Best Film for the Canon EOS 750
The best film to use in your Canon EOS 750 should depend on the lighting, lens, and type of film you want to shoot.
To avoid having to haul around a flash or tripod, pick a film that has an ISO of 400 or higher.
If you want to be able to to shoot pictures indoors or anytime there is low light, make sure that you have a fast lens. For lens ideas go to my post on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS 750.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - The film handles a plethora of lighting conditions well and is an excellent pick for a color 35mm film. Using this film you should be able to handhold the EOS 750 in almost all situations.
The photographs will have fantastic skin tones and tend to be on the warm side.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Depending on where you are in the world, this film could be more widely available. It is an excellent alternative to Kodak emulsions.
Compared to Kodak, Fujifilm appears to be a bit cooler with notable blues and greens.
Lomography 800 - There are just a small number of choices if you want a color ISO 800 film. For film stocks geared towards consumers, this is the sole option.
In addition, if you have a medium format camera, Lomography 800 is also offered in 120 film format.
Kodak Gold 200 - An outstanding solution to achieve that mid-1980s through 90s style. Use an on-camera flash to get the “classic” look.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to bring out the best the film can achieve. This will produce the great colors people love Kodak Gold for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - Among the photography enthusiasts online, Portra 400 is the most popular color negative 35mm film. Overexpose Portra 400 by 1 or 2-stops to get the appearance the film is highly regarded for.
There’s also ISO 160 and 800 emulsions of Kodak Portra. It is also offered in rolls of 120 film, 4x5 sheets, and 8x10 sheets.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With affordable costs and more than acceptable favorable for use in the Canon EOS 750.
The largest attraction for budget minded photographers and photography students is the very affordable price. Even if you would not put yourself in that group, it is great to have relatively cheap rolls of film readily available for trying out newly obtained camera gear.
Kentmere 400 - It’s produced by the parent company of Ilford, Harmon Technology. This is great since that makes this the most widely available 35mm film of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Is likely to be easier to obtain in Europe as the film is made in the Czech Republic by Foma Bohemia.
A fine film emulsion to use for your initial couple of attempts at developing film at home or analog photography. Also a good choice if you happen to be testing out a camera to make sure that it is totally functional.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - You can get the lowest price on this film by purchasing it straight from Ultrafine.
They have developer kits for film, so if you develop film at home you might have already done business with them.
Professional
Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400 are the two most popular black & white 35mm film stocks. While they both do have different looks, they do have numerous qualities that are similar that help makes them so well received.
You can enjoy good quality photographs after pushing both emulsions 2-stops. This makes the film versatile as a roll can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - Between the two films, HP5 Plus is cheaper and has less contrast. Minimal contrast can be a benefit because contrast can be added when making a darkroom print or during digital processing.
The film still looks good when pushed 2-stops. It is also noted for having subtle grain.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film features a stronger aesthetic. To achieve the old-school grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it will need to be developed in D-76.
Kodak Tri-X unquestionably has considerably more contrast. That is good if it’s the look and feel you want to have because it means a great deal less work when making a darkroom print or editing digitially.
Slide Film
Film stocks that create a positive image can be called reversal, transparency, or slide film. This means the photos can be showcased with a light box or projector.
This is distinct from the more commonly available negative film emulsions that result in pictures that need the colors to be inverted for the image to be viewable.
Slide films are believed to be difficult to shoot due to the fact slide film has less latitude and dynamic range when compared with negative film.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - The film is known for fine grain and excellent skin tones. There’s not any hypersaturation of colors. The film has a daylight color balance.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - Produces signature looking photos that have high levels of contrast and saturation. It is razor-sharp daylight color balanced film. Velvia has the top resolving power of any available transparency film.
You can also get it in an ISO 100 emulsion.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Delivers natural and vibrant colors with medium contrast and color saturation. It’s a daylight color balanced film with ultrafine grain.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white reversal film, claimed by Fomapan as having high resolving power, very fine grain, and elevated levels of contrast. It is also billed as a replacement for the discontinued Agfa Scala.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Pro film stock are easier to push, have greater latitude, and dynamic range, this is why pro-film costs more.
There is a disparity in supply. Consumer film stocks can more often than not be bought in big-box stores and pharmacies in limited quantities. Professional film has to be bought from a camera store or online.
ISO
The ISO refers to the film speed, that can also be regarded as the film’s sensitivity to light.
The higher the film’s ISO, the less light will be required to expose a picture. In addition, be prepared for larger sized film grain.
ISO 100 and slower speed films (ISO 50, ISO 25, etc) might be tricky to use handheld in the EOS 750. The can take longer are going to be longer than what you can handhold without causing motion blur unless you’re shooting in full sun.
A flash, tripod, and/or fast lens are going to assist you with longer shutter speeds. Using a high speed ISO 800 or ISO 400 film will likely make the extra accessories not needed.
The dial to select film speed is labeled as ASA on the Canon EOS 750. The change to using ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) came after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Latitude
Film latitude is the range of stops a film can be overexposed while still retaining acceptable images. Professional films have a larger latitude paired with a somewhat higher cost.
Transparency film has less latitude when compared to negative film. That is a reason it is believed to be more difficult to work with.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range represents the range between the darkest and brightest details of a photo that can be captured. Sections of a photo that fall out of this range will be rendered as white overexposed highlights or totally black underexposed shadows.
A larger dynamic range is ideal because a larger range tends to make working in varied lighting situations easier.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
The small dynamic range of slide film is a second reason why it is considered difficult to shoot. A fantastic time to give it a try would be during the golden hour.
Film Type
The Canon EOS 750 takes 35mm film that is in canisters. The film can also be called 135 film, and it is the best-selling type of film.
The only other film format you are going to encounter is 120 or 220 film that is used with medium format cameras}.
One of the wonderful things about film is that you can change the film stock you use and get a totally different look to your shots.
DX Coded Film
Just about all commercially available 35mm film manufactured these days has a DX code. This will allow electronically controlled cameras to auto detect and set the ISO when the film is put in the camera.
DX-coding does not change anything for the Canon EOS 750 because ISO has to be manually selected with the ASA knob.
Canon EOS 750 Resources
Where to Get 35mm Film Developed?
You will find a handful of possible choices for where to have 35mm film processed. For a more detailed explanation of the possibilities take a look at my guide on Where to Develop Film.
WARNING: Pharmacies and big box stores no longer process film at the store. They mail film off to be processed by a third party. As a consequence, you won’t be given your negatives back.
- Develop Film at Home
- Use a Local Photography Lab
- Use a Mail Order Photo Lab
- Pharmacy or Big Box Store
Sending your film to a mail-order photo lab to be processed and scanned is the least difficult option if you’re just beginning to shoot film. A downside to this is that it can become pricey if you regularly use film.
There are two actions that you are able to do to greatly reduce the costs required to shoot film, as long as you are going through a medium to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
Buying a bulk roll of 100 feet of film and loading in into canisters by hand is among the common methods to reduce costs.
A 100’ roll of film should fill around 18 rolls of film containing 36 frames. Based on the film you will probably save 20%-30%.
Keep in mind that you’re only going to be able to get 100’ rolls of black and white film. This is because black and white film is a lot easier and more affordable to process at home.
Home Developing and Scanning
It’s possible to develop and digitize any film yourself. In fact it is a great method to lower your costs so you can use more film with your Canon EOS 750.
Black and white film is significantly easier to develop yourself. Temperature and time are both not as important to do correctly with black and white film as they are for transparency or color negative.