models - the Kodak Chevron comes to mind. In addition to the quality and
advanced cameras, there were many fixed focus amateur cameras with this
format. The Kodak Duoflex was one of the most popular in the late fifties
and early sixties.

 

What type of camera?

As a generalization, any camera classified as medium format that used 120
(12 exposure) or 220 (24 exposure) roll film and shot 'square'
(2-1/4"x2-1/4"). In that time period, you had a choice of several Asian and
European cameras.

120/220 Roll Film - As the name indicates, the film is packaged rolled onto
a supply spool, like packing tape. Unlike packing tape, the roll has a light
proof paper liner shielding the unexposed film. Imagine your packing tape
with a non-stick backing sheet. You load the film into the camera or film
magazine by inserting the roll into the supply chamber and unrolling and
stretching a few inches of paper liner across the framing area and engaging
the paper liner into a take up reel. You then close the camera/film magazine
and advance the paper wrapper until the film was in place.

Hope this helps.

Mr3

 

In the 60s and before, this size was quite common in medium format cameras,
especially in the twin-lens reflex types. A carryover from that time is the
Hasselblad system, which still uses that format only. The 2 1/4 inch
negative is derived from 120 sized film; and may be commonly purchased in
many film and camera outlets. I remember one particular camera series for
that was the Mamiya series (220, 330), and the Rolleiflex; which were all
twin-lens reflex professional cameras and very very popular because of the
excellent quality of the lens from Zeiss.

 

In rality, the format varies when using 120 or 220 film. The 6 X 4.5,
6 X 6 (2-1/4 X 2-1/4 incjes) and 6 X 7 cm cameras all use 120 or 220 film.

The square negs could be from a number of cameras, Rolleiflex and
Rolleicord, Hasselblad, Mamiya, etc all have square negs and have been
around for quite a while.

BTW, Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Minolta all make "decent cameras" that don't
use 120 or 220 film.

Bob

 

The Hasselblad XPAN and XPAN II use 35mm film. You can get 24 X 36mm
and 24 X 65mm panoramic shots with the XPAN cameras.

Bob

 

actually, 120 and 220 film, and cameras taking this type film, are called
medium format. a 2 1/4 by 2 1/4 size image is one product you can get with
medium format camera.

don't forget the holga medium format camera.

bottom line....you can't tell the camera from the size film.

David