Roll film or rollfilm is any type of spool-wound photographic film protected from white light exposure by a paper backing. The term originated in contrast to sheet film. Confusingly, roll film was originally often referred to as "cartridge" film because of its resemblance to a shotgun cartridge.
A spool of Fujifilm-brand type 120 negative roll film
Classic 120 negative roll film, manufactured by Agfa-Gevaert, with backing paper indicating total exposures available for 4.5×6, 6×6 and 6×9 cm camera film-frame sizes
Various brands of sealed 120 negative and transparency roll films
George Eastman was an American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. After a decade of experiments in photography, he patented and sold a roll film camera, making amateur photography accessible to the general public for the first time. Working as the treasurer and later president of Kodak, he oversaw the expansion of the company and the film industry.
Eastman in 1917
Eastman's boyhood home, relocated from Waterville to the Genesee Country Village and Museum
Portrait of Eastman by Paul Nadar, 1890
The Kodak factory and main office in Rochester, c. 1900-1910
