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A half-frame camera is a camera using a film format at half the intended exposure format. A common variety is the 18x24mm format on regular 135 film. It is the normal exposure format on 35mm movie cameras. For still cameras using the 35mm film, the usual format is 24x36mm, so still cameras taking 18x24mm exposures are called half-frame cameras. There was a vogue of half-frame cameras in the 1960s, mainly from Japan, originating with the Olympus Pen models. It allowed to build a very compact camera, yet using the regular film that can be bought anywhere, unlike the other subminiatures that used exotic films (16mm, 9.5mm, etc.). This vogue ended when cameras like the Rollei 35 or the Olympus XA showed that it was possible to make cameras as small as the half-frame ones, but taking full 24x36mm exposures. With a half-frame camera, one can fit twice as many pictures onto a standard roll of film. For example, 72 exposures on a 36-exposure roll, 48 on a 24-exposure one, and so on.

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