Using the Pentacon Six in low temperatures

The Pentacon Six System
by TRA

How Can I use 35mm in the Pentacon Six?

In June 2026 I received the following question from a Pentacon Six user:

Q “I recently bought a serviced Pentacon six TL and have been using your website as a resource and it's been very helpful.

There's a question I have that i haven't seen answered on your website — forgive me if it's been asked and answered and i just couldn't find it — which is the use of 35mm film in the pentacon for a wide, xpan-like exposure. Is it possible to do this without damaging the camera? I understand that the spacing will be off and I'm fine with that, but I don't want it affecting future 120 rolls and ruin the spacing for them. So, will shooting rolls of 35mm in the Pentacon six somehow damage the spacing mechanism?

If you have any information on this I would really appreciate hearing about it!

AY”

A Hello AY
Thank you for writing. I am delighted to hear that you recently bought a serviced Pentacon Six TL, and that my website is being very helpful to you.

I realise that with such a large website it is sometimes difficult to find things, and I try to help by adding plenty of links between pages. Internet searches can also sometimes help by taking you straight to the right page.

However, this time it wasn't the absence of a link on my website or the failure of an internet search; I hadn't yet reported on how to use 35mm film in the Pentacon Six. So let's correct that now!

Obviously the spool size of 35mm film is totally different from the spool size of 120 film, and also 35mm film is included in a light-tight cassette.

However, at least one person has made adapters to enable 35mm cassettes to be inserted into the film feed chamber of the Pentacon Six (the chamber on the left).

I have bought a pair of the adapters, but not yet used them in a Pentacon Six. They are 3D printed and seem strong. It is unusual to use bright colour for components within the back of a camera, but light from the film gate should not reach them, so this is unlikely to cause a problem.

[P6_35mm_01.jpg]

Next I show these adapters inserted within a Pentacon Six.

The two spool holders (top and bottom) in the feed chamber hold the film cassette at the right height. The "prongs" on them that engage with the film cassette are of different lengths, and as the only unexposed film that I have is stored in the fridge, I have not wanted to open a package in order to check the orientation, so perhaps the holder with the longer prong should be at the bottom. This should be easy to check before closing the camera back.

The film leader should be fed into the slot in the right-hand spool, which should be rotated a few times by hand until the film is held tightly and the full width of the film is within the narrower section of the take-up spool.

I have placed the normal take-up spool to the left of the camera in this photograph.

As 35mm film does not have any backing paper, the film currently stretching from the feed spool to the take-up spool cannot be used for images, and after closing the camera back, it will be necessary to advance the film and fire the shutter at least twice. With normal (120 format) film this would be done three times. See here.

This brings us to the first of our problems if we want to use 35mm film in the Pentacon Six.

As explained in the above link, the teeth of the film advance control spindle (the thin chrome spindle just to the left of the take-up spool) control the amount of film that is advanced and guarantee even spacing with any correctly-operating Pentacon Six camera.

[P6_35mm_02.jpg]

If we are using 35mm film, it will not engage with the teeth near the top of that spindle, so precise control of the amount of film advance is not possible, and the user will have to guess how much to advance the film, perhaps by inching the film forward a number of times. If it is decided to advance the film twice, it will obviously be necessary to put a well-fitting lens cap onto the front of the lens before firing the shutter after advancing the film the first time, in order to be able to advance it further.

However, using 35mm film in this way, held in place with suitable spoolholders, shouldn't damage any mechanisms in the camera, but spacing with 35mm film will probably not be accurate, with a possibility of overlapping frames. But when 120 film is loaded again, correctly, as described here and in the video linked from that page, spacing should return to normal.

The second problem is that, as explained here, in cameras that use 120 film, the film is not rewound at the end of the roll, nor indeed is there any way to do this.

As 35mm film does not have backing paper, it will therefore be necessary to put the camera into a changing bag or to go into a darkroom with no safety light on before opening the back of the camera.

After the back has been opened, the take-up spool (orange in the example shown above) will need to be removed (pull down the right-hand spool holder underneath the base of the camera and turn it clockwise to keep it down). Hold the orange take-up spool carefully, so that the film does not unwind.

Then remove the feed spool and carefully wind the film back into the cassette, just leaving the "tongue" (half-width initial portion) sticking out.

Only then can the film be removed from the changing bag, or the light in the darkroom can be turned on.

This must all be done without a stray finger touching the curtains of the camera shutter or damaging the film back.

This is in theory doable, but not easy.

Any regular processing lab should be able to develop film, but they will almost certainly be unable to produce prints, and they should also not cut the film!

On the basis of careful inspection of the developed film, decisions on where to cut the film can be made by you, the photographer (not the lab!). Of course, one must not touch either surface of the film at any time, instead only holding it by the edges. (This of course applies to all film, including processed 120 or 220 film.)

It will then be necessary to scan the desired frames, using a suitable film or flat-bed scanner. In recent years, I have obtained excellent results scanning film with an Epson Perfection V750 PRO scanner with SilverFast software.

Some people who have experimented with using 35mm film in a Pentacon Six have produced some interesting images in which they reproduce the whole width of the 35mm film, thus showing the image that will also extend to the rebates, the sides of the film that are not normally exposed and that contain the sprocket holes and the film data information pre-exposed on the film by the film manufacturers.

XPAN cameras have the format 24 × 65mm, whereas the widest image taken with the Pentacon Six will be approximately 56mm wide. For the XPAN there is a superb 30mm lens (which needs to be used with a special filter to compensate for vignetting), whereas the widest rectilinear lens for a Pentacon Six that you are likely to find has a focal length of 45mm. For more information on this website, see here and also in the lens test reviews, here. There are also numerous 45mm shift lenses. For an introduction to these, see here. On the extremely rare 40mm lenses, for the Curtagon see three pages starting here. On the custom adaptation of a 40mm Zenza Bronica Zenzanon-S lens, see here. In addition, there is of course the 30mm Zodiak or Hartblei lens, which is superbly sharp but is a fish-eye lens that does not reproduce rectilinear images over the whole of the frame, thus requiring careful composition. See here and here.

An easier alterative is of course to shoot on 120 film but composing for a panoramic format and then to crop the result. See, for instance, here.

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