220 film

Andysnap

Andysnap

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Andy Grant
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Is 220 still available and if so from where? Simples.

Cheers Gang
 
Thanks matey, thought I might get a roll to try in the soon to be acquired GS-1. Course, I'll need to get a 220 back first. :D
 
ouch.........pricey stuff
 
AG Photographic sell it in 5 packs of Portra 160 and 400.
 
TBH Andy it's not worth the extra expense. So few places stock it, the choice isn't great and the f***wits on eBay are charging waaay too much for it.
 
Fir enough, but I am rich and stoopid...Hang on though that's only half right...best just stick to 120 then.
 
I've never used 220, so this is purely second hand. I have heard that because 220, unlike 120, has no backing paper it is more suceptible to scratches. Some photographers did switch back to 120 for this reason.
 
I'd quite like a 220 back to use 35mm but I'm not willing to pay the over inflated price for a dieing format.
 
ChrisR said:
? Not quite sure I understand this...
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You can use 35mm in a 220 back without having to compensate for the backing paper. Which you would have to if you used it in a 120 back.
 
ChrisR said:
? Not quite sure I understand this...
Click to expand...

You can rig medium format backs meant for roll film to shoot 135 film. While you can do this with a 120 back, 120 film has backing paper, so 135 used in a 120 back would be out of the proper plane of focus. 220 film, on the other hand, does not have paper backing, so 135 would run through a 220 back in the right plane.

Edit: Oops, I seem to have cross posted with Rob.
 
Surely if you were that paranoid you could just stick a piece of backing paper on the pressure plate if you were worried the film wasn't being held exactly flat?
 
RaglanSurf said:
Surely if you were that paranoid you could just stick a piece of backing paper on the pressure plate if you were worried the film wasn't being held exactly flat?
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Yes, that might take care of the plane of focus issue, but 120 backs would waste a lot of 135 film, because they won't let you shoot after the 12th frame (in the case of 6x6), even though there's still about half of the 135 film left to shoot. By using a 220 back and its 24 frames, you can use the whole roll of 135.
 
ChrisR said:
? Not quite sure I understand this...
Click to expand...

As above its largely about keeping the focus plane constant but also to avoid tieing up a 120 back with 35mm, just as I probably need one.
 
Thanks guys, very illuminating! The effect presumably is pre-cropping the images to 24mm high (which might have a nice pano effect), but for the entire roll, so you'd need to have a good reason (compared with just cropping selected frames). Perhaps using film that's not available in 120 could be that reason...
 
Mostly just for a giggle but yeah its a poor mans x-pan or rich mans holga depending how you want to look at it. I've only done it once and used vista as a cheap way to shoot colour through the RB and for a bit of a change.
 
I like the idea i recently ran some 35mm in an old 127 brownie thanks to @Asha and it was a really enjoyable experience.

good look
 
I think my, soon to be in my hot sweaty hands, GS-1 has a 35mm back as well, that could be interesting.
 
Andysnap said:
I think my, soon to be in my hot sweaty hands, GS-1 has a 35mm back as well, that could be interesting.
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Apparently Bronica listed a 35mm back for the GS-1 in its marketing materials, but it never actually appeared on sale so if your one does have one then I imagine it would be a 3rd party type.
 
Oh, right. Mine hasn't got one with it but its mentioned in the manual so I thought I'd get one at some point.
 
It might be worth it for an RB67 experiment as the film backs are dirt cheap buy a box of 5 roles could work out ok.
 
Andysnap said:
Oh, right. Mine hasn't got one with it but its mentioned in the manual so I thought I'd get one at some point.
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The thing that I find particularly annoying about using 135 in medium format backs is that the frames can be quite difficult to scan well, as most holders can't accommodate the long, thin frames; you can't scan it on a dedicated 135 scanner; and not all labs will scan film frames in the panoramic dimensions.

I think that best option is to use a flatbed scanner with the Lomo Digitaliza holder for 135. I did make my own customised holder to scan panoramic 135 shot in my 120 back, but it's seriously fiddly to use and it wasn't quite in the right plane of focus for the scanner.
 
If folks are really interested in buying 220, there's an online shop based in Japan that has a good range of 220 films, many of which are unavailable here, at very competitive prices. For instance, Portra 400 in 220 is about £44 (¥7,514), which is about £20 cheaper than anywhere in the UK for Portra in 220. The 160NS, which is unavailable in 220 for purchase in Europe, is about £38 (¥6,400), which is even cheaper than buying two packs of 120 in UK prices.

http://www.japanexposures.com/shop/film-analog/film/medium-format-film/?subcats=Y&features_hash=V252

Their 220 choices include Portra 400, Fuji 160NS, Fuji 400H, Provia 100F, and Velvia (50 and 100). They also have a selection of 120 films that aren't available in Europe.

The shipping costs are actually pretty reasonable (£9/¥1,500) from what I've seen as well and they include insurance and tracking. I'm assuming you'd have to pay 20% VAT if you ordered anything from here, although I'm not sure at what point you might also be liable for any customs duty. As long as there aren't any really crazy customs charges, the prices here would still be really good even including the VAT.
 
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