I am planning a trip to China next month, where temperatures regularly drop to minus 20 Celsius. I therefore don't want to have to change films more than I can help, so I am thinking of using 220 film. I have heard mutterings that this may not work too well - not rolling quite tight, or not lying quite flat.

I did not have this trouble with my previous cameras (Mamiya C330s). Any views/experiences?

Thanks in advance...

-- Ed Hurst (bullmoo@hotmail.com), December 01, 2001

Answers

Ed, I use 120 and 220 about equally and have never had a complaint with 220. I have heard about the issue of the film not quite laying flat, but I haven't noticed a bad affect from it. My camera gets limited amateur use, so a heavy shooting pro might have other comments. Bob

-- Bobby Mahaffey (mahajen@prodigy.net), December 01, 2001.

I use 220 Provia F 100 all the time and have put many rolls through my Pentax 67II without any problems. I always take care to change the film in shade and haven't noticed any problems with light leaks around the backing paper, except on the very edge of the film rebate, nor have I seen any film flatness problems.

Geoff Bryant

-- Geoff Bryant (geoffbryant@xtra.co.nz), December 01, 2001.

I think the stories about possible 220 problems were infered from the original JCII test of the first P67. Their comment was that in trying to get 21 frames out of 220, the flatness of the first frame (and I believe this is the only frame where they suspected this would be true) was not always perfect. The camera design may have been tweeked a bit since then. Regardless, I have never come across anyone who had problems with 220. I have two friends who use 220 almost exclusively, and regularly put 20+ rolls a week through their cameras. Neither has found any quality difference between 120 & 220.

-- Miles Stoddard (p67shooter@yahoo.co.uk), December 03, 2001.

I have shot very little 220 film in my 67II I bought last year, but of the 20 or so rolls, a full 1/4 were not rolled tight, some having small strain/tear marks on one end of the roll (top or bottom) as well. I cannot figure out what is causing this; the fact some owners use 220 film extensively and report no trouble at all makes me wonder if the problem is a manufacture/quality control issue or inherent. Of the 4 rolls, 3 are being developed right now, the first had no apparent leakage.

It is worth noting that when the pressure plate is in 220 mode, it will tilt just slightly with use to where the top of the first 2 is not completely visible. I don't know if this would have anything to do with the problem.

-- randall thomas (dogfooddog@aol.com), May 16, 2002.

Correcting my above math problem, I have had 4 or 5 rolls not tight, out of approximately 15-20 rolls shot over the last few months.

-- randall thomas (dogfooddog@aol.com), May 16, 2002.