- The most commonly used format in black and white photography is 35mm film, or 135 film. This format is used in small hand-held cameras and is popular for street photography. It was the basic format for news photographers until the advent of digital cameras. The frame is usually 36mm long and 24mm high. Hasselblad invented the X-pan camera in 1998, which shoots a 24mm by 65mm frame, and there are also cameras, such as the Olympic pen camera, that shoot a half-frame of 18mm by 24mm on this film.
- Medium format films include any films that are larger than 35mm film but smaller than 4x5 sheet film. There were many films in the past that fell into this category, including Kodak's 103 and 104 films. These films were often used in folding cameras from 1900 until World War II. The only widely available medium format film currently is 120 film, which is 56mm tall. Depending on the camera, it can be shot at different "aspect ratios," but the most common is called 6x6. This is a square format used in cameras such as the Hasselblad, the Rollei TLRs, and plastic toy cameras. Medium format film is also used in panoramic cameras that produce negatives that are 6x17 format (56mm x 168mm).
- Large format films typically come in sheets rather than on rolls. The most common format is 4x5 film, which produces an image about four inches by five inches. This film is loaded (in the dark) into a film holder that holds two sheets of film. The film holders are carried into the film and inserted in the camera when ready to shoot; then a dark slide is pulled out to expose the film. Other common large format sizes are 8x10 and 5x7. The 5x7 format was called the "gentleman's format" in the 19th century, as it was large enough to produce a legible contact print, but the camera was not too heavy for the average "gentleman" to haul around. The 4x5 format is usually enlarged. Larger formats, especially 8x10, are frequently printed as contact prints.
- Some photographers still use even larger formats, such as 11x14, 16x20, and even 20x24. Ilford still makes film in these formats. In the 19th century, when all photographic prints had to be made by contact printing rather than enlargement, the only way to produce a big print was to use a big negative, so ultra-large formats were not uncommon. Currently, some photographic processes still require contact printing, such as platinum-palladium printing or cyanotype, and photographers who use these alternative processes like to use ultra large format cameras and film. There are also 4x10 and 8x20 "banquet" camera formats that were originally used to photograph large groups of people. Innovative photographers have used these to produce fine art.
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