Photographic film

Revision as of 08:45, 1 November 2012

Photographic film was a popular medium for photography throughout the 20th century, replacing earlier forms of photography using plates which held a single image (which go back to the mid 19th century), and rapidly losing ground to digital photography in the early part of the 21st century.

Exposed and developed photographic film may be encountered as a file format either in negative -- a color-reversed state from which prints may be produced on photographic paper -- or as a transparency that can be viewed directly (with the naked eye, or more typically, with backlighting and magnification) or projected with a projector. The primary identification of photographic film formats is by size.

Photographic film is encountered in still formats (typically, a single image) and movie formats (strips of film transparencies with numerous sequential images designed for the projection of moving pictures). Some movie formats designed for exhibition also encode audio data (soundtracks) on film alongside the sequential images. Other movie formats were intended for exhibition with simultaneous audio provided by a synchronized separate recording.

Still-picture negative formats

• 35 mm negatives (135)
• 110 film
• 126 film
• 127 film
• 120 film (and 220)
• Sheet film
• Disc film

Slide formats

• 35 mm slides

Filmstrip formats

• 35 mm film strips

Movie formats

• 8 mm movies
• 16 mm movies
• 35 mm movies
• 70 mm movies

References

Photographic film at Wikipedia

Sound film at Wikipedia