Best Film for the Canon EOS-1n
The best film to use in your Canon EOS-1n should be based on your lens, lighting conditions, and if you want to use color or black & white.
Buying an ISO 400 film or faster will enable you to skip needing to carry around a flash or tripod.
If you need to capture photos in low light, such as indoors, ensure that you are using a fast lens. For lens lens ideas have a look at my short article on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS-1n.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - The film can be used in a variety of lighting conditions and is a terrific selection for a color film. Using this film you should have the ability to handhold the EOS-1n in most circumstances.
Expect photos to appear slightly warm with beautiful skin tones.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Based on your location, this film may have greater availability. It is a fantastic alternative to Kodak emulsions.
Fujifilm photos appear to have cooler colors with stronger blues and greens, when compared to Kodak.
Lomography 800 - If you want an ISO 800 color 35mm film, there are only a small number of options. This is literally the only film stock focused on consumers.
Additionally, if you have a medium format camera, it’s also for sale in 120 film format.
Kodak Gold 200 - A surefire solution to obtain that mid-1980s through 90s rendering. Use an on-camera flash to get the “authentic” look.
To really bring the best look out of the film, you’ll want to over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops. This will provide the beautiful colors everyone loves the film for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - By far the most popular color negative film among film enthusiasts online. Overexpose the film by 1 or 2-stops to get the look and feel the film is known for.
Portra is also available for purchase in ISO 160 and ISO 800 versions. 8x10 sheets, 4x5 sheets, and rolls of 120 are also manufactured.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With low costs and very good very popular to try in the Canon EOS-1n.
The main appeal for photography students and budget minded photographers is the reasonable price. Even if you do not put yourself in those groups, it’s great to have relatively cheap rolls of film on hand for trying out recently purchased used cameras.
Kentmere 400 - Made by Harmon Technology, which is also the parent company of Ilford. This is excellent since that makes this the most commonly sold film of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - It is easier to purchase in Europe as the film is made out of the Czech Republic by Foma Bohemia.
An appropriate film stock to use for your initial couple of attempts at film photography or home developing. Also a good option if you’re testing out a camera to check that it’s fully operational.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The cheapest store to get this film is straight from Ultrafine.
If you develop color 35mm film at home, you may have done that with developer produced by them.
Professional
Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400 are the 2 most popular black & white 35mm film stocks. They do have quite a few characteristics that are equivalent that make them so well liked, while preserving different rendering.
Both film emulsions can be pushed 2 stops and deliver solid images. This makes the film versatile as a roll can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - The major differences are that HP5 Plus is less expensive and has less contrast when compared to Tri-X. Lower levels of contrast can be advantageous because of the fact contrast can be increased when making a darkroom print or editing digitally.
The film stock still appears very good when pushed 2-stops. It is also known for having subtle grain.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film stock possesses a stronger rendering to it. To showcase the old-school grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it needs to be developed in D-76.
You will unquestionably see considerably more contrast with Kodak Tri-X. That’s fantastic if it’s the look and feel you are looking for because it results in a great deal less work when during digital processing or making a print in the darkroom.
Slide Film
Film stocks that make a positive image can be called transparency, slide, or reversal film. That means a projector or lightbox can be used to display the slides.
Colors don’t need to be inverted to be viewed, contrary to the more common negative film emulsions.
Slide films have a lot less dynamic range and latitude when compared to negative film and so they are considered harder to use.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - The film is known for fine grain and exquisite skin tones. The colors will not show up oversaturated. The film has been color balanced for daylight.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - Offers signature looking photos that have increased levels of saturation and contrast. It is exceptionally sharp with a daylight color balance. Matched against all the slide films available, it has the best resolving power.
It is also available in an ISO 100 version.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Creates natural and vivid colors with medium contrast and color saturation. It has ultrafine grain with a daylight color balance.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black and white slide film, noted by Fomapan as having very good resolving power, elevated contrast, and very fine grain. It is also billed as a substitute for the discontinued Agfa Scala film emulsion.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Professional film stock have increased latitude, are easier to push, and increased dynamic range, which is the reason they will cost more.
There might be a significant difference in business that sell rolls of film. Consumer film stocks can often be bought from pharmacies and big-box stores in anemic quantities. Professional film emulsions will need to be purchased from a online retailer or specialized camera store.
ISO
The ISO represents the speed of the film, which can also be regarded as the film’s light sensitivity.
The higher the film’s ISO, the less light will be required to get a photo. In addition, expect to see bigger film grain.
ISO 100 and slower speed films (ISO 50, ISO 25, etc) can be troublesome to shoot handheld with the EOS-1n. This is because without full sun, the exposure times can take longer than what you’re able to handhold without resulting in motion blur.
A tripod, a fast lens, and/or a flash will assist you with longer exposure times. The extra accessories might not be needed if you get a higher speed ISO 800 or ISO 400 film.
As a quick note, the ISO knob is listed as ASA on the Canon EOS-1n. The transition to using ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) came after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Latitude
Film latitude is the amount of stops film can be overexposed while keeping satisfactory photographs. Professional film stocks have a larger latitude along with a slightly increased price.
Reversal film has less latitude than negative film. That is one of the reasons it is regarded as more challenging to shoot.
Dynamic Range
The range between the highlights and shadows parts of a picture is described as dynamic range. Sections of a photograph that are not in this range will appear as solid black underexposed shadows or white overexposed highlights.
When working in a wide variety or quickly shifting lighting situations, films with a bigger dynamic range are a better choice.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
The small dynamic range of transparency film is a second reason why it is regarded as tricky to shoot. An extremely good time to try it would be during the golden hour.
Film Type
The Canon EOS-1n uses 35mm film that is in metal canisters. It is also the best-selling film format and occasionally called 135 film.
The only other type of film you are going to encounter is 120 or 220 film that is used with medium format cameras}.
One of the terrific things about film is that you can change the film you work with and get a totally different look to your photos.
DX Coded Film
Just about all available 35mm film for sale currently has a DX code. This lets cameras to auto detect and set the ISO of the film loaded into the camera.
The ISO (ASA) on the Canon EOS-1n has to be dialed in manually. Which means DX-coding is not going to make a difference.
Canon EOS-1n Resources
Where to Get 35mm Film Developed?
You will find several choices for where to have 35mm film processed. For a more comprehensive discussion of the choices have a look at my article on Where to Develop Film.
WARNING: Film does not get processed locally at pharmacies and big box stores. They send film off-site to be developed by a third party. Consequently, you won’t get your negatives back.
- Develop Film at Home
- Use a Local Photography Lab
- Use a Mail Order Photo Lab
- Pharmacy or Big Box Store
Sending film to a mail-order lab to be developed and scanned is the simplest choice if you are new to shooting film. If you consistently shoot film, this could be a downside due to the fact that it can get really expensive.
There are two things that you are able to do to help reduce the expenses involved in shooting film, given that you are using a moderate to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
Ordering a roll of 100’ of film and loading in into canisters yourself is one of the most well known ways to cut costs.
A 100’ roll of film will fill up roughly 18 canisters of film with 36 exposures. You should expect to save 20-30% based on your selection.
Be aware that you are going to be limited to rolls of black and white film. This is due to the fact black and white film is quite a bit easier and cheaper to develop yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
It’s simple to develop and digitize any film at home. It is a smart way to save money so that you can use more film with your Canon EOS-1n.
Black and white film is significantly less difficult to develop. Temperature and time are not as crucial to do correctly with black and white film as they are for color negative or transparency film.