Best Film for the Canon EOS 620
The best film to use in your Canon EOS 620 is going to depend on the lens, available light, and if you want to shoot color or black & white.
Buying an ISO 400 35mm or higher speed will allow you to eliminate being weighed down with a tripod and/or flash.
If you need to take photos indoors or anywhere there is low light, make sure you are using a fast lens. Take a look at my article on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS 620 for ideas.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - A terrific choice for a variety of conditions. Using Kodak UltraMax 400 you should have the ability to handhold the EOS 620 in almost all circumstances.
Expect photos to appear slightly warm with pleasant colors.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - An alternative to Kodak that may have greater availability depending on what country you are in.
In comparison to Kodak, Fujifilm tends to be a small amount cooler with an emphasis on greens and blues.
Lomography 800 - If you want a color 35mm film with an ISO of 800, there are not very many choices. For 35mm film stocks geared towards consumers, this is the only choice.
Furthermore, if you have a medium format camera, it is also sold in 120 film format.
Kodak Gold 200 - An outstanding way to get that mid-1980s through 90s feeling. Use an on-camera flash to get the “classic” look the film is known for.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to create the best the film can achieve. This will give you the striking colors everyone loves Gold 200 for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - Among photography enthusiasts online, Portra 400 is by far and away the most popular color negative film. Overexpose Portra 400 by 1 or 2-stops to get the look the film is highly regarded for.
Portra is also offered in ISO 160 and 800 versions. As well as in rolls of 120, 4x5 sheets, and 8x10 sheets.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With reasonable prices and excellent favorable to try in the Canon EOS 620.
The biggest attraction for budget minded photographers and photography students is the very affordable cost. Even if you would not put yourself in that group, it is good to have inexpensive rolls of film readily available for trying out newly delivered used gear.
Kentmere 400 - It is manufactured by the parent company of Ilford, Harmon Technology. This is notable since that makes this the most commonly available 35mm film of the three.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - It’s much easier to purchase in Europe as the film is produced in the Czech Republic by Foma Bohemia.
A very good 35mm film to employ for your first couple of attempts at analog photography or developing film at home. Also a good selection if you happen to be trying out a camera to check that it’s completely functional.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The cheapest store to purchase this film is online directly from Ultrafine.
If you develop color 35mm film yourself, you might have done that with developer sold by them to process your film.
Professional
Kodak Tri-X 400 and Ilford HP-5+ 400 are the two top selling black & white 35mm film emulsions. While they both do have individual appearances, they do have a number of capabilities in common that makes them so popular.
You can still get quality photographs after pushing both emulsions 2-stops. A roll of film can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600, making them very useful.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - The primary differences are that HP5 Plus is more affordable and has less contrast when compared to Tri-X. A lack of contrast can be nice due to the fact contrast can be adjusted when making a print or during digital processing.
The film has subtle grain and still appears good when pushed 2-stops.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film stock has a stronger aesthetic to it. To showcase the traditional grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it needs to be processed in D-76.
Kodak Tri-X 400 clearly has higher levels of contrast. That’s awesome if it is the look you are after because it means substantially less work when during digital processing or printmaking.
Transparency Film
Transparency film, also known as slide film or reversal film, results in a positive image. That means a lightbox or projector can be used to show the slides.
This is distinct from the more prevalent negative film emulsions that create photos that require the colors to be inverted for the image to be viewable.
Slide films have substantially less latitude and dynamic range when compared with negative films and so they are believed to be harder to shoot.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a film known for wonderful skin tones and fine grain. The colors don’t show up oversaturated. The film has a daylight color balance.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a unbelievably sharp daylight balanced film with high levels of saturation and contrast, giving photos a beautiful look. Compared to all the slide films that are available, it has the top resolving power.
You can also get it in an ISO 100 speed.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Offers natural and vivid colors with moderate color saturation and contrast. It is a ultrafine grain film with a daylight color balance.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black and white slide film, described by Fomapan as having elevated contrast, fine grain, and very good resolving power. It’s also mentioned as a replacement for the long discontinued Agfa Scala slide film.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Professional film stock have better latitude, are easier to push, and increased dynamic range, that is why pro-film costs more.
There’s a big difference in business that sell 35mm rolls of film. Consumer film emulsions can more often than not be bought from big-box stores and pharmacies in anemic amounts. Pro film stocks will need to be ordered from a photography store or online retailer.
ISO
Film speed is listed as ISO, which may also be thought of as the film’s light sensitivity.
The less light there’s available to properly expose an image, the bigger the ISO will need to be. This comes at the cost of noticeably increased film grain.
ISO 100 and slower speed films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc) might be frustrating to use handheld with the EOS 620. This is because if you don’t have full sun, the exposure times will be longer than what you can handhold without resulting in motion blur.
To prevent this you are going to need to use a tripod, a fast lens, and/or a flash. Using a fast ISO 800 or ISO 400 film will help make the extra gear unnecessary.
As a quick note, the ISO dial is labeled as ASA on the Canon EOS 620. The shift to labeling ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) happened after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Latitude
Film latitude is the amount of stops a film can be overexposed while keeping adequate quality. Professional film emulsions have a greater latitude to go along with a somewhat higher price.
Reversal film has less latitude compared to negative film. That is one of the reasons it’s believed to be challenging to use.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range represents the difference between the shadows and highlights parts of a photograph that can be captured. Parts of a photograph that fall out of this range will appear as solid black underexposed shadows or totally white overexposed highlights.
A larger dynamic range is preferable because a larger range helps make shooting in various lighting situations easier.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
Reversal film is considered to be hard to use as a consequence of the constrained dynamic range. The best time to try it out is during the golden hour.
Film Type
The Canon EOS 620 uses 35mm film that is sold in canisters. It’s also the most often used type of film and in some instances is described as 135 film.
120 or 220 film, used with medium format cameras, is the only other type of film you are likely 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 photos.
DX Coded Film
Virtually all commercially available 35mm film distributed today has DX encoding on the canister. This enables cameras to auto detect and set the ISO of the film canister loaded.
DX-coding is not going to make a difference for the Canon EOS 620 because ISO has to be manually dialed in with the ASA knob.
Canon EOS 620 Resources
Where to Get 35mm Film Developed?
You will find a range of possibilities for where to have 35mm film processed. For a more detailed discussion of the possibilities read my guide on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Film does not get processed locally at pharmacies and big box stores. They send the film off-site to be developed by a 3rd party. Because of this, 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
The least difficult solution and what I suggest using if you’re just beginning to use film is to ship your film to a lab to be processed and scanned. If you consistently use film, this could be a disadvantage due to the fact that it can get expensive.
Assuming that you are using a medium to high volume of film, there are a couple of activities that you are capable of doing to help reduce your expenses.
Bulk Loading Film
Ordering a bulk roll of 100 feet of film and manually loading in into canisters yourself is certainly one of the most common ways to get a better price.
A 100’ bulk roll of film should load about 18 rolls of film containing 36 frames. Depending on the film stock you are likely to save 20%-30%.
Take into account that you are going to be limited to bulk rolls of black and white film. This is due to the fact black and white film is easier and less expensive to develop at home.
Home Developing and Scanning
Any film can be developed by hand. It’s an intelligence option to save money so you can shoot more film with your Canon EOS 620.
Black and white film is by far the easiest to process yourself. Temperature and time are both not as vital to do correctly with black & white films as they are for slide or color negative.