Part 2.
In Part 1 I talked about a simple way into 35mm photography by buying a cheap compact.
The next step is to choose a type of film to use.
If you have a smartphone for photography then you are probably familiar with filters and film simulation like VSCO or the filters on Instagram.
This is the real thing.
Film has a speed - The ISO number (also called ASA on older cameras).
The larger the number the faster the film. Smaller the number the slower the film.
What that means in a nutshell is that it's more sensitive to light.
Film has light sensitive crystals coated onto it. The bigger those crystals are the more sensitive to light the film will be.
Larger surface area results in a faster reaction as you may remember from your high school science class.
The trade off is that bigger crystals become visible as grain.
Different film stocks have different colour characteristics.
Some are brighter and more vibrant than others.
Some stand up to over or under exposure better than others.
Some scan better than others.
For the purpose of keeping this simple and keeping this inexpensive I'd suggest some of the following types of film to use.
Kodak Color Plus 200
This was Poundland film. They no longer sell film as it's more expensive than £1
It's a bit grainy and a bit lo-fi but it has bright colours. Particularly reds.
These tended to be available in 24 exposure rolls.
36 was never available locally to me.
I think this is a remake of an 1980's Kodak film and it has quite a retro look.
But I like it it's cool.
Fuji C200
This is Fujifilm's budget offering. It's pretty decent and slightly less grainy than the Kodak one if memory serves me right. the colours are more natural too.
Agfa vista 200/400
There's a train of though that this is actually the Fujifilm rebranded.
It has bright colours without being garish.
It is a little on the grainy side.
This was also sold in Poundland as the replacement for the Kodak film.
Fuji Superia 400
This is a stalwart film. I'd recommend this as 1st choice in a film compact.
It's an ISO 400 film and is good for every kind of use.
There used to be Superia 800 (also called press 800) and 1600 available too.
Some of these are discontinued though might still be available through Ebay.
Kodak Gold
I used a lot of this back in the day. It's the one to go for if you want an 80s-90s look.
It's reasonably priced and sometimes comes in multipacks.
It's an ISO 200 film these days.
There's another called Kodak Ultramax that is ISO 400
Ilford XP2
This is a 'black & white' film.
It's not a true black & white it's called a chromogenic film which is like a colour film that only has one colour.
It has a very unique look and is a lovely film to use.
There used to be a Kodak film simliar to this but they've discontinued it.
I LOVE this stuff.
This is film for landscape photography as it has very punchy and vibrant colours.
Word of warning on using this film.
If you photograph white people they look very pink.
Any other skin tone looks fine.
Kodak Portra 400
This is one of the newest film stocks available and it's one of the best of all time.
I love this stuff too.
It has more subtle and muted colours for portraiture, it can handle under or overexposure better than almost anything else and it scans really well.
Downside, it's expensive and you can't really buy it in less than 5 packs.
There's a slower 160 version and a faster 800 version but I've never used those.
Fuji Pro 160/Pro 400H
When I first used 400H I thought it was hands down the best film that I'd ever dealt with.
It is rich and warm and has a lovely texture. Everything I used this for looked great.
The 160 version I didn't like. I made some portraits with this and found that it came out cold looking and slightly blue.
Maybe I handled it wrongly or maybe it was the printing. I scanned my negative later and found it to be fine so maybe the lab messed up.
These are good films but they are pricey these days.
Harness Racing - Nikon F75 - Kodak Portra400
Edinburgh Waverley - Zorki 4K - Ilford XP2
Stirling Bridge - FED50 - Kodak Ektar100
All film needs good light.
Don't use these in darkened rooms without flash or better, some external light source.
All of my film suggestions above are negative film for making prints.
Film has a sell by date, just like food.
After a while the chemicals in the film degrade and become less sensitive to light.
Sometimes there are colour shifts and others grain becomes visible where it wouldn't normally be.
You should ideally store film in a fridge or if you freeze it then it stops those chemicals from degrading as fast.
That's one reason why professional film tends to cost more than consumer film.
It has been stored in a fridge.
It is fine to use film past it's sell by date but you have to be willing to accept that the results might be unpredictable.
Slide film if stored correctly can be a decade out of date and used almost as normal without much degradation.
Black & White should be the same though sometimes the negatives can become foggy.
If you want cheap film to experiment with then by all means find an out of date supply on eBay.
However if we all want to still be able to use film in the future then we should all buy a couple of fresh rolls and support some of the great suppliers in the process.
It might sound counter intuitive to say this but buying cheap film doesn't always save you money in the long run.
You need to factor in the cost of developing, printing, scanning.
It costs as much to develop a 36 exposure roll as it does a 24 or even a 12 so if possible and if available go for the 36.
Of my list I'd rank Superia, Ektar, Portra and XP2 are the best value for money.
I'll cover using black & white film and transparency or slide film in a future posts.
This is awesome - the second post I’ve read on film photography today. I’ve been thinking of getting back into it and your listing of the different film types has made me so nostalgic. I think it’s a sign 😊
You should!
When was the last time you used film?
If I inspire one person to go and make something cool and have fun doing it then I've done a good job. :)
Wow I think it must have been around 2003 😬 makes me feel old. I’m living in Malaysia now, don’t know how easy it is to find film here but i think I can get the camera. Project for this month 😊