Best Film for the Canon EOS-10s
The best film to use in the Canon EOS-10s will be based on the lens, available light, and type of film you want to use.
To avoid having to haul around a flash and/or tripod, opt for a film that has an ISO of 400 or higher.
Ensure you have a fast lens if you want to capture images in low light, conditions that are commonly encountered indoors. See my list on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS-10s for lens suggestions.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - This film handles a variety of lighting conditions well and is an excellent pick for a color 35mm film. The film is fast enough so that you should be able to handhold the EOS-10s in lots of situations.
The photos will have great colors and is on the warm side.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - A different option than Kodak that could have greater availability based on what country you are in.
Fuji photographs appear to have cooler tones with stronger greens and blues, compared to Kodak.
Lomography 800 - You’re limited to a few offerings if you want a color ISO 800 film. For film geared towards consumers, this is the only option.
Additionally, if you have a medium format camera, it is also sold in 120 film format.
Kodak Gold 200 - A surefire solution to obtain that mid-80s through 90s rendering. For the genuine photography experience use an on-camera flash.
To really bring the ideal look out of this film, over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops. This will produce the outstanding colors everyone loves Kodak Gold for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - By far the most popular color negative film among enthusiasts online. Overexpose the film by 1 or 2-stops to get the appearance the film is well known for.
Kodak Portra is also for sale in ISO 160 and 800 emulsions. 8x10 sheets, 4x5 sheets, and rolls of 120 film are also available to purchase.
Black and White Film
Consumer
These film emulsions have low costs and more than acceptable quality, making them very popular to be used in the Canon EOS-10s.
The main attraction for photography students and budget minded photographers is the reasonable price. Even if you wouldn’t put yourself in those groups, it is good to have affordable rolls of 35 film around for trying out newly acquired camera gear.
Kentmere 400 - It’s manufactured by the parent company of Ilford, Harmon Technology. This is great considering that makes this the most widely available B&W film of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - It’s less difficult to purchase in Europe as the film is made by Foma Bohemia inside of the Czech Republic.
A suitable 35mm film to work with for your initial couple of attempts at film photography or home developing. Also a good choice if you are trying out a camera to check that it’s fully functional.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The cheapest place to get this film is directly from Ultrafine.
They distribute developer kits for 35mm film, so if you process film at home you may have previously interacted with them.
Professional
Kodak Tri-X 400 and Ilford HP-5+ 400 are the 2 most frequently used black & white 35mm films. They have a lot of attributes in common that help make them so popular, while preserving individual looks.
You can create great photographs after pushing both film emulsions 2-stops. This makes the film versatile as a roll can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - Between the two films, HP5 Plus has lower levels of contrast and is cheaper. Low amounts of contrast can be beneficial because contrast can be changed when making a print in the darkroom or editing digitally.
The film stock still appears good when pushed 2-stops. It is also recognized for having subdued grain.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film emulsion possesses a stronger look. To produce the classic grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it needs to be processed in D-76.
You’re going to undeniably notice far more contrast with Tri-X 400. That is beneficial if it happens to be the look and feel you would like because it requires much less work when making a print in the darkroom or editing digitially.
Transparency Film
Films that create a positive image can be called transparency, reversal, or slide film. This means the photographs can be exhibited with a light box or projector.
Colors are not required to be inverted to be seen, unlike the more commonly available negative films.
Slide films are perceived as tough to shoot because slide film has much less dynamic range and latitude when compared with negative film.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - The film is known for fine grain and superb skin tones. The colors don’t appear oversaturated. Ektachrome has been color balanced for daylight.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a seriously sharp daylight balanced slide film with high levels of saturation and contrast, giving pictures a special appearance. Velvia has the best resolving power of any available transparency film.
An ISO 100 speed is also offered.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Offers vivid and natural colors with medium color saturation and contrast. It has ultrafine grain with a daylight color balance.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white transparency film, noted by Fomapan as having very fine grain, very good resolving power, and increased levels of contrast. It is also regarded as a replacement for the long discontinued Agfa Scala Film Stock.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Pro film stock have greater latitude, are easier to push, and bigger dynamic range, that is why they will cost more.
There’s a disparity in supply. Consumer film emulsions can more often than not be seen in big-box stores and pharmacies in anemic amounts. Pro film needs to be purchased from a online retailer or specialized photography store.
ISO
A film’s sensitivity to light is represented by the ISO.
The less light available to get an image, the higher the ISO of the film needs to be. This comes at the tradeoff of more film grain.
ISO 100 and slower films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc) is often troublesome to shoot handheld in the EOS-10s. This is due to the fact that without full sun, the exposure times will likely be longer than what you can handhold without resulting in motion blur.
To stop motion blur you are going to need to use a tripod, a fast lens, and/or a flash. The additional gear might not be needed if you decide to use a higher speed ISO 800 or ISO 400 film.
As a quick note, the ISO knob is labeled as ASA on the Canon EOS-10s. The switch to using ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) came after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Latitude
Latitude is the amount of stops film can be overexposed while maintaining usable results. Professional film stocks have a larger latitude paired with a somewhat higher cost.
Transparency film has less latitude in comparison with negative film. That is one of the reasons why it’s thought of more difficult to use.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range represents the difference between the darkest and brightest details of a photo that can be captured. Areas of a photo that are not in this range will be seen as totally black underexposed shadows or completely white overexposed highlights.
When shooting in a wide variety or quickly shifting lighting conditions, films with a larger dynamic range are a better choice.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
The limited dynamic range of slide film is an additional factor it’s viewed as a challenge to shoot. An excellent time to give it a try is during the golden hour.
Film Type
35mm film that is in metal canisters is used by the Canon EOS-10s. 35mm film can also be described as 135 film, and it’s the best-selling type of film.
120 or 220 film, used by medium format cameras, is the only other film format you are going to encounter}.
One of the excellent things about film is that you can change the film you use and get a different look to your images.
DX Coded Film
Just about all commercially available 35mm film sold these days has a DX code. This allows cameras to auto detect and set the ISO of the canister put in the camera.
DX-coding doesn’t make a difference for the Canon EOS-10s because ISO is required to be dialed in manually with the ASA knob.
Canon EOS-10s Resources
Where to Get Film Developed?
You will find several choices for where to process 35mm film. For a more detailed discussion of the choices go to my article on Where to Develop Film.
WARNING: Pharmacies and big box stores no longer process film at the store. They send film away to be processed by a 3rd party. As a consequence, you won’t receive your negatives back.
- Develop Film at Home
- Use a Local Photography Lab
- Use a Mail Order Photo Lab
- Pharmacy or Big Box Store
Shipping film to a mail-order lab to be developed and scanned is the least complicated solution if you’re just starting to shoot film. If you consistently use film, this may be a disadvantage because it can get pricey.
So long as you’re going through a moderate to high volume of film, there are a few things that you can do to decrease your expenses.
Bulk Loading Film
Purchasing a roll of 100 feet of film and manually loading in into canisters yourself is certainly one of the common methods to reduce costs.
A 100 foot roll should fill up around 18 rolls of film containing 36 frames each. Based on the film stock you are likely to save 20%-30%.
Take into account that you are limited to 100’ rolls of black & white film. This is in part because black & white film is much easier and more affordable to process at home.
Home Developing and Scanning
All film can be developed at home. It is a great option to cut costs so you can shoot more film with your Canon EOS-10s.
Black & white film is by far the least difficult to develop. Developer temperature and time are not as critical to do correctly with black & white films as they are for color negative or transparency film.