120 film
medium format roll film

120 is a format of photographic film. 120 is a roll film, six centimetres high and approximately 82 cm long, and is considered a "medium format". Unlike 35mm film, the size of photographs made with 120 is not universal, and is determined by which camera is used to shoot it; common sizes include 6×6, 6×4.5, 6×7 and 6×9.
120 film was introduced by Kodak for their Brownie No. 2 in 1901 and originally intended for amateur photography but was later superseded in this role by 135 film (35mm). 120 film survives to this day as the only medium format film that is readily available to both professionals and amateur enthusiasts from most major film manufacturers.
120's sister format 220, introduced in 1965, is largely the same as 120, but is twice the length. Many cameras which shoot 120 are also designed to shoot 220, although older 120 cameras that use frame number windows are unsuitable for 220, as it lacks the backing paper that 120 has.
Characteristics
The 120 film format is a roll film which is nominally between 60.7 mm and 61.7 mm wide. Most modern films made today are roughly 61 mm (2.4 inches) wide.
The public source identifies “120 film” as medium format roll film. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around film, medium and format.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3077349. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1901 and 1965.
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This entry incorporates text from “120 film” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.