The term roll film is usually reserved for film wound up on a spool with an interleaving light-tight backing paper to protect the wound-up film. The spool is loaded into the camera in daylight, the backing paper leader threaded to a second spool, and the film wound from picture to picture once the camera is closed. This is the classical roll film of roll-film cameras. Common current film widths are 62 mm and 45 mm. The rear of the backing paper carries sets of consecutive numbers spaced at frame intervals for different image formats. In some roll-film cameras these numbers are visible through a viewing window in the camera and show how far the film must be wound to advance it from one picture to the next. Instant-loading cartridges also use paper-backed roll film.

Perforated film

Some film is perforated along its edges and rolled up on its own inside a light-tight cartridge, which can be loaded into the camera in daylight. Once the camera is closed, a transport sprocket engaging the edge perforations draws the film from the cartridge onto a spool and advances it from picture to picture. The most common film width is 35 mm (for 35-mm miniature cameras), and its cartridge typically holds enough film for up to 36 (sometimes 72) exposures. A 70-mm film for larger cameras and 16-mm strips for ultraminiatures are packed and used in a similar way.

In March 1983 the Eastman Kodak Company announced the development of a new coding system for 35-mm film and cartridges. The DX film system employs optical, electrical, and mechanical encoding to transmit to appropriately equipped cameras such information as film type, film speed, and number of exposures. The system also supplies data that enable automatic photofinishing equipment to identify and sort film quickly, simplifying processing and printing. In the interest of uniformity, Kodak freely offered the DX system to all film and camera manufacturers, and within two years it was generally adopted.

Disk film

Some compact mass-market cameras take circular disks of film, 65 millimetres in diameter, in light-tight cartridges and coated on a 0.18-mm polyester base. In the camera the disk rotates as up to 15 exposures (frame size 8 × 10 millimetres) are recorded around the disk circumference. The disk lies flatter in the camera than rolled-up film and is suitable for more automated photofinishing; the high printing magnification required, however, limits the image quality.

Depth of field

The sharpness in the image of objects in front of and behind the focused distance falls off gradually. Within a certain range of object distances this sharpness loss is still comparatively unnoticeable. This range is the depth of field and depends on: (1) the amount of sharpness loss regarded as acceptable: miniature negatives requiring big enlargement must be sharper than larger format negatives, which are enlarged less; (2) the lens aperture used: stopping down the lens (higher f-numbers) increases the depth of field; (3) the object distance: the depth of field is smaller for near objects than for more distant ones; and (4) the focal length of the lens: depth of field is reduced with longer focus lenses (and with larger picture formats requiring lenses of longer focal length), and the depth increases with shorter focus lenses. A depth of field indicator, often included on the focusing mounts of lenses, shows on the distance scale how far in front of and behind the focused distance objects will be in focus at different diaphragm openings.

Subject and camera movement

Movement of the subject while the camera shutter is open for the exposure leads to a blurred image. The exposure time must therefore be short enough to keep the blur within acceptable limits. The shutter speed required depends on the movement speed of the object, the scale of the image (movement blur becomes greater the nearer the subject or the longer the focal length of the lens used) and the movement direction; movement across the direction of view produces the most blurring.

Movement blur can be reduced, even with comparatively slow shutter speeds, by moving the camera (panning) to follow the subject during the exposure. This records the moving object comparatively sharply against a blurred background and emphasizes the impression of speed.

Camera shake through unsteady support during the exposure also creates image blur—over the whole picture in such cases. Hand-held shots generally demand shutter speeds of 1/30 second or shorter. For longer times a firm camera support—such as a tripod—is essential.