Why Every Photographer Should Consider a Half-Frame Camera

Half-frame cameras are seeing a burst in popularity. Here are six compelling reasons to add one to your arsenal.

The number of vintage options combined with new offerings from the likes of Lomography and Pentax means that now is an excellent time to venture into the world of half-frame cameras. Whether you are a film aficionado or taking your first tentative steps into the world of silver halide, here are three reasons to get started.

1. Meaning In the Mundane, Emotion In the Everyday

Like most of us, I capture images on my phone almost every single day. And, like most of us, I hardly ever look back at what’s in my photo roll because those images feel disposable and are thus forgotten in an instant.

For me, having a half-frame camera has brought a new meaning to the everyday images that would otherwise live on my phone and remain unseen. Having a small, convenient camera that’s always within reach suddenly means these snapshots have a new significance. I need to wait to see the results, and once my negatives arrive in the mail, I spend an hour or two scanning and editing in the hope of finding something magical. I’m yet to be disappointed.

As a result, I have images that have taken on an extra layer of meaning. Not only do they exist in the physical world as something real, tangible, and enduring, but I’ve invested a significance in them that gives them value. The everyday no longer disappears instantly into the cloud. Instead, the photos are seen and felt. My iPhone images are ephemeral, while my half-frame photos become an archive.

2. Limitations Breed Creativity

Having restrictions imposed upon you means that you have to innovate: working within a set of limitations requires you to experiment and play with different approaches, exercising the creative part of the process. This can then bleed into other parts of your practice, expanding your brain and opening you up to new ideas.

Half-frame cameras come with a plethora of restrictions, but the potential for play is huge — diptychs, panoramas, and pairing images can be novel ways of thinking about how to create photographs.

3. Quality Is Not an Issue

Not only is half-frame photography an opportunity to stop obsessing over lens sharpness and megapixels, but the quality is absolutely fine — especially when you consider that all but a tiny fraction of our images are only ever seen on a screen.

Plus, if you print, how big does it need to be? The last time I printed images from my phone was years ago, and even then, they were a handful of inches across. Half frames print acceptably up to 8x10 inches, and the character more than makes up for any lack of clarity. And how often do you hear someone say, “I love this photo, but I wish it didn’t have so much grain”?

4. The Price

You don’t need me to tell you that shooting on film is not cheap. Budget black-and-white film — Fomapan 400 or Kentmere PAN 400 — costs me about $9 for a 36-exposure roll, plus around $10 to send it to a lab and receive a set of developed negatives in return. That’s almost 53¢ per image, rising to just under 65¢ if I opt for an affordable color film such as Kodak Gold.

A half-frame camera can manage more than twice as many shots. As well as doubling the number of exposures, the diminutive size of a half-frame camera means that the distance between the film canister and the take-up spool is so small that you’re not wasting a load of frames each time you load the film.

If you’re keen to achieve maximum efficiency, consider the Alphie Tych, whose users claim to get 81 exposures from a standard roll of 135 film. That brings a roll of black-and-white down to less than 24¢ a frame. Bargain.

5. Portability

Half-frame cameras are tiny. Admittedly, not as small as a compact digital, but still plenty small enough. Having a camera always within reach — especially one that feels so good to use, that makes you want to use it — will help you to develop as a photographer, find new ideas, and discover projects.

Admittedly, the vintage half-frame cameras of the 50s, 60s, and 70s are not the lightest, however. My beautiful Olympus PEN EE-2 fits into a jacket pocket, but its aluminum alloy body gives it a heft that means I can’t forget it’s there.

6. They Are Beautiful

The vintage half-frame cameras are almost all beautifully designed, the Olympus PEN range in particular. Thankfully, Pentax didn't stray too far from the fold when designing the Pentax 17, giving us something that makes you want to pick it up and start taking photographs.

I bought my PEN EE-2 on eBay, and it shipped from Japan to my home in France in just a matter of days. Somehow, it's in incredible condition (just one tiny section where the leatherette has started to come away), despite being older than me.

So Which Camera to Buy?

There’s a wealth of secondhand options out there. In the last year or two, we’ve seen half-frame cameras at both ends of the scale, including serious toys from Lomography and the excellent Pentax 17. For a deeper look, check out this article. Or you could always modify a 35mm camera by matting half the frame and, upon completing 36 shots, swap to the other half and run the film through again.

What do you love most about half-frame photography? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.