> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.grainpress.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Half the Frame, All Your Attention: What Half-frame Gives Back - URL: https://www.grainpress.com/shooting-half-frame/ - Published: 2026-10-02T18:17:21.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-02T18:17:21.000Z - Description: Making the case for half-frame and why choosing it might make a whole lot of sense. - Author: David Comdico - Tags: PRACTICE, Half-frame, Film, 35mm, #fmt-essay, #series-issue-02, #issue-slot-04, #home-feature-secondary The increasing price of film and the way the weight of every frame affects our photography were addressed in our [article on film prices](https://www.grainpress.com/the-weight-of-every-frame/) in issue 01\. We noted that the cost of film, even when you are burning through multiple rolls in a single session, is equivalent to its cost in 1977\. Excepting the atypical period in the early 2000s, film has always been expensive. That is, however, cold comfort when comparing the price of film to digital capture, which we found to be less than half the cost of film (.23 cents vs .56 cents). But there is a way to bridge that gap: half-frame. My omission of the half-frame format in the previous issue was odd since I do have a half-frame camera that I use often, a Kodak H35, which is more of a toy than a camera but also so much more. For this article, I spent the last month getting reacquainted with the format in order to compare the experience of photographing with it versus digital. Film photography, as is often said, slows you down and forces you to consider your composition and improve your craft, especially after the conveniences of digital, which can, over time, develop bad habits–or at least does for me. But sometimes you don't want to slow down. Sometimes you need to be quick, nimble, reactive, daring. You can of course do this with 35mm film, as Ah-san details in [his piece on zone focusing](https://www.grainpress.com/guessing-distances-with-the-rollei-35-compact-film-camera/) with the Rollei 35S. But the question of cost may still nag at you unconsciously. ## More frames, less weight The half-frame format gives you twice as many shots per roll vs traditional 35mm. After shooting 36-frame rolls for some time, 72 will seem like a very generous portion that is too much to swallow in one session. You may find yourself, as a result, shooting more freely, since it will seem almost impossible to fill up the roll. A lot of the immediacy and freedom you may have missed from shooting with digital will suddenly return to you. The heavy weight of the frame will be lifted. At least that was my experience. During the last month I took it along with me as a second camera, a practice frowned upon by most photographers but something that I enjoy. The H35 half-frame acted as my free-wheeling camera, which I used more like a digital camera than a film camera. And then when the moment was right, I switched to the Mamiya 7 and used up one of its 10 slots on the thing that I had now explored. If this is all half-frame had to offer it would be worth it since each of those frames on the Mamiya 7 are precious. One criticism of the format is that it represents false economy. Yes, it almost halves the price of 35mm but that simply means that you are wasting 50% of your budget on photos you will not end up using. If you don't see a charming directness in the resulting images from the format, then this is not an incorrect way of looking at it. But besides the savings involved, half-frame forces you to tailor your images so that they are legible in a smaller frame at a lower resolution, and this is a good skill to practice. ![Diesel station](https://www.grainpress.com/content/images/2026/10/half-frame04.jpg) ## The half-frame compromise But photographing in the half-frame format does require some compromises. The first one is that, given that the frame is roughly half the size of 35mm, the lower resolution results in less detailed pictures. The apparent quality and sharpness is a step down from 35mm. It may not be the format for you if exacting sharpness is your goal. The frame's orientation on half-frame cameras is vertical, so addressing the camera normally creates a portrait-oriented photo. You will either love or hate this about the format. I appreciate it as it is a nice change of pace from all of the (many) horizontal formats, so much so that I wish the portrait orientation was a more popular choice. Lastly there is the aspect ratio which, unlike the 3:2 ratio of full-frame 35mm, is 4:3\. This is not accidentally the same aspect ratio as Micro Four Thirds. In digital, Olympus is the last company still making Micro Four Thirds cameras, and was the first to make the 4:3 aspect ratio popular in the 60s with the various half-frame models it produced during that time. There is a lot of history in the format itself. Because the frames in half-frame are vertical, you get two side-by-side images in the same space normally occupied by a 35mm frame. So whatever scanner you use for 35mm will automatically work with half-frame. The format also gives you the option of creating a diptych in the space of the 35mm frame. This trick increases the apparent resolution of the final image and creates new opportunities for image-making. I enjoy the challenge of thinking of my photos in pairs when I shoot half-frames. After the first photo I think of and pre-visualize what might be an accompaniment. Or you might explore combinations in the edit afterwards and discover connections that were only latent. Now that you have 72 frames of photos, you will need some way to locate each of them on the negative. Foma films are unusual in that the rebate markings on the negative are numbered for half-frame. Kentmere and Kodak use a different system (1 / 1A) that is a workable compromise to the dedicated numbers of Foma in that they at least provide a way to reference each of the 72 frames. But my preference is to shoot Foma film with my half-frame camera. ![Olympus Pen F](https://www.grainpress.com/content/images/2026/10/olympus-penf.jpg) Olympus Pen F ## A format with a past The history of the half-frame format goes back much longer than you'd think, to the early 20th century. The first half-format was invented by the Ansco company and introduced with the Ansco Memo in 1927\. But the height of the format's popularity came later with the release of the Olympus Pen in 1959\. The format carved out a significant niche for Olympus in the 1960s but never quite eclipsed its big brother, 35mm. Ironically, Olympus reached for half-frame for the same reasons Ricoh did in 2024: the format allows for the production of smaller, cheaper bodies and results in less expensive processing costs for the film. The challenge for photographers today who are interested in shooting in the half-frame format is deciding which body to pick. The Olympus Pen is a classic, has interchangeable lenses and familiar controls while the Pentax 17 is new, can be serviced by Ricoh, has a warranty, and is compact but only has a single lens and slightly unusual controls. The other options are the various toy cameras that come in the format, such as my Kodak H35, but expect less durability and the probability of defects like light leaks. Half-frame is a format that has many compromises built-in but it gives back to the photographer more than it's equivalent cost. The cameras are light, you get twice as many exposures, this lets you explore subjects more loosely, you can practice tightening your framing and also explore creating diptychs either in camera or post. And it's aspect ratio is novel and a perfect fit for the popular vertical format on social media. ![Half-frame diptych](https://www.grainpress.com/content/images/2026/10/half-frame01.jpg) ![Half-frame diptych](https://www.grainpress.com/content/images/2026/10/half-frame02.jpg) ![Half-frame diptych](https://www.grainpress.com/content/images/2026/10/half-frame03.jpg) ![Half-frame diptych](https://www.grainpress.com/content/images/2026/10/half-frame04.jpg) ![Half-frame diptych](https://www.grainpress.com/content/images/2026/10/half-frame05.jpg) ![Half-frame diptych](https://www.grainpress.com/content/images/2026/10/half-frame06.jpg) ![Half-frame diptych](https://www.grainpress.com/content/images/2026/10/half-frame07.jpg) ![Half-frame diptych](https://www.grainpress.com/content/images/2026/10/half-frame08.jpg) ![Half-frame diptych](https://www.grainpress.com/content/images/2026/10/half-frame09.jpg) Diptychs from a Kodak H35.