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 lens, lighting conditions, and if you want to shoot color or black & white.
To avoid having to lug around a flash or tripod, go with a film that has an ISO of 400 or higher.
If you want to be able to to capture photographs inside or anytime there is low light, make sure you have a fast lens. For lens recommendations read my post on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS-1n-rs.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - A good option for a diverse range of conditions. Using Kodak UltraMax 400 you should have the ability to handhold the EOS-1n-rs in the majority of scenarios.
The photographs will have extremely good skin tones and tend to be on the warm side.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Depending on your location, this film can be more widely available. It’s a great alternative to Kodak film.
Compared to Kodak, Fuji appears to be a bit cooler with an emphasis on blues and greens.
Lomography 800 - There are a small number of possibilities if you want an ISO 800 speed color 35mm film. For film focused on consumers, Lomography 800 is the single option.
The emulsion is for sale in the 120 film format, to be used with medium format cameras.
Kodak Gold 200 - A surefire way to achieve that mid-80s through 90s feeling. Use an on-camera flash to get the “authentic” look.
To really bring the best look out of this film, over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops. This will help you achieve the appealing colors people love Kodak Gold 200 for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - Among the photography enthusiasts online, Portra 400 is by far the top color negative 35mm film. Overexpose it by 1 or 2-stops to get the color the film is known for.
Kodak Portra is also for sale in ISO 160 and ISO 800 versions. 8x10 sheets, 4x5 sheets, and rolls of 120 film are also available to purchase.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With affordable prices and excellent very popular to use in the Canon EOS-1n-rs.
The major attraction for photography students and budget minded photographers is the reasonable cost. Even if you would not put yourself in that group, it is nice to have low cost rolls of film around for testing newly obtained used cameras.
Kentmere 400 - Manufactured by Harmon Technology, which is also the owner of Ilford. This is great due to the fact that allows this to be the most commonly sold film out of the three.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - It’s much easier to obtain in Europe as the film is manufactured by Foma Bohemia out of the Czech Republic.
A fine film to try for your initial few attempts at home developing or analog photography. Also a good choice if you happen to be testing out a camera to be sure that it’s fully operational.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The best store to purchase this film is online directly from Ultrafine.
If you develop color film at home, you might have used chemicals sold by them to process your film.
Professional
The two most commonly used black and white films are Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400. They possess a lot of traits in common that make them so well liked, while preserving individual rendering.
Both film stocks can be pushed 2 stops and while still supplying quality images. A 35mm roll can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600, making them quite flexible.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - Between the two film stocks, HP5 Plus has lower levels of contrast and is cheaper. A lack of contrast can be advantageous because of the fact contrast can be changed when making a print or through digital processing.
The film has subdued grain and still appears good when pushed 2-stops.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film has a stronger rendering. To create the traditional grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it should be processed in D-76.
You’re going to clearly notice far more contrast with this film. That is awesome if it’s the look and feel you would prefer because it means considerably less work when making a print in the darkroom or through digital post processing.
Slide Film
Films that create a positive image are often referred to as transparency, slide, or reversal film. This allows the photographs to be showcased with a projector or light box.
This is unique from the more often used negative film emulsions that make pictures that need the colors to be inverted in order to be viewed.
Slide films are perceived as very hard to work with because slide film has much less latitude and dynamic range when compared with negative film.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. The colors will not show up oversaturated. Ektachrome is daylight balanced.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - Delivers distinctive looking pictures that have significantly increased levels of contrast and saturation. It is razor-sharp and color balanced for daylight. It has the top resolving power of any increased increased.
There is another emulsion that is ISO 100.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Offers natural and vibrant colors with moderate contrast and color saturation. It has a daylight color balance and ultra fine grain.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white slide film, claimed by Fomapan as having elevated levels of contrast, high resolving power, and very fine grain. It is also regarded as a substitute for the discontinued Agfa Scala slide film.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Professional films cost more due to the fact that they are easier to push, have improved latitude, and dynamic range.
There is a big difference in availability. Consumer films can frequently still be seen in big-box stores and pharmacies in meager quantities. Pro film stocks needs to be bought from a photography store or online retailer.
ISO
A film’s sensitivity to light is represented by the ISO.
The less light available to expose an image, the higher the film’s ISO will be needed. This comes at the tradeoff of more noticeable film grain.
ISO 100 and slower speed films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc) might be problematic to shoot handheld in the EOS-1n-rs. This is due to the fact that if you don’t have full sun, the shutter speeds will take more time than what you’re able to handhold without causing motion blur.
To avoid motion blur you’ll need to use a tripod, a fast lens, and/or a flash. Using a fast ISO 800 or ISO 400 film is likely to make the extra accessories not needed.
The ISO knob is marked as ASA on the Canon EOS-1n-rs. The transition to using ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) came after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Film Latitude
Film latitude is the amount of stops a film can be overexposed while maintaining acceptable quality. Professional film stocks have a greater latitude along with a slightly higher cost.
Negative film has a larger amount of latitude when compared to transparency film. That is a reason why it’s viewed as challenging to work with.
Dynamic Range
The range between the shadows and highlights details of a picture is referred to as dynamic range. Parts of a photo that fall out of this range will be seen as solid white overexposed highlights or completely black underexposed shadows.
When working in a wide variety or quickly shifting lighting conditions, films with a larger dynamic range is preferable.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
Reversal film is considered difficult to shoot due to the small dynamic range. Golden hour is the prime time to use slide.
Film Type
35mm film that comes in metal canisters is used by the Canon EOS-1n-rs. 35mm film can also be referred to as 135 film, and it is the most widely used type of film.
The only other film format you are likely to encounter is 120 or 220 film that is used by medium format cameras}.
One of the fantastic properties of film is that you can switch the film emulsion you work with and get a completely different look to your photos.
DX Coded Film
Virtually all available 35mm film for sale at this point has a DX code. This lets cameras to auto detect and set the ISO of the film canister loaded into the camera.
The ISO (ASA) on the Canon EOS-1n-rs must be manually set. Which means DX-coding will not do anything.
Canon EOS-1n-rs Resources
Where to Get Film Developed?
You will find just a few possibilities for where to get 35mm film processed. For a more detailed discussion of the possibilities go to my guide on Where to Develop Film.
WARNING: Big box stores and pharmacies do not develop film locally. They send the film away to be processed by a separate company. As a consequence, you won’t be given your processed negatives back.
- Develop Film at Home
- Use a Local Photography Lab
- Use a Mail Order Photo Lab
- Pharmacy or Big Box Store
The most convenient method and the method I suggest doing if you’re just starting to use film is to send off your film to a photo lab to be developed and scanned. If you consistently shoot film, this can be a drawback since it can get very expensive.
There are a couple of activities that can be done to greatly reduce the costs required to use film, on condition that you are shooting a medium to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
Considered one of the common methods to get a better price on film is to buy a roll of 100’ of film and load canisters yourself.
Once you have finished, you will end up having approximately 18 rolls of 36 exposures. Count on savings of 20-30% depending on the film.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you’re going to be limited to 100’ rolls of black and white film. This is because black & white film is easier and cheaper to develop yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
It is easy to develop and digitize film at home. In fact it is a good method to reduce costs so that you can use more film with your Canon EOS-1n-rs.
Black and white film is much less difficult to develop yourself. Temperature and development times are not as important to get correct with black and white films as time and temperatures are for slide or color negative.