There are a few options for shooting 126, unfortunately none of which include going to the store buying 126 and shooting.
The main ones are:
- Shooting expired film, with 126 often pushing 40+ years of age.
- The FakMatic 35mm to 126 Adapter
- from the Film Photography Project
- And there are a few crazies (including myself at one point), hand perforating cut down film to work.
I want to offer an alternative.
Univex #00
Univex #00 size film is a rare, legacy, format.... BUT its half of 120, so with a film slitter its easy enough to make and have backing paper.
This film is wide enough to cover the image area of 126 but not extend into the sprocket area.
To that effort I have created and modified some 3D print materials to adapt this for 126.
If the camera you are using uses the sprocket pin to engage the shutter, this method will not work, all testing was done on an SL26
Like the Fakmatic, but for altogether different reasons, you need to fire some (two) blank shots between frames. On the Fakmatic, because the 35mm sprocket holes engage the sprocket pin too often, and in this approach because they don't engage at all.
To use this format in the camera you need to take an existing 126 cartridge and carefully exacto-knife it into two halves. Glue in a little "plug" so the feed side is shorter, and use a modified reel. (All files provided here)
Then to develop it you just use the Patterson tank files included.
You'll get about 16 frames per each half of the 120 roll, for a total of 32 shots, not bad!
