Best Film for the Canon EOS 650
The best film to use in the Canon EOS 650 will have to be based on the lighting conditions, your lens, and type of film you want to shoot.
To eliminate having to lug around a flash and/or tripod, purchase a film that has an ISO of 400 or faster.
Ensure you have a fast lens if you want to capture pictures in low light, conditions that are commonly found indoors. For lens recommendations check out my short article on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS 650.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - A great selection for a wide range of lighting conditions. The film is fast enough so that you should be able to handhold the EOS 650 in lots of situations.
Expect photographs to appear a bit warm with wonderful colors.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Another option that might have greater availability based on where you are in the world.
In comparison to to Kodak, Fujifilm appears to be a little bit cooler with notable greens and blues.
Lomography 800 - If you want a color film with an ISO of 800, there are not many possible choices. For 35mm film stocks focused on consumers, this is the sole choice.
In addition, if you have a medium format camera, it’s also offered in 120 film format.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film emulsion that debuted in the mid-1980s. The film produces the look and feel of home snapshots from the 80s and 1990s. For the classic experience take advantage of a flash.
To bring the best look out of this film, over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops. This will help you achieve the appealing colors everyone loves Kodak Gold 200 for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - By far the most popular color negative film among film enthusiasts online. Overexpose it by 1 or 2-stops to get the overall look the film is known for.
Plus, ISO 800 and 160 versions of Kodak Portra. 8x10 sheets, 4x5 sheets, and rolls of 120 film are also available.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With reasonable costs and excellent quite popular to use in the Canon EOS 650.
The major appeal for photography students and budget minded photographers is the very low cost. Even if you would not put yourself in that group, it is nice to have economical rolls of film available for evaluating recently acquired used gear.
Kentmere 400 - It is produced by the parent company of Ilford, Harmon Technology. This is great considering that allows this to be the most broadly sold film out of the three.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - It’s much easier to purchase in Europe as the film is manufactured by Foma Bohemia out of the Czech Republic.
An appropriate film emulsion to work with for your initial couple of attempts at home developing or film photography. Also a good option if you are attempting to try out a camera to check that it’s functioning properly.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - You can get the best price on this film by ordering it from Ultrafine.
They have chemical developer kits for 35mm color film, so if you develop film at home you could have already done business with them.
Professional
The two most widely used black and white film stocks are Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400. They have a large amount of attributes that are comparable that help make them so well liked, while keeping unique appearances.
Both film stocks can be pushed 1 or 2 stops and while still providing solid images. A roll can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600, making them remarkably useful.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - Between the two film emulsions, HP5 Plus is more affordable and has less contrast. Minimal contrast can be an advantage because contrast can be changed when making a print or through digital post processing.
The film still appears outstanding when pushed 2-stops. It is also recognized for having subdued grain.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film emulsion has got a more distinctive look to it. To bring out the old-school grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it should be developed in D-76.
You are going to unquestionably see greater contrast with Tri-X 400. That is excellent if it’s the overall look you would you like because it means less work when making a print or during digital processing.
Reversal Film
Film emulsions that create a positive image can be called reversal, transparency, or slide film. This allows the pictures to be shown with a light box or projector.
This is unique from the more often used negative film stocks that result in pictures that require inverting the colors so that they can be viewed.
Slide films are believed to be hard to shoot due to the fact slide film has much less latitude and dynamic range when compared to negative film.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. The colors do not look oversaturated. It’s daylight color balanced.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a incredibly sharp daylight balanced film with high levels of saturation and contrast, giving shots a beautiful rendering. Velvia has the best resolving power of any available reversal film stock.
You can also get it in an ISO 100 version.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Produces vivid and natural colors with medium contrast and color saturation. It has a daylight color balance and ultra fine grain.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white reversal film, reported by Fomapan as having excellent resolving power, increased levels of contrast, and fine grain. It’s also regarded as a substitute for the long discontinued Agfa Scala reversal film.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Pro film stocks cost more since they have a greater dynamic range, are easier to push, and increased latitude.
You should be prepared for a significant difference in availability. Consumer film stocks can commonly still be obtained from pharmacies and big-box stores in small amounts. Professional film emulsions needs to be purchased from a online or specialized camera store.
ISO
A film’s sensitivity to light is represented by the ISO.
The less light available to properly expose an image, the higher the ISO will need to be. This comes at the tradeoff of increased film grain.
It may be tough to handhold the EOS 650 with ISO 100 or slower speed films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc). This is due to the fact that in the absence of full sun, the exposure times will take longer than what you are able to handhold without causing motion blur.
To stop motion blur you will need to use a flash, fast lens, and/or tripod. The additional gear may not be needed if you pick a faster ISO 800 or ISO 400 film.
As a quick note, the dial to select film speed is marked as ASA on the Canon EOS 650. The shift to using ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) happened after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Latitude
Film latitude is the number of stops a film can be overexposed while maintaining satisfactory quality. Professional film emulsions have a larger latitude paired with a slightly increased cost.
Reversal film has less latitude compared to negative film. That is a reason it’s thought of difficult to work with.
Dynamic Range
The range between the darkest and brightest parts of an image is described as dynamic range. Sections of a picture that do not fit in this range will be rendered as totally white overexposed highlights or completely black underexposed shadows.
A bigger dynamic range is preferable since a larger range can make working in varied lighting conditions easier.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
Reversal film is thought to be challenging to use due to the limited dynamic range. A very good time to give it a try would be during the golden hour.
Film Type
35mm film that is in metal canisters is used by the Canon EOS 650. It is also the most frequently used type of film and sometimes referred to as 135 film.
The only other type of film you are probably going to come across is 120 or 220 film that is used in medium format cameras}.
One of the fantastic properties of film is that you can swap the film stock you work with and get a fresh look to your images.
DX Coded Film
All available 35mm film made today has DX encoding on the canister. This enables cameras to detect and set the ISO when the film is loaded.
DX-coding is not going to change anything for the Canon EOS 650 because ISO is required to be manually dialed in with the ASA knob.
Canon EOS 650 Resources
Where to Get Film Developed?
You will find a range of possibilities for where to have 35mm film developed. For a more complete explanation of the choices take a look at my article on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Big box stores and pharmacies have stopped developing film locally. They ship the film off to be developed by a separate company. As a consequence, 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
Shipping your film to a mail-order lab to be developed and scanned is the least complicated choice if you are just beginning to use film. A disadvantage to this is that it ends up being really expensive if you consistently use film.
So long as you’re using a moderate to high volume of film, there are two activities that you can do to help reduce your expenses.
Bulk Loading Film
Buying a roll of 100 feet of film and manually loading in into canisters by hand is one of the most popular options to reduce costs.
A 100’ bulk roll will fill up approximately 18 rolls of film with 36 exposures. Look forward to savings of 20-30% based on the film.
Keep in mind that you are going to be limited to 100 foot rolls of black and white film. This is in part because black & white film is easier and more cost-effective to process yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
It is possible to process and digitize any film at home. It’s an intelligence way to lower your costs so that you can shoot more film with your Canon EOS 650.
Black & white film is by far the simplest to develop. Temperature and development times are both not as critical to do correctly with black & white films as they are for color negative or transparency film.