Medium format
Black and White 120 film
Bigger negatives, and a lot more detail. 120 comes as a roll on a spool with paper backing rather than a canister — it suits medium format cameras only, and will not fit a 35mm camera.
About 120
Medium format, and how many shots you get
What 120 actually is
A larger, less common film than 35mm, used in medium format cameras only — Hasselblad, Rolleiflex, Bronica, Mamiya, Holga and the like. It comes as a roll on a spool with paper backing rather than in a canister, and it will not fit a 35mm camera.
The negative is far bigger, which is the whole point: more detail, smoother tone, and a lot more room to enlarge or crop.
How many shots on a roll?
It depends on your camera, not on the film. 120 has no sprocket holes, and different medium format cameras expose different frame sizes off the same roll:
6×4.5 — about 16 shots
6×6 — about 12 shots
6×7 — about 10 shots
6×9 — about 8 shots
So the same roll gives you twice as many frames in a 645 camera as it does in a 6×9.
Getting it developed
We develop and scan 120 here in Lower Hutt, in our own lab. It runs in its own batch rather than alongside the 35mm, so it takes a little longer — but it never leaves the building.
Once you have shot it
120, developed in the building.
Medium format is handled in its own run, so it takes a little longer than 35mm — but it never leaves the building.