Half-frame cameras get twice as many shots out of each roll of film.
A half-frame camera shoots photographs at half the exposure format of traditional 35 mm film. These cameras were popular because of their small size and the number of exposures they could produce on one roll of film. They use standard-size 35 mm film made for full-frame still and movie cameras.
Size
Half-frame cameras are typically small and portable, unlike the large, hard-to-transport cameras that preceded that. Most major camera manufacturers made half-frame cameras at one point or another, according to Sub Club. The popularity of these cameras led manufacturers to make smaller and lighter full-frame cameras.
Film
A half-frame camera uses standard 35 mm film. This film is easy to work with and can produce good picture quality even in the smaller format. Cameras using other film sizes, such as 16 mm, were not as successful as half-frame cameras.
Exposures
On a roll of film meant for 24 shots, a half-frame camera could shoot 48. This made taking pictures more economical. Exposures on a half-frame camera are in vertical orientation, as opposed to the landscape orientation of full-frame cameras.
Olympus
Olympus is one of the more famous manufacturers of half-frame cameras. The Olympus Pen was first produced in 1959 and was a large part of the half-frame camera boom of the 1960s and 1970s. According to Olympus, 17 million units were sold during that time. The Olympus Pen F offered interchangeable lenses and a rotating shutter, which allowed for faster flash synchronization speeds.
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