Best Film for the Canon EOS 620
The best film to use in your Canon EOS 620 will have to be based on your lens, lighting conditions, and if you want to shoot color or black & white.
To avoid having to lug around a flash or tripod, choose a 35mm film that has an ISO of 400 or higher.
Ensure you have a fast lens if you want to take photos in low light, conditions that are frequently found indoors. For lens recommendations see my guide on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS 620.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - The film handles a multitude of lighting conditions well and is a fantastic pick for a color 35mm film. Using Kodak UltraMax 400 you should be able to handhold the EOS 620 in almost all situations.
Expect photos to appear slightly warm with beautiful colors.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Based on your location, this film could have greater availability. It’s a great alternative to Kodak emulsions.
Fujifilm photographs tend to have cooler colors with an emphasis on blues and greens, when compared to Kodak.
Lomography 800 - You’re limited to just a small number of offerings if you want an ISO 800 speed color 35mm film. For film stocks targeted towards consumers, Lomography 800 is the only choice.
Additionally, if you have a medium format camera, it is also sold in 120 film format.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film that was launched in the mid-1980s. Gold 200 offers the look and feel of snapshots from the 1980s and 1990s. For the classic shooting experience have a flash.
To bring the ideal look out of the film, make sure to over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops. This will provide you with the beautiful colors people love Kodak Gold for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - By far the most popular color negative film among film shooting enthusiasts online. Overexpose it by 1 or 2-stops to get the style the film is known for.
Kodak Portra is also offered 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 low costs and more than acceptable favorable for use in the Canon EOS 620.
The major attraction for budget minded photographers and photography students is the competitive cost. Even if you do not put yourself in that group, it is good to have low cost rolls of film on hand for evaluating newly acquired used gear.
Kentmere 400 - Manufactured by Harmon Technology, which is the owner of Ilford. This is notable because that makes this the most widely sold B&W film of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - It is easier to acquire in Europe as the film is made inside of the Czech Republic by Foma Bohemia.
A decent film emulsion to work with for your first few attempts at home developing or film photography. Also a good option if you happen to be attempting to check out a camera to check that it is totally operational.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The cheapest place to get this film is directly from Ultrafine.
If you process film at home, you might have done that with chemicals produced by them to develop your film.
Professional
Kodak Tri-X 400 and Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 are the two most popular black & white film stocks. While they both do have different looks, they have many capabilities in common that help makes them so well received.
You can still get professional photographs after pushing both film stocks 2-stops. A roll can be used at ISO 400, 800, or 1600, making them quite versatile.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - The fundamental differences are that HP5 Plus is less expensive and has lower levels of contrast when compared to Tri-X. Low amounts of contrast can be advantageous because contrast can be increased when making a darkroom print or through digital processing.
The film stock has subtle grain and still appears good when pushed 2-stops.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film features a stronger aesthetic to it. To create the classic grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it will need to be processed in D-76.
You are going to clearly see a higher level of contrast with Tri-X. That’s notable if it is the style you are looking for because it results in not as much work when through digital post processing or making a print in the darkroom.
Transparency Film
Slide film, also known as reversal film or transparency film, gives you a positive picture. That means a projector or lightbox can be used to display the pictures.
Colors don’t need to be inverted to be viewable, in contrast to the more widespread negative film emulsions.
Slide films have much less latitude and dynamic range when compared to negative film and so they are viewed as more difficult to shoot.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. There is no hypersaturation of colors. The film is daylight balanced.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a sharp color balanced for daylight slide film with lots of saturation and contrast, giving shots a signature appearance. It has the greatest resolving power of any increased elevated.
An ISO 100 version is also offered.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Offers realistic and vivid colors with medium contrast and color saturation. It’s a film balanced for daylight with ultrafine grain.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white transparency film, marketed by Fomapan as having fine grain, elevated contrast, and very good resolving power. It’s also billed as a replacement for the long discontinued Agfa Scala film emulsion.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Professional films cost more because they have a greater dynamic range, are easier to push, and expanded latitude.
There’s a big difference in where film can be purchased. Consumer film stocks can more often than not still be purchased from pharmacies and big-box stores in anemic quantities. Pro film stocks needs to be purchased from a online or specialized photography store.
ISO
The speed of the film is shown as ISO, which can also be thought of as the film’s sensitivity to light.
The higher the ISO of the film, the less light is needed to get a photograph. Also, be prepared for larger sized film grain.
It is often a challenge to handhold the EOS 620 with ISO 100 or slower speed films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc). The can be longer might be longer than what you’re able to handhold without causing motion blur unless you’re working in full sun.
A fast lens, tripod, and/or flash are going to assist you with longer exposure times. The additional accessories might not be needed if you choose to use a faster ISO 800 or ISO 400 film.
As a quick note, the ISO knob is marked as ASA on the Canon EOS 620. The change to labeling ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) happened after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Film Latitude
Latitude is the number of stops a film can be overexposed while still keeping acceptable results. Pro films have a larger latitude to go along with a slightly higher price.
Negative film has a greater amount of latitude when compared to transparency film. That is a reason it is regarded as difficult to use.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range is the range between the highlights and shadows details of an image that can be captured. Sections of a picture that fall out of this range will be rendered as solid white overexposed highlights or solid black underexposed shadows.
When working in a variety or quickly changing lighting conditions, films with a bigger dynamic range are a much 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 one more reason it’s viewed as hard to shoot. The best time to try it out is during the golden hour.
Film Type
35mm film that is sold in metal canisters is used by the Canon EOS 620. It is also the most often used film format and is on occasion referred to as 135 film.
120 or 220 film, used in medium format cameras, is the only other film format you are likely to see}.
Changing the film you are working with will change the look of your photos. This is an example of the wonderful things about shooting film.
DX Coded Film
All new 35mm film offered currently has DX encoding on the canister. This lets cameras to automatically detect and set the ISO when the film is loaded.
DX-coding will not make a difference for the Canon EOS 620 because ISO has to be set manually.
Canon EOS 620 Resources
Where to Get 35mm Film Developed?
You will find a handful of possible choices for where to process 35mm film. For a more comprehensive explanation of the possible choices have a look at my guide on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Big box stores and pharmacies don’t process film at the store. They ship the film away to be processed by a separate company. Consequently, you won’t be given your developed negatives back.
- Develop Film at Home
- Use a Local Photography Lab
- Use a Mail Order Photo Lab
- Pharmacy or Big Box Store
The most straightforward solution and what I would suggest doing if you’re just starting to shoot film is to mail your film to a photo lab to be developed and scanned. If you frequently shoot film, this can be a drawback since it can get really expensive.
There are a few things that you are able to do to lower the costs involved in using film, given that you are using a moderate to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
Purchasing a roll of 100 feet of film and manually loading in into canisters yourself is certainly one of the most widely used methods to get a better price.
A 100’ roll can load approximately 18 canisters of film containing 36 exposures each. Expect savings of 20-30% depending on the film you opt for.
Be aware that you’re only going to find 100’ rolls of black and white film. This is due to black & white film is quite a bit easier and cheaper to develop yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
All film can be processed at home. It’s a smart option to lower your costs so you can use more film with your Canon EOS 620.
Black and white film is significantly simpler to process. Chemical temperature and time are both not as vital to do correctly with black & white film as time and temperatures are for transparency or color negative.