Best Film for the Canon EOS ELAN 7N
The best film to use in the Canon EOS ELAN 7N will have to be based on the lighting conditions, your lens, and if you want to use color or black & white.
Using an ISO 400 35mm or faster will enable you to eliminate being burdened with a flash and/or tripod.
Make sure you have a fast lens if you want to shoot pictures in low light, conditions that are commonly encountered indoors. Take a look at my brief article on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS ELAN 7N for suggestions.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - A good selection for an array of lighting conditions. The film is fast enough so that you should be able to handhold the EOS ELAN 7N in the majority of situations.
Expect images to look a bit warm with outstanding skin tones.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Depending on your location, this film might have greater availability. It’s a fantastic alternative to Kodak film.
Fujifilm photos tend to have cooler tones with an emphasis on greens and blues, compared to Kodak.
Lomography 800 - You’re limited to just a few possibilities if you want a color ISO 800 35mm film. For 35mm film targeted towards consumers, this is the only choice.
Furthermore, if you have a medium format camera, it is also available in 120 film format.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film emulsion that debuted in the mid-1980s. The film gives the look and feel of home snapshots from the 1980s and 1990s. Use a flash to get the “authentic” look the film is known for.
To really bring the best look out of this film, make sure to over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops. This will provide the appealing colors everyone loves Gold 200 for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - Among film shooting enthusiasts online, Portra 400 is by far the most frequently used color 35mm film. Overexpose Portra 400 by 1 or 2-stops to get the overall look the film is highly regarded for.
Plus, ISO 800 and ISO 160 emulsions of Portra. As well as in rolls of 120 film, 4x5 sheets, and 8x10 sheets.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With affordable prices and more than acceptable favorable for use in the Canon EOS ELAN 7N.
The major appeal for photography students and budget minded photographers is the very affordable price. Even if you don’t put yourself in that group, it’s nice to have low-priced rolls of 35 film on hand for trying out recently acquired used cameras.
Kentmere 400 - Produced by Harmon Technology, which is also the owner of Ilford. This is notable because that allows this to be the most broadly sold film out of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Might be easier to purchase in Europe as the film is made by Foma Bohemia out of the Czech Republic.
An ideal film stock to use for your initial few attempts at home developing or analog photography. Also a good option if you’re testing out a camera to confirm that it’s totally functional.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The best place to get this film is straight from Ultrafine.
They produce developer kits for color film, so if you process film at home you may have already had interactions with them.
Professional
The 2 most popular black & white 35mm film emulsions are Kodak Tri-X 400 and Ilford HP-5 Plus 400. While they both have distinctive appearances, they do have numerous capabilities that are equivalent that makes them so well liked.
You can create great results after pushing both film stocks 2-stops. A roll of film can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600, making them quite versatile.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - The most significant differences are that HP5 Plus has less contrast and is less expensive when compared to Tri-X. Low amounts of contrast can be nice because of the fact contrast can be adjusted when making a print in the darkroom or through digital processing.
The film still appears excellent when pushed 2-stops. It is also noted for having subtle grain.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film features a stronger style to it. To reveal the classic grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it will need to be developed in D-76.
Tri-X 400 certainly has a higher level of contrast. That is great if it’s the look you want to have because it results in a smaller amount of work when making a print or during digital processing.
Transparency Film
Film emulsions that create a positive image are known as transparency, reversal, or slide film. That means a projector or lightbox can be used to display the pictures.
This is unique from the more often used negative films that produce pictures that need the colors to be inverted in order to be viewed.
Slide films are thought to be tricky to use because slide film has less dynamic range and latitude when compared with negative film.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - The film is known for attractive skin tones and fine grain. There is almost no hypersaturation of colors. It has a daylight color balance.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a exceptionally sharp color balanced for daylight reversal film with lots of contrast and saturation, giving photographs a beautiful rendering. Matched against all the transparency films on the market, it has the top resolving power.
There is also another speed that is ISO 100.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Creates vibrant and realistic colors with medium color saturation and contrast. It has a daylight color balance and ultrafine grain.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white reversal film, described by Fomapan as having higher contrast, very fine grain, and excellent resolving power. It is also mentioned as a replacement for the discontinued Agfa Scala Film Stock.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Pro film stock have greater latitude, dynamic range, and can more easily be pushed, which is the reason they will be more expensive.
There is a big difference in business that sell film. Consumer film emulsions can generally still be found in big-box stores and pharmacies in anemic quantities. Professional level film emulsions should really be ordered from a online or camera store.
ISO
The ISO represents the speed of the film, which can also be thought of as the film’s sensitivity to light.
The higher the ISO of the film, the less light is necessary to expose a photo. This comes at the tradeoff of larger film grain.
It might be hard to handhold the EOS ELAN 7N 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 shutter speeds will most likely be longer than what you could handhold without creating motion blur.
To avoid this you will need to use a tripod, a fast lens, and/or a flash. The additional equipment might not be needed if you decide to use a higher speed ISO 400 or ISO 800 film.
As a quick note, the ISO selection knob is labeled as ASA on the Canon EOS ELAN 7N. The move to labeling ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) came after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Film Latitude
Latitude is the range of stops film can be overexposed while keeping usable quality. Professional films have a larger latitude along with a slightly higher price.
Negative film has a greater amount of latitude compared to transparency film. That is one of the reasons why it’s perceived as more challenging to use.
Dynamic Range
The difference between the darkest and brightest parts of a photo is described as dynamic range. Sections of a photo that are not in this range will be seen as solid white overexposed highlights or solid black underexposed shadows.
When working in a variety or quickly shifting lighting situations, film stocks with a larger dynamic range is better.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
The limited dynamic range of slide film is an additional factor it’s considered challenging to shoot. Golden hour is the ideal time to use slide.
Film Type
35mm film that is sold in metal canisters is used by the Canon EOS ELAN 7N. It’s also the most widely used film format and is on occasion called 135 film.
The only other type of film you are going to encounter is 120 or 220 film that is used in medium format cameras}.
Swapping the film emulsion you are working with will change the look of your pictures. This is one of the terrific things about shooting film.
DX Coded Film
Most available 35mm film offered at this point has DX encoding on the canister. This makes it possible for electronically controlled cameras to auto detect and set the ISO when the canister is loaded.
DX-coding will not matter for the Canon EOS ELAN 7N because ISO is required to be selected manually.
Canon EOS ELAN 7N Resources
Where to Get Film Developed?
You will find a variety of choices for where to get film developed. For a more extensive explanation of the possible choices go to my guide on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Film does not get processed on site at big box stores and pharmacies. They mail the film off 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
Sending film to a mail-order photo lab to be developed and scanned is the most straightforward option if you are new to using film. If you consistently use film, this may be a drawback since it can get really expensive.
So long as you’re shooting a medium to high volume of film, there are two actions that can be done to cut back on your costs.
Bulk Loading Film
Considered one of the most popular methods to save money on film is to buy a roll of 100 feet of film and manually load canisters yourself.
A 100’ roll of film can fill up around 18 rolls of film with 36 exposures each. Based on the film stock you will probably save 20%-30%.
Take into account that you’re limited to 100 foot rolls of black and white film. This is in part because black & white film is much easier and cheaper to process at home.
Home Developing and Scanning
All film can be processed at home. It is a very good option to lower your costs so you can use more film with your Canon EOS ELAN 7N.
Black and white film is by far the least difficult to process. Developer temperature and development times are not as vital to do correctly with black & white film as time and temperatures are for slide or color negative.