Best Film for the Canon EOS ELAN 7
The best film to use in the Canon EOS ELAN 7 is going to depend on the lighting conditions, lens, and type of film you want to shoot.
Working with an ISO 400 film or faster will allow you to avoid having to lug around a tripod or flash.
Make sure that you have a fast lens if you want to take photos in low light, conditions that are often found indoors. For lens lens ideas check out my short article on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS ELAN 7.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - A terrific option for a plethora of lighting conditions. The film is fast enough so that you should be able to handhold the EOS ELAN 7 in just about all scenarios.
The images will have very good colors and is on the warm side.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Depending on where you are in the world, this film can be more widely available. It is a great alternative to Kodak emulsions.
When compared to Kodak, Fuji appears to be a bit cooler with an emphasis on greens and blues.
Lomography 800 - If you want an ISO 800 color 35mm film, there are not very many offerings. For 35mm film emulsions targeted towards consumers, this is the single choice.
The film can also be purchased in the 120 film format, for use with medium format cameras.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film stock that debuted in the mid-1980s. Gold 200 provides the look and feel of snapshots from the 1980s and 1990s. Use an on-camera flash to get the “authentic” look.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to produce the best look the film can achieve. This will provide the fantastic colors everyone loves 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 overall look the film is highly regarded for.
Additionally, ISO 800 and 160 emulsions of Kodak Portra. 8x10 sheets, 4x5 sheets, and rolls of 120 film are also easily found.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With low prices and good favorable to use in the Canon EOS ELAN 7.
The major draw for photography students and budget minded photographers is the competitive price. Even if you would not put yourself in that group, it is nice to have relatively cheap rolls of 35 film around for trying out recently obtained used cameras.
Kentmere 400 - Made by Harmon Technology, which is also the parent company of Ilford. This is great considering that makes this the most commonly sold B&W film of the three.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Can be less difficult to get in Europe as the film is manufactured out of the Czech Republic by Foma Bohemia.
A fine film to use for your first few attempts at home developing or analog photography. Also a good selection if you happen to be trying out a camera to make sure that it’s fully functional.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - You can get the best price by ordering it directly from Ultrafine.
They make chemical developer kits for 35mm color film, so if you process film at home you may have already done business with them.
Professional
Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400 are the two best black and white 35mm film stocks. While they both possess different styles, they have quite a few traits that are equivalent that help makes them so well received.
Both film emulsions can be pushed 2 stops and still result in solid results. A 35mm roll can be used at ISO 400, 800, or 1600, making them quite versatile.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - Between the two film emulsions, HP5 Plus is cheaper and has lower levels of contrast. Lower levels of contrast can be advantageous due to the fact contrast can be adjusted when making a darkroom print or through digital processing.
The film emulsion has subdued grain and still looks great when pushed 2-stops.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film has got a more distinctive aesthetic to it. To create the traditional grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it should be developed in D-76.
You’re going to certainly notice higher levels of contrast with this film emulsion. That is excellent if that is the style you will want because it means less work when making a darkroom print or editing digitially.
Slide Film
Slide film, also known as reversal film or transparency film, provides a positive picture. This means the photographs can be exhibited with a light box or projector.
This is different from the more prevalent negative films that create images that need the colors to be inverted for the image to be viewable.
Slide films have a smaller amount of dynamic range and latitude when compared to negative films and so they are viewed as tougher to shoot.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - The film is known for exquisite skin tones and fine grain. There is no hypersaturation of colors. It has been balanced for daylight.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a exceptionally sharp daylight balanced film with lots of saturation and contrast, giving pictures a unique look. It has the best resolving power of any available transparency film stock.
An ISO 100 version is also available.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Creates natural and vivid colors with medium contrast and color saturation. It has a daylight color balance and ultrafine grain.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black and white slide film, claimed by Fomapan as having higher levels of contrast, high resolving power, and fine grain. It’s also mentioned as a alternative for the long discontinued Agfa Scala Film Stock.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Professional film stock have better dynamic range, latitude, and can more easily be pushed, that is why they will cost you more.
There may be a significant difference in where 35mm rolls of film can be purchased. Consumer films can commonly be purchased from pharmacies and big-box stores in small amounts. Pro film should be ordered from a specialized camera store or online.
ISO
The ISO shows the speed of the film, which may also be regarded as the film’s light sensitivity.
The bigger the ISO, the less light will be required to capture a picture. Furthermore, be prepared to see increased film grain.
It is often a challenge to handhold the EOS ELAN 7 with ISO 100 or slower speed films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc). The will most likely be longer will most likely take longer than what you can handhold without resulting in motion blur unless you are shooting in full sun.
A tripod, flash, and/or fast lens will assist you with longer exposure times. Using a fast ISO 800 or ISO 400 film is likely to make the additional equipment unnecessary.
As a quick note, the ISO selection knob is listed as ASA on the Canon EOS ELAN 7. The switch to using ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) came after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Latitude
Latitude is the amount of stops film can be overexposed while still keeping tolerable quality. Pro film emulsions have a larger latitude along with a somewhat increased price.
Negative film has more latitude than slide film. That is one of the reasons it’s thought of more difficult to use.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range represents the range between the highlights and shadows parts of a photo that can be recorded. Sections of a picture that fall out of this range will appear as completely white overexposed highlights or solid black underexposed shadows.
A larger dynamic range is ideal because a bigger range helps make shooting in a variety of lighting conditions easier.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
Reversal film is viewed as challenging to use because of the limited dynamic range. The best time to try it out is during the golden hour.
Film Type
The Canon EOS ELAN 7 uses 35mm film that comes in canisters. In addition, it is the most often used type of film and occasionally called 135 film.
The only other type of film you are probably going to see is 120 or 220 film that is used by medium format cameras}.
One of the terrific properties of film is that you can change the film you work with and get a totally different look to your photos.
DX Coded Film
All available 35mm film on the market today has DX encoding on the canister. This allows cameras to detect and set the ISO when the film canister is loaded.
ASA (ISO) on the Canon EOS ELAN 7 has to be manually dialed in. Which means that DX-coding is not going to do anything.
Canon EOS ELAN 7 Resources
Where to Get 35mm Film Developed?
You will find several options for where to have film developed. For a more complete discussion of the possibilities go to my guide on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Pharmacies and big box stores have ended processing film at the store. They mail film away to be processed by a third party. As a result, you won’t receive your developed negatives back.
- Develop Film at Home
- Use a Local Photography Lab
- Use a Mail Order Photo Lab
- Pharmacy or Big Box Store
Shipping film to a mail-order photo lab to be processed and scanned is the easiest solution if you are just getting started using film. If you regularly use film, this could be a disadvantage due to the fact that it can get very expensive.
There are two actions that you are able to do to help reduce the expenses required to use film, assuming that you are going through a medium to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
Investing in a roll of 100’ of film and loading in into canisters yourself is considered one of the most popular methods to cut costs.
A 100’ bulk roll can fill up around 18 rolls of film containing 36 exposures each. You should expect to save 20-30% depending on the film you decide on.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you are going to be limited to rolls of black & white film. This is in part because black & white film is quite a bit easier and more cost-effective to process at home.
Home Developing and Scanning
You can easily process and digitize film yourself. In fact it’s a great way to spend less so that you can shoot more film with your Canon EOS ELAN 7.
Black & white film is much less difficult to process at home. Developer temperature and development times are both not as crucial to do correctly with black & white films as time and temperatures are for slide or color negative.