35mm Half-Frame Cameras - How Do They Work? 

I'm glad I found this video because I've been trying to look up the Samurai, but couldn't remember the name. My stepdad had one 30 years ago. It was branded Kyocera and had green buttons instead of red, but otherwise it was great to see that again. And yes, whenever we were on vacation, people would always ask about our "video camera".

I love that whenever I search for something film related, AR has already made a video on the subject :)

There was kind of half frame camera in Soviet Union. It was called Agat-18 (Агат 18), and it's been producting since 1987 to 1990 in BeLOMO (Belarus). It is very interesting camera, because of it's controls, she has two rings that control exposure compensation and aperture control, and Industar-104 f/2.8 28mm lens. Funny fact is that even being not so correct in her exposures, she was doing pretty good shots in low-light with shutter speed of 1/120th, and had even hotshoe mount for flash!

My Uncle had one of these when he was on the Army in the 70's. I recently scanned all the images and printed them at 4x6 The resolution is pretty good at that size.

I'm carrying around an Olympus Pen-EE these days as my pocket camera. Mostly I'm shooting with the diptychs in mind, and sometimes playing with "half-frame panoramics" where I'm shooting four or six frames in an arc. My first roll didn't come out, so the second roll is in now. I'm looking forward to developing them and seeing how it comes out.

Half frame love! I’ve got an Olympus Pen EES-2 and Diana Mini, but man, that Yashica looks pretty sweet

Love half frame - My Canon Multi-Tele is always loaded, since you never know when the diptych bug might strike - it's such an enjoyable option with your visual story telling.

Very cool, nice job! I just picked up my first two half frames.....an Olympus Pen EE, and a very rare Edixa DUAL - full & 1/2 frame camera. Thanks for the great work!

Very Good Explanation . Thank You .

I have a half-frame camera - a Chaika (Чайка in cyrillic) 2, which is a Soviet viewfinder camera, built from 1967 to 1972 in the Minsk factory MMZ, later BeLomo. It has Industar-69 lens, 28mm f/2.8, which were made specifically for the Chaika, they are on M39 mount, though. It was on my grandpa and grandpa, my father played with it (it has a dent on the side, too), I took it, along with its original case, lens cap and the original handstrap. I haven't shot anything on it for now, but I plan doing it in the summer, when I go to holiday.

I just inherited a canon Demi s from Vietnam from my grandpa and this is really helpful! Thanks!

I’ve got one of those goofy Yashicas and I love it so much.

i had an analog Noritsu printer, there was a half frame negative mask and lenses, so you can print half frame negative individualy, as for digita scanner,you alsocancrop before you scan,so you dont need to scan 2 at 1 time.

whenever i go traveling or just want to shoot memories instead of doing a project or some special shoot i use a half frame camera. either just an Olympus pen ee2 as a simple point and shoot or a canon demi with full manual control when shooting slide film for example! gives great quality photos and when put in the projector you don't see any diminished quality.

Great video!

Thanks for the vid! I just picked up a Konica Eye 2 at a thrift store for just over 3 bucks! 👍

I know im late but lets not forget about the univex mercury ii! Half frame, 65 + pictures, and a very unique rotary shutter. I have a fully working one, take it on the road with me, and load it with slide film usually

I first came across a half frame 35mm camera when I was at college in the mid 1960's. An upperclassman, a "military brat" who's family had been posted in Asia used a Canon Demi. This little Selenium cell metering unit was a match-needle-camera-selects-shutter-speed-aperture automatic with zone focusing. He'd had it for years, and his collection of prints during his Taiwan days were impressive. Later, I came across the Canon Dial 35, a "landscape" half frame camera with it's "rotary dial telephone" face and spring wound motor. Olympus' line of Pen cameras I saw much later, as the brand and half frame specifically, wasn't exactly popular locally. Still, the Olympus Pen FT SLR was a standout for those seeking a 35mm SLR camera. In the days before T-Grain technology, half frame cameras had "half the image quality" of Ye Olde 24X36mm format. And now for something completely different: In the mid 1960's consumer grade electronic flashes might cover 50mm/normal lenses only. I found this out after I bought a "Japan domestic" 4/AA cell Toshiba electronic flash. There was noticeable falloff when I used it with my 35mm f/2 Nikkor on Ye Olde Nikkormat FTn. By the time of the Vivitar 283, this was old news, and I expect these old Kakos, Toshibas ans Nationals died long ago. (Aren't you glad you live in "modern times" where flash and lens coverage match?)

Nice video! I have an Olympus pen ee, a Canon Demi 17, and my favourite half frame camera: The russian Chaika! They're fun to use.

I love the Samurai, I currently have 2 plus a 72E another wonderful Yashica

I big one you didn’t mention is the original Konica Autoreflex that has full frame and half options so you can shoot both.

Nice one! But... how can you make a video about half frame and skip the olympus pen F??? That ones deserve an special mention! Side reflex pentaprism!!!

I have a little Canon Demi EE17 and it's a great camera. Has a sharp lens and takes good piccies. Though, I'm going to have to replace the light seals as they're starting to get a little thread bare, so to speak. I would like an Olympus Pen F or FT. But, they're a little pricey on eBay.

Until Leica brought out their first 35 mm camera, what we now call "half frame" was standard 35 mm, and the first Leica was billed as "double frame" -- twice the film area, to make the most of the (then) underwhelming film resolution and grain (look at some of Henri Cartier-Bresson's early work, shot with Leica, to see what grain they had to deal with back in the day). They and Kodak also standardized the cassette we're used to; there were several other options along the way (the Agfa Carat was one that didn't have a spool, the film was just rolled inside and the camera sprockets pulled it out of one cassette and pushed it into another), but the Kodak/Leica design eventually won. All those older "half frame" (single frame, same as then-standard 4:3 movie film) cameras you showed used some other method to supply and take up the film than what we're used to. There were also some cameras that took a 24x24 mm frame (Robot was one of the better known brands), getting 50% more frames on the same film length. BTW, I've got an Olympus Pen EES-2 with a still-working selenium meter; it's a nice little camera (auto exposure and icon scale focus lens). I've had it since 1981. If you hand-load your cassettes, you can get close to 90 frames on a roll...

Hi Are you sure about the Exa ? If so, it would have been the first one to do that and I wonder about the small labs handling the printing correctly way back then.

Are you gonna try the new kodak ektar H35?

Is a half frame camera would be the same size as super 35 they use in movies? also are they the same as APS-C?

bro can you scan the nishika film output properly on an epson V39?

2:41 Straight up pimp slaps the camera. I like this guy.

labs labs labs... develop and print your film yourself, it's whole lot of fun !

Hi,do these cameras need batteries?

Sorry this is a very late reply. How do 1/2 frame cameras work? the same way as all other film cameras really! Back in the day, (and I'm old enough to have been around then), the big advantage (apart from size) lies with photographers who preferred reversal (slide) film. Whilst 35mm films cost the same regardless of the camera used, with negative film there was still the cost of twice as many prints to pay for. With slide film, processing a film that's been through a 1/2 frame camera costs no more that a film that's been through full frame camera, but you still got twice as many images. The fact that the image is in portrait format isn't a problem any more that the fact that a full frame image is in landscape. Turn the camera through 90 if you want the other. An interesting side note. Many modern photographers (including me) still shoot 1/2 frame. My Nikon D300 has a DX sensor which measures 15.8mm x 23.6mm, not that far from 18mm x 24mm.

The image of the Exa 1b and the Praktica L2 in that composed background are incorrect in that lineup... These are standard (East German) SLRs

So in 36shot roll you can double

Help me with this, are 35mm half-frame almost same as 110mm films in terms of picture size and quality of image?

Half frame is for sure better than 110 film

Why do I feel like I have seen you somewhere on the internet or a thing show ?

u look like jay baruchel

the Praktica L2 is not a half frame!

Hello friend. Can i ship you a film camera to you for free?