Anyone tried the FPP 126 film?

FPP is offering two films (colour and BW) perforated for 126 cameras.

You must load it into 126 cassette yourself. As far as I understand, it doesn't have the backing paper so it's best used with a 126 cassette/adapter like Fakmatic, but you could probably easily make it work in an old 126 cassette.

What's interesting is that they claim the source of the colour variant is Kodak Gold 200. Apparently, they can get unperforated 35mm film from Kodak (I don't think slitting 120 rolls of Kodak Gold would be economically viable).

Anyone bought and shot this 126 film yet?

Not yet, but thanks for the info. So let's hope for returns....

I haven't owned a 126 camera in more than forty years; my last was a Kodak SLR (for which I had only one lens) and I traded it toward my Pentax Spotmatic SP in 1981.

I still have the Instamatic 500 I bought back in the late 60s. It would be fun to use it again. But I’m not set up for developing film. Would one have to send the film out in the 126 cartridge, or could you put it back into the canister it came in and send it out for mail order processing? FPPs ad states that it is perforated - does that mean it is perforated for the 126 camera’s indexing or is the film repackaged 35mm perforated film?

Stan

StanMac said:

I still have the Instamatic 500 I bought back in the late 60s. It would be fun to use it again. But I’m not set up for developing film. Would one have to send the film out in the 126 cartridge, or could you put it back into the canister it came in and send it out for mail order processing? FPPs ad states that it is perforated - does that mean it is perforated for the 126 camera’s indexing or is the film repackaged 35mm perforated film?

Stan

Click to expand...

If you watch the video embedded on the FPP page, it appears to be perforated specifically for 126 cameras.

You would probably not get the cartridge back if you sent it - and you would probably want to talk to the lab before sending it in, to make sure they know what to expect and are willing to do it.

What a complete waste of time. Funny how the thing that made film loading so easy a 4 year old could do it has come to this. Hilarious

If you want to shoot your 126 camera, this film will save you some steps that are not trivial.

I see that BW 126 is now sold out, so obviously enough people found a use for it.

So there goes my idea to do it myself. Just when I purchased an office binding machine for this purpose.
What I do not understand, why do they sell it in one load lenghts? Why not in bulk rolls of 30 feet or longer?
I also think that making a backing paper would not be too complicated, for sure it does not need the specs for 120 type film, given that advancing an exact frame lenght is given by the perforation and not the thickness of the film-paper sandwich.

SMD said:

why do they sell it in one load lenghts? Why not in bulk rolls of 30 feet or longer?

Click to expand...

As I recall, there's a short length after the last frame on the roll that has no perfs, so the camera can wind past the end of the film (the backing is notched on that side at the end, too, so as not to actuate the advance stop finger). Also I seem to recall a particular shape at the head end of the film, but I might be misremembering that.

Even if it's just one perf per frame and nothing special, cutting to length to load the cartridge (in the dark) is likely to waste a frame, and cutting the film too long may cause issues with loading the cartridge.