Black and White 220 Roll Film Availability

<p>Are there any manufacturers making 220 black and white film? Any sources would be appreciated.</p>

<p>Not as far as I know.</p>

<p>I believe Portra is still available in 220, though maybe not for long.</p>

<p>As far as I know, the main use for 220 is wedding photography, where you need to shoot fast, and don't have so much time to reload the backs. And I suspect that is mostly Portra.</p>

<p>When they do sell it, 220 is about twice the price, and also processing is about twice. </p>

<p>I am not so sure, but I believe it uses a thinner base than other films, so would be harder to keep in production. </p>

<p>Hopefully 120 will stay around for some years now, though.</p>

Not the base but lack of paper backing except at each end for loading.

<p>From what I see online, Kodak completely discontinued 220 film in early 2015. B&H and Amazon show Portra 160 and Portra 400 as "not available" in 220.</p>

<p>I thought it was different base, but two samples (Tri-X and Portra) seem to be the same in 120 and 220. Then again, I never had any to try.</p>

<p>For 120 and 220 Tri-X Kodak says 3.9mil, and for Portra they say 4 mil, maybe rounded.</p>

<p>Portra in 35mm is 5 mil. </p>

<p>A good starting research point are some of these German sites: Macodirect, Nordfoto and Fotoimpex. Good luck! I regularly get what I want from these suppliers. They also are reliable and ship fast.</p>

<p>I used a lot of b&w roll film from about 2002 on. Even then I could not buy any of the primary emulsions ( eg TriX. TMX, Acros, HP5 etc) in 220 format. I could buy 220 slide film, but the only b&w 220 I could find was version of TriX (TXP) which wasn't the same film as the regular 120 rolls and in any case was discontinued almost 7 years ago.</p>

<p>There is talk on another analog photography site of Shanghai GP3 film coming back to market after a believed factory upgrade. The rumor seems to be true since they have started selling GP3 in 4x5. Now for the juicy part. It's also rumored that they are not only bringing back GP3 in 120, but also 220. If this is true I'm really excited since GP3 was one of my favorite B&W films before it dried up. This is one fine ISO 100 B&W film and I just hope they didn't mess with the formula when they retooled the factory. My fingers a crossed!</p>

There is already for some years no 220 roll film in B&W. The last films were Portra C-41 films in 220 rol film format. Ilford

discontinued their 220 roll film machinery in 2004.

<p>You might find some cold stored Tri-X Professional (TXP) 220 and maybe even some Plus-X (PXP) that expired a few years back on auction from time to time. The ISO 320 Tri-X does have a different look from the ISO 400 version. Foma offers what some have called an alternative to TXP: Retropan 320 Soft. Alas, it's not available in 220 or even 120 yet. In testing a couple of 35mm rolls I find it lower in contrast (at least at box speed) and grainier than TXP. I once heard a rumor that Ilford might offer some of their black & white in 220 but never heard any evidence that this might happen. <br>

Never tried the Shanghai GP3 film but if they offer 220 I think it would sell well.</p>

<p>Mike,<br>

To me, GP3 is similar in looks to Plus-X, but it might not have an as effective annihilation layer backing. Some might not like that, but I do. It comes out beautiful in Pyro developers as well as Rodial. Trust me, it's worth a try if it makes it to market.</p>

<p>My last 5 rolls of 220 (Fujicolor Pro 160) are in the freezer. Bought them out-dated (2010-2) on eBay around 5 years ago. I haven't seen any B&W 220 for a long time. I'd just be happy to find any 220 film, but haven't used 6x6 much lately. I guess I will eventually have to check out what's in the market from more exotic film outfits....</p><div></div>

<p>Thanks for the comments.</p>

<p>I bought some 120 GP3 some years ago, as it was a good price, including shipping from China. </p>

<p>It seemed fine to me, though some people seem to have problems with the numbers transferring from the backing paper. Also, the numbers are hard to see sometimes. </p>

<p>But for now, all my 120 cameras have windows in the back, so no 220 for me.</p>