Bold claim: a single roll can become the gift that keeps on giving—180 photos from a standard 35mm film roll. That’s the core idea behind the “little stupid camera,” a bespoke SLR built by photographer Japhy Riddle that stretches the boundaries of how many exposures you can squeeze from one roll.
Riddle’s coding-and-foil-filled tinkering didn’t start there. He previously explored half-frame experiments by masking the film gate with electrical tape, then running the same film through twice with a four-perforation offset. The result: 72 exposures per roll instead of the usual 36, at the cost of reduced resolution, narrower lens perspectives, and a bit more hassle when loading.
Buoyed by that success, he pushed further. After one failed attempt, he coined the nickname that would stick: the “little stupid camera.” He concedes it isn’t a flattering name, yet it captures the spirit of the project—deliberate whimsy with serious technique.
The device is a standard 35mm body with a handle, but the name comes from a deliberately ridiculous film-gate configuration. Riddle kept the masking trick he’d used before, only this time he went to the extreme. Rather than two exposures per frame like the half-frame method, he found a way to fit roughly five photos on each frame, yielding 180 exposures from a single roll.
How did he do it? Instead of feeding the film forward normally, he devised a backwards shooting method. He would advance the entire roll onto the take-up spool, then rewind it back by about one sixth of a full turn before the sheet reentered the canister. He even marked the rewinder in 60-degree increments to guide the process.
As Riddle puts it, the camera was about freedom: “The whole point of this camera was to feel free. It’s easy to treat film as something precious and to feel you must make every shot count. But with photos scaled to roughly one-fifth of usual size and cost, you can simply go wild.”
Even with Kodak regaining some control over its film distribution and a slight price pullback, film photography in 2026 remains a pricey hobby. Yet the prospect of 180 shots per roll remains irresistibly appealing for many shooters, even if the frames arrive in a letterbox-like shape.
Riddle tested the concept with a few rolls before passing the unusual camera along to someone else. His broader body of work can be explored on Instagram at @japhyriddle.
Image credits: Photographs by Japhy Riddle
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Thought-provoking takeaway: If you redefine the purpose or format of a roll, you can dramatically alter both cost and creative latitude. Would you experiment with an ultra-tall or ultra-wide frame if it meant more frames per roll and a new visual rhythm? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
