220 black and white film - can you buy it anywhere now?

[james_wright10]

<p>Now than I have come to the end of my Kodak TriX 320 220 roll film stash I wonder if anyone still makes or will consider making 220 black and white film. I love not having to change the back so frequently on my Hasselblad when I am travelling or biking. Does anyone know of a manufacturer who is producing 220 black and white film? Seems like it might be a good line for someone.<br>

James</p>

[Mike Gammill]

<p>AFAIK Tri-X 320 was the last of the B&W 220. Might be some left on ebay or a few vendors may have NOS, but otherwise it's gone. I haven't heard of any other film companies planning to make 220. For some time now SS reels for 220 have been unvailable. Yes, it is disappointing. Also I miss the Plus-X that was available in 220 a few years back.</p>

[kelly_flanigan1]

<p>There is a surplus of 220 reels; since all films will be gone.</p>

<p>At a ham radio swap meet in Feburary a chap had a 1 cubic foot box of stainless steel reels and tanks; the box of all did not sell after 1 1/2 days.</p>

<p>I almost bought it but I already had all that stuff.</p>

<p>His price started at 2 bucks per item; then when to 8 for the entire box when He was leaving.<br /> NONE SOLD AT ALL.</p>

<p>One had 32,16 and 8 oz nikor tanks; 120, 35mm reels; a 220 tank and reel; even 16mm reels.</p>

<p>I got on Ebay with my Blackberry and found so many stainless reel stuff I figured it was not worth buying to resell; it is not worth shipping.</p>

<p>There were *two* 220/tank combos at that time of the swap meet on ebay; buy it now for 8 to 10 bucks; with free freight; thus a combo has a worth of a dollar or two.</p>

<p>Those two 220/tank combos went unsold on ebay and the seller dropped their prices and they sold the next time.</p>

<p>Thus 220/tank combos are worth a dollar or two; they go 10 days on ebay for 10 bucks unsold.</p>

<p>They get passed by at swapmeets.</p>

<p>They have a value as stainess scrap.</p>

<p>NEW 220 reels and tanks are typically unavailable at dealers; so are Polaroid swingers or VHS tapes too. On the used market this old stuff goes cheap; as a novelty; to folks still using them. There is a glut of this stuff so a maker would be crazy to make stuff where the market is none or about none.</p>

[larrydressler]

<p>Well I found a few places selling Color Negative and positive in 220 but no 220 B&W left other than ebay and it seems the price is a mish mash as they mix it with 120 in the sale.</p>

<p> I am glad I have that case of 220 Plus-X in the freezer but maybe Rollei will start selling some of their fine films in 220 as it should not be hard to set a line up to do that since they already make 120 film.</p>

[User_502260]

<p>I had suggested in another forum that someone like Ilford sell 220 film in kit form. The leader and trailer could be sold in the kit with peel-off wax paper over an adhesive strip. The film could be cut to the right size and kept in a separate foil pack. The film wouldn't need to have any frame markings. The spool wouldn't need to be included because anyone interested in this kit would have plenty of spools already. A final touch could be an oblong shaped ZIP-LOCK type bag made of some opaque material to store the spooled film. If this could all be done at twice the price of a spooled 120 roll It would be convenient for anyone looking to shoot in 6X7 or 6X9. </p>

[steve_levine]

<p>220 was never really an amateur market film size. It was made for wedding,portrait and other commercial shooters to cut down on reloading. Now that so few commercial shooters use medium format films, 220 seems to have vanished at an accelerated rate. Fortunately you can still get a variety of film types in 120 rolls.</p>

[kelly_flanigan1]

<p>120 is a 100 + year old format. As Steve mentioned; 220 came out for wedding stuff. It came out in the mid 1960's; I got a back for my Mamyia C3 for 220 then.</p>

<p>220 was only used by a subset of all the 120 and 220 cameras made; think parts per million is one includes the vast millions and millions and millions of 120 box cameras of pre instamatic days.</p>

<p> Even in 220's heyday one had a trucated set of films. NO verichrome; NO high speed asa 1250 Royal-X; NO fine grain Panatomic-X. NO amateur 220 tri-x asa 400 that pushed better than asa 320 pro; that had a different toe region. There was NO Kodacolor II in 220. There was NO E4 Ektachrome-X in 220; there was NO E4 High Speed Ektachrome in 220 to shoot a sports with; pushable to asa 400; when print films were only asa 80 for Kodacolor II or 100 for Vericolor,</p>

<p>220 was that film that a subset of labs processed; one had this truncated set of films compared to 120. Thus 220 was really for crap like weddings and portraits. In hot areas you would have to have an ice chest in ones trunk to keep the Vericolor cool if one was traveling; what a friggen PITA.</p>

<p>220 was that film that smaller stores never carried. A Kmart in Podunt used had 120 in Kodacolor II in 1975; even Rexoll drug stores in towns of 5000 too.</p>

<p> Thus in smaller to mid sized cities you alway mailordered 220; like folks due today for most all 120 films.</p>

<p>In portraits with retouching; tri-x and plus-x pro films in 220 had retouching bases. About nobody retouches with pencil and an Adams retouching machine anymore.</p>

<p>In sports with MF I hated 220; one had this jackass subset of films. Ie no ultra fast Royal-X; no pushable tri-x amateur stuff. One had no High Speed Extachrome for slides either. Thus here for astro work and sports; I always used 120.</p>

<p>The only places here I really used 220 was for weddings; in the 1960's and 1970's. And for some portrait work.</p>

<p>The sales of 220 was never really great compared to the 120 +220 total; a few percent at best. It only really had a strong suit with wedding films like Vericolor; but most folks have gone digital.</p>

<p>making 220 is like making 3.5" floppies or VHS tapes or 8 track tapes; a dead marker or almost dead one.</p>

[User_502260]

<p>All of that is true but still think b&w 220 film could be sold in kit form at a reasonable price. The alternative would be for one company to package it for itself and other companies. If Fuji still packages 220 color films it could package b&w film supplied by Kodak and Ilford. The next question is whether it would be worthwhile for Kodak and Fuji to make this bulk film with the thinner base which 220 requires. </p>

[jeff_livacich]

<p>220 does not require a thinner base.</p>

[larrydressler]

<p>Correct it is the same as the 120 just with paper tabs on both ends and none in the middle.</p>

[Aoresteen]

<p>Ilford considered making 220 film again but the cost to rehab their 220 spooling machine was not cost effective. They even asked Fuji & Kodak to spool 220 for them; Kodak never replied and I thing Fuji declined.</p>

<p>220 B&W is dead. I have about 10 rolls left of TXP 220 and when that is gone it's only 120 for me.</p>

[kelly_flanigan1]

<p>220 will come back when the Cubs win the World Series!</p>

[larrydressler]

<p>And Arizona wins the Super Bowl. :)</p>