Best Film for the Canon EOS ELAN 7NE
The best film to use in the Canon EOS ELAN 7NE should be based on the lens, lighting conditions, and type of film you want to shoot.
Getting an ISO 400 35mm or faster will allow you to eliminate having to lug around a tripod and/or flash.
Make sure you have a fast lens if you want to capture images in low light, conditions that are commonly found indoors. For lens lens recommendations have a look at my short article on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS ELAN 7NE.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - An excellent selection for an array of lighting conditions. Kodak UltraMax 400 is fast enough so that you should be able to handhold the EOS ELAN 7NE in almost all scenarios.
The pictures will have wonderful skin tones and tend to be on the warm side.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - An alternative to Kodak that may have far better availability depending on where you are in the world.
Fujifilm images appear to have cooler tones with stronger blues and greens, compared to Kodak.
Lomography 800 - You’re limited to just a small number of possibilities if you want an ISO 800 speed color 35mm film. For film stocks focused on consumers, this is the sole option.
The film is available in the 120 film format, to be used in medium format cameras.
Kodak Gold 200 - A guaranteed means to get that mid-80s through 90s feeling. Use a flash to get the “nostalgic” film look.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to create the most popular look the film has to offer. This will produce the appealing colors everyone loves Kodak Gold for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - Among film shooting enthusiasts online, Portra 400 is hands down the most frequently used color film. Overexpose Portra 400 by 1 or 2-stops to get the look and feel the film is known for.
There are also ISO 160 and 800 versions of Kodak Portra. 8x10 sheets, 4x5 sheets, and rolls of 120 are also available.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With reasonable costs and excellent very popular to be used in the Canon EOS ELAN 7NE.
The main attraction for budget minded photographers and photography students is the low cost. Even if you don’t put yourself in that group, it’s nice to have economical rolls of film available for trying out newly acquired used gear.
Kentmere 400 - It is made by the parent company of Ilford, Harmon Technology. This is great because that makes this the most broadly sold B&W film of the three.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - It’s less difficult to acquire in Europe as the film is made by Foma Bohemia inside of the Czech Republic.
A solid film stock to work with for your initial few attempts at film photography or home developing. Also a good option if you are trying out a camera to ensure that it is working properly.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - You can get the lowest price on this film by ordering it from Ultrafine.
If you develop color 35mm film yourself, you may have done that with developer sold by them to process your film.
Professional
Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400 are the 2 top selling black & white 35mm films. While they both do have distinctive looks, they do have several qualities that are equivalent that help makes them so well liked.
Both film emulsions can be pushed 2 stops and provide good images. 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 less expensive and has less contrast. Minimal amounts of contrast can be advantageous due to the fact contrast can be adjusted when making a print or editing digitally.
The film stock still looks excellent when pushed 2-stops. It is also recognized as having subtle grain.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film emulsion provides a stronger aesthetic to it. To reveal the classic grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it needs to be processed in Kodak D-76.
Tri-X unquestionably has far more contrast. That is very good if it is the style you would you like because it means considerably less work when editing digitially or making a print in the darkroom.
Transparency Film
Film stocks that make a positive image can be called transparency, slide, or reversal film. This means the photographs can be exhibited with a projector or light box.
This is unique from the more widespread negative film emulsions that create photographs that need the colors to be inverted in order to be seen.
Slide films have far less dynamic range and latitude when compared to negative film and so they are considered challenging to work with.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. There’s not any hypersaturation of colors. The film has a daylight color balance.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a remarkably sharp color balanced for daylight reversal film with high levels of contrast and saturation, giving pictures a distinctive look. When compared with all the slide films offered, it has the greatest resolving power.
It is also available in an ISO 100 speed.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Offers natural and vibrant colors with medium contrast and color saturation. It has ultrafine grain with a daylight color balance.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white slide film, marketed by Fomapan as having elevated contrast, excellent resolving power, and very fine grain. It’s also mentioned as a replacement for the discontinued Agfa Scala reversal film.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Pro film stocks cost more due to the fact that they have larger dynamic range, latitude, and can more easily be pushed.
You should be prepared for a big difference in where 35mm rolls of film can be purchased. Consumer film emulsions can oftentimes still be obtained from pharmacies and big-box stores in meager quantities. Pro film often need to be purchased from a camera store or online retailer.
ISO
The ISO represents the film speed, that can also be regarded as the film’s light sensitivity.
The less light there’s available to capture an image, the bigger the film’s ISO will have to be. In addition, be prepared to see noticeably increased film grain.
ISO 100 and slower speed films (ISO 50, ISO 25, etc) is often tough to use handheld with the EOS ELAN 7NE. The might be longer might be longer than what you can handhold without resulting in motion blur unless you are shooting in full sun.
A fast lens, tripod, and/or flash will help you with longer shutter speeds. Using a high speed ISO 400 or ISO 800 film will help make the extra gear not needed.
As a quick note, the ISO dial is labeled as ASA on the Canon EOS ELAN 7NE. The change to labeling ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) happened after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Film Latitude
Film latitude is the number of stops a film can be overexposed while still maintaining acceptable photographs. Professional film emulsions have a greater latitude along with a somewhat higher price.
Transparency film has a smaller amount of latitude than negative film. That is one of the reasons it’s deemed to be challenging to use.
Dynamic Range
The range between the highlights and shadows details of a photo is described as dynamic range. Areas of a photo that are not in this range will appear as totally white overexposed highlights or solid black underexposed shadows.
When shooting in a variety or quickly changing lighting situations, film stocks with a larger dynamic range are a superior choice.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
Slide film is considered to be tricky to use as a consequence of the limited dynamic range. A very good time to test it out would be during the golden hour.
Film Type
35mm film that is in metal canisters is used by the Canon EOS ELAN 7NE. It can also be called 135 film, and it is the most commonly used type of film.
120 or 220 film, used by medium format cameras, is the only other type of film you are likely to come across}.
Swapping the film you are using will change the look of your photos. This is one of the fantastic things about using film.
DX Coded Film
Nearly all new 35mm film offered at this point has DX encoding. This lets electronically controlled cameras to automatically detect and set the ISO of the film loaded.
DX-coding doesn’t matter for the Canon EOS ELAN 7NE because ISO is required to be dialed in manually.
Canon EOS ELAN 7NE Resources
Where to Get 35mm Film Developed?
There are limited choices for where to get film processed. For a more extensive discussion of the choices you can check out my guide on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Film does not get processed locally at big box stores and pharmacies. They mail the film off to be processed by a separate company. Because of that, you will not 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 lab to be processed and scanned is the least complicated choice if you’re just getting started using film. If you regularly shoot film, this could be a disadvantage due to the fact that it can get pricey.
There are two activities that can be done to minimize the costs required to shoot film, provided that you’re using a moderate to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
Certainly one of the most widely used options to cut costs on film is to buy a bulk roll of 100 feet of film and load canisters yourself.
A 100 foot bulk roll of film should fill around 18 rolls of film containing 36 exposures each. You should expect to save 20-30% based on the film.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you’re limited to 100’ rolls of black and white film. This is in part because black & white film is much easier and more cost-effective to develop yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
You can process and digitize film at home. It is a smart method to cut costs so that you can shoot more film with your Canon EOS ELAN 7NE.
Black and white film is by far the easiest to develop. Chemical temperature and development times are both not as vital to do correctly with black & white films as they are for color negative or transparency film.