What camera or film format used 70mm-wide negatives with a 50×60mm image area?
Asked 3/22/2023
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I found old black-and-white and color negatives that appear to date from the 1950s. The film is about 70mm (2-3/4 in.) wide with no sprocket holes, and each image measures roughly 50×60mm (about 2×2-3/8 in.). What film format or type of camera would most likely have produced these negatives?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
3y ago
2 Answers
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In that era, many firms engaged in "school" business. They bid on the task of making school year books making group pictures and senior portraits. They used custom roll film cameras made by Beattie, Camerz (Photo Control), and Nord Photo Enginering, and others. Kodak 70mm film was commonly used in color and black & white.
It was big business. I worked for Nord, we also made special "package printers". These printers made up the packages that contained sets of multiple sizes. A typical package was 1 5x7 -- 2 3 1/2 X 5 -- 4 wallets and 16 postage stamp size pictures.
These cameras were loaded with 70mm, or 46mm or 35mm film in 100 ft. rolls.
Originally by user44949. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user44949
3y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
A 70mm-wide, unperforated negative strip with roughly 50×60mm images is most likely from a 70mm roll-film camera rather than standard consumer 120 film. One common use in the 1940s–1950s was school and portrait photography: specialty cameras from makers such as Beattie, Camerz/Photo Control, and Nord often used Kodak 70mm film in long rolls for volume portrait work.
Another possibility is 116/616 film, which was also about 70mm wide and unperforated. However, those formats were tied to older consumer cameras, and the camera models were largely discontinued by the late 1940s, though film remained available later.
So the most likely identification is a custom or commercial 70mm portrait/school photography negative, with 116/616 being a secondary possibility if the negatives came from a consumer folding or box camera.
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