Current Availability and Usage
Ferrania in Italy, was the last factory producing 126 film. Their product was an ISO 200 colour print film marketed under their Solaris brand. The last scheduled production run took place in April 2007, but an unscheduled production run in late 2007 surprised industry observers and raised hopes that it had not actually been discontinued. As of March 2009, Ferrania customer service states that they are producing only 135 format color film in 200 and 400 ASA.
Adocolor 126, which was until recently available in Europe and was sometimes imported by North American resellers, was manufactured for the German Adox company by Ferrania. Ferrania and Adox are currently in negotiations to transfer the relevant production moulds, tooling, etcetera... to Adox so production can start again. Adox had been hoping to release it in January 2012; however, the latest information on their website as of May 2012 states that the film is still out of production, and that they do not know if or when that status will change.
Because it is 35mm wide and is developed in industry-standard C-41 process chemistry, processing of currently available 126 films is readily available, as long as the photofinisher knows that it is standard, 35mm, C-41 film. Many photofinishers are not aware of this, so it may be important to inform them when requesting processing. Printing the photos can present problems, because modern film processing equipment often cannot handle the square format of 126 film. There are specialist photographic suppliers who can correctly process and print 126 film. Some standard flatbed scanners that have a light source for scanning films can be used to scan 126 negatives. All that may be required is a simple black mask, which can easily be made with black paper.
Read more about this topic: 126 Film
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