A half-frame camera is a camera using a film format at half the usual exposure format. A common variety is the 18×24 mm format on regular

135 film 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 loaded into a standardized type of magazine – also referred to as a casse ...

. It is the normal exposure format on 35mm movie cameras. For still cameras using the 35mm film, the usual format is 24×36 mm, so still cameras taking 18×24 mm exposures are called half-frame cameras. There was a vogue of half-frame cameras in the 1960s, mainly from Japan, originating with the

Olympus Pen The Pen, or PEN series is a brand of Olympus. It was used on analog half-frame compact and SLR models from 1959 until the early 1980s. In 2009, Olympus released the PEN E-P1, a digital mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera, which opened the range ...

models. It allowed for a very compact camera, using commonly available film, unlike other subminiatures that used exotic films (16mm, 9.3mm, etc.). This vogue ended when cameras like the

Rollei 35 The Rollei 35 is a 35mm miniature viewfinder camera built by Rollei. The original Rollei 35, when introduced at photokina in 1966, was the smallest existing 135 film camera. The Rollei 35 series remains one of the smallest 35 mm cameras after ...

or the Olympus XA showed that it was possible to make cameras as small as the half-frame ones, but taking 24×36 mm exposures. A half-frame camera fits twice as many photos on to a standard roll of film. For example 72 exposures on a 36-exposure roll, 48 on a 24-exposure roll, and so on. Color film was expensive during the heyday of the half-frame camera, and the use of half-frame saved money. However, the image quality was reduced as it was half the size of standard 35mm film. The exposures have a vertical (portrait) orientation as opposed to the horizontal (landscape) orientation of a 35mm SLR or rangefinder, with the exception of cameras whose film mechanisms run vertically (examples include the Konica Recorder and Belomo Agat 18). The most advanced half-frame camera that was designed as such from the start is the Yashica Samurai single lens reflex. For some specific needs, there were cameras originally designed for full-frame pictures that were produced or custom modified in very small series as half-frame models, for example some

Leica Leica Camera AG () is a German company that manufactures cameras, optical lenses, photographic lenses, binoculars, rifle scopes and microscopes. The company was founded by Ernst Leitz in 1869 (Ernst Leitz Wetzlar), in Wetzlar, Germany. ...

(1950 made in Canada Leica 72), Nikon (1960-61 Nikon S3M 18x24mm rangefinder) or

Robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...

(Robot 24x24mm camera) rangefinders, and some

Alpa Alpa was formerly a Switzerland, Swiss camera design company and manufacturer of 135 film, 35 mm Single-lens reflex camera, SLR cameras. The current owners bought the company name after bankruptcy of the original company and the company exists ...

(Alpa 18x24 SLR) or Minolta SLRs.A batch of 30 Minolta X-300 35mm full-frame SLRs custom modified to half-frame for the police in the Netherlands
Forum article in German Minolta-Forum as of 2007
'] These are mainly of interest as collectibles. The Nickelodeon Photoblaster was a quarter-frame camera.

Gallery of photographs taken with half-frame cameras

Briana King addresses the crowd at a Push Like a Girl event at Blue Park - Martinez Playground - Brooklyn, NY - 2019.jpg Rapper Myl3z sits on a step on Orchard Lane in Berkeley - July - 2019.jpg Nicholas Deconie frontside five-0 at Millennium Skate Park, Owl's Head Park.jpg File:Duncan McGillivray-Smith carves the bowl at Millennium Skate Park - October 2019.jpg File:Skateboarders skate at Tompkins Square Park.jpg File:SF Dyke March Remembering the Dead Memorial - June 2019.jpg File:San Francisco from Dolores Park - June 2019.jpg File:Skateboarder in Dolores Park, June 2019.jpg File:Bubble Blowing Delores Park Dyke March June 2019.jpg

External links

A list of half-frame cameras, by Massimo Bertacchi

References

{{photography subject Film formats