Best Film for the Canon EOS-1n-rs
The best film to use in the Canon EOS-1n-rs will have to depend on the lighting conditions, lens, and type of film you want to shoot.
Getting an ISO 400 35mm or higher speed will help you avoid needing to carry around a flash or tripod.
If you want to capture photographs in low light, such as indoors, ensure that you have a fast lens. Go read my short article on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS-1n-rs for lens suggestions.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - This film can be used in a plethora of lighting conditions and is a good pick for a color film. Using this film you should have the ability to handhold the EOS-1n-rs in just about all circumstances.
Expect photographs to appear slightly warm with pleasant colors.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Based on where you are in the world, this film can have greater availability. It is a great alternative to Kodak film.
When compared to Kodak, Fujifilm appears to be a bit cooler with stronger blues and greens.
Lomography 800 - If you want a color film with an ISO of 800, there aren’t many options. This is literally the only 35mm film focused on consumers.
In addition, if you own a medium format camera, Lomography 800 is also for sale in 120 film format.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film stock that was launched in the mid-1980s. Gold 200 produces the look and feel of snapshots from the 80s and 1990s. Use a flash to get the “authentic” look the film is known for.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to produce the best look the film can achieve. This will help you achieve the wonderful colors people love Kodak Gold for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - By far the most popular color negative film among photography enthusiasts online. Overexpose the film by 1 or 2-stops to get the color the film is highly regarded for.
Additionally, ISO 800 and 160 emulsions of Kodak Portra. As well as in rolls of 120, 4x5 sheets, and 8x10 sheets.
Black and White Film
Consumer
These film emulsions have low prices and more than acceptable quality, making them quite popular to be used in the Canon EOS-1n-rs.
The largest draw for budget minded photographers and photography students is the competitive price. Even if you would not put yourself in that group, it is good to have inexpensive rolls of film readily available for testing recently purchased camera gear.
Kentmere 400 - It is manufactured by the parent company of Ilford, Harmon Technology. This is great because that makes this the most widely available B&W film of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - It will probably less difficult to obtain in Europe as the film is manufactured in the Czech Republic by Foma Bohemia.
A solid 35mm film to work with for your first couple of attempts at analog photography or home developing. Also a good option if you’re attempting to test out a camera to guarantee that it is working properly.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The best store to get this film is directly from Ultrafine.
If you process 35mm color film yourself, you might have done that with developer sold by them to process your film.
Professional
Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400 are the two most widely used black & white film emulsions. While they both do have unique appearances, they possess numerous characteristics in common that makes them popular.
Both film stocks can be pushed 1 or 2 stops and while still generating good results. A 35mm roll of film can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600, making them quite useful.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - Between the two film emulsions, HP5 Plus is cheaper and has less contrast. Low amounts of contrast can be good due to the fact contrast can be added when making a print or through digital processing.
The film has subdued grain and still appears great when pushed 2-stops.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film emulsion has a more distinctive look. To bring out the classic grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it should be developed in Kodak D-76.
You are going to clearly see far more contrast with Tri-X 400. That’s perfect if it happens to be the look you will want because it requires much less work when through digital post processing or making a print in the darkroom.
Transparency Film
Films that produce a positive image are generally referred to as slide, transparency, or reversal film. That means a lightbox or projector can be used to showcase the pictures.
This is different from the more often used negative films that create images that require inverting the colors for the image to be viewed.
Slide films have a smaller amount of latitude and dynamic range when compared with negative films and so they are viewed as tougher to work with.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. There’s virtually no hypersaturation of colors. The film has a daylight color balance.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a exceptionally sharp daylight color balanced transparency film with lots of saturation and contrast, giving photos a distinctive rendering. Velvia has the top resolving power of any elevated increased.
You can also get it in an ISO 100 speed.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Creates vibrant and realistic colors with moderate contrast and color saturation. It is a ultrafine grain film with a daylight color balance.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white slide film, reported by Fomapan as having very fine grain, increased levels of contrast, and high resolving power. It’s also billed as a alternative for the discontinued Agfa Scala transparency film.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Professional films cost more since they have a greater dynamic range, are easier to push, and bigger latitude.
There is a big difference in business that sell film. Consumer film stocks can often still be obtained from pharmacies and big-box stores in anemic quantities. Pro film stocks will need to be bought from a online or camera store.
ISO
The speed of the film is displayed by ISO, which can also be thought of as the film’s sensitivity to light.
The bigger the film’s ISO, the less light is required to get an image. In addition, be prepared for more film grain.
ISO 100 and slower speed films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc) is often difficult to use handheld in the EOS-1n-rs. The will take longer will most likely take more time than what you’re able to handhold without producing motion blur unless you are shooting in full sun.
To avoid this you are going to need to use a flash, fast lens, and/or tripod. Using a high speed ISO 400 or ISO 800 film often makes the additional equipment unnecessary.
The dial to select film speed is listed as ASA on the Canon EOS-1n-rs. The switch to labeling ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) came after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Film Latitude
Latitude is the amount of stops a film can be overexposed while maintaining usable images. Professional film stocks have a larger latitude to go along with a somewhat increased cost.
Negative film has more latitude than reversal film. That is one of the reasons it is considered more challenging to shoot.
Dynamic Range
The difference between the shadows and highlights details of a picture is referred to as dynamic range. Parts of an image that do not fit in this range will be rendered as solid white overexposed highlights or totally black underexposed shadows.
A larger dynamic range is preferable due to the fact that a bigger range can make shooting in a wide variety of lighting situations easier.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
The small dynamic range of slide film is one more reason it’s considered difficult to shoot. An excellent time to give it a try would be during the golden hour.
Film Type
35mm film that is in canisters is used by the Canon EOS-1n-rs. It can also be described as 135 film, and it is the most popular type of film.
The only other film format you are going to encounter is 120 or 220 film that is used with medium format cameras}.
Switching the film emulsion you are working with will transform the look of your images. This is an example of the wonderful things about shooting film.
DX Coded Film
Most commercially available 35mm film made these days has DX encoding. This will allow electronically controlled cameras to auto detect and set the ISO when the canister is loaded.
DX-coding will not matter for the Canon EOS-1n-rs because ISO is required to be manually set with the ASA knob.
Canon EOS-1n-rs Resources
Where to Get 35mm Film Developed?
You will find a range of possibilities for where to get film developed. For a more complete explanation of the choices see my article on Where to Develop Film.
WARNING: Film does not get processed on site at big box stores and pharmacies. They send the film off-site to be processed by a 3rd party. Consequently, you will not get your processed negatives back.
- Develop Film at Home
- Use a Local Photography Lab
- Use a Mail Order Photo Lab
- Pharmacy or Big Box Store
Sending your film to a mail-order lab to be developed and scanned is the simplest solution if you are just getting started shooting film. A drawback to this is that it will get expensive if you frequently use film.
Assuming that you’re going through a moderate to high volume of film, there are two activities that you are able to do to cut back on your expenses.
Bulk Loading Film
Buying a roll of 100 feet of film and manually loading in into canisters yourself is among the best options to save money.
Once you’re done, you will have about 18 canisters of 36 frames each. Depending on the film stock you are likely to save 20%-30%.
Keep in mind that you’re only going to be able to get 100’ rolls of black and white film. This is due to the fact black and white film is easier and less expensive to process yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
Any film can be processed by hand. In fact it’s an excellent method to save money so that you can shoot more film with your Canon EOS-1n-rs.
Black & white film is by far the simplest to develop at home. Temperature and time are not as critical to get correct with black & white film as temperatures and time are for color negative or slide film.