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. 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 rang ...

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 or the

Olympus XA The Olympus XA was a series of 35 mm cameras manufactured and marketed by Olympus of Japan. The original XA was a rangefinder camera with a fast 35 mm f/2.8 lens, and aperture priority metering. It was one of the smallest rangefinder came ...

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 Yashica was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, originally active from 1949 until 2005 when its then-owner, Kyocera, ceased production. In 2008, the Yashica name reappeared on cameras produced by the Hong Kong-based MF Jebsen Group. In 2015, t ...

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 (1950 made in Canada Leica 72),

Nikon (, ; ), also known just as Nikon, is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging products. The companies held by Nikon form the Nikon Group. Nikon's products include cameras, camera ...

(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 ...

(Robot 24x24mm camera) rangefinders, and some Alpa (Alpa 18x24 SLR) or

Minolta was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, camera accessories, photocopiers, fax machines, and laser printers. Minolta Co., Ltd., which is also known simply as Minolta, was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as . It made the first integrated aut ...

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