battra92 said:
I was wondering if there are any viable alternatives out there in 127 size. Should I just build a film slitter to cut down 120 film and put it on old 127 spools?
If you have 127 spools available, this is a very viable alternative, at least for 4x4. However -- you have to reverse spool the film to get the 6x4.5 framing track under the 127 camera's 4x4 window. What I've done (once, so far, but it went smoothly) is to cut the film in daylight, using a sharp knife (I used a snap-blade utility knife with about three inches of blade extended); cut the roll down to the core, smoothly and evenly on the side that preserves the 6x4.5 framing track (the leftover, BTW, is just right to feed a 16 mm camera that doesn't require perforations, though it's too long for a Minolta 16 -- it's just right for a Kiev 30 or 303, though). Then go into the darkroom to respool directly to the 127 spool; I folded the leader back and cut it to half length, then rolled it back up, turned the lights back on, and trimmed the point on the end. Back in the dark, when you come to the head-end paster, untape the film (I peeled the tape from the film and stuck it back on the backing) and just slip the film head into the roll the way you would with the tail when respooling to 620. Spool normally until you come to the tail, which needs to be taped to the backing (a little tricky to do in the dark, but not too bad); I'd suggest leaving this end full length, since I found when loading a full-frame 127 that it was hard to do with the tail (now the head) trimmed. The film will show "Exposed" on the outside when you load it, and the numbers will count backward, but it works.
Bonus: You'll get 16 frames of 4x4 with extra space between, or 12 frames of 4x6.5 with either almost no space between, or a couple mm of overlap (haven't finished that test roll yet). If you have a half-frame camera, be sure to have lots of subjects for that 24 exposure roll...
