Sprocket holes in reloaded 126 cartridges

[seany65]

I've seen some photos taken using 126 cartridges that have been reloaded with 35mm film used in a Rolleiflex SL26 and I'm a little puzzled. The frame of a 126 negative is 28mmx28mm and a 35mm frame is 24mmx36mm. Give that the long side is horizontal and that there is only a 4mm difference in the vertical side between them, how come there's so much area of the negative used on the 35mm frame when used in a 126 camera? I get that there'll be some extra area used either above or below, or a mix, depending exactly how high or low the film is in the cartridge, but it looks to me to be much more than a total of 4mm.

 

[JoeV]

126 film only had one sprocket hole per frame, which helped align the film when advancing it in the camera, whereas “135” format of course has a row of sprocket holes above and below the 24mm high frame.

 

[seany65]

Thanks for the reply, Joe. I understand about the sprocket holes in each type of film, what's puzzling my two braincells is: If the height of the 126 frame is only 4mm greater than that of the 24mm height of the 35mm frame, how come there always appears to be more than 4mm extra image on any 35mm frame when the film was used in a 126 camera? I'm aware that it may not be possible to have the film exactly in the middle of the spool and so the film may be a little higher or lower in the cartridge than the previous or next film, but the extra image height always seems more than the 4mm difference. I'm also aware that the answer is probably blindingly obvious. 😳