Best Film for the Canon EOS ELAN
The best film to use in the Canon EOS ELAN is going to depend on your lens, available light, and type of film you want to use.
Taking advantage of an ISO 400 film or higher speed will allow you to skip needing to lug around a tripod and/or flash.
Make sure that you have a fast lens if you want to shoot photos in low light, conditions that are frequently encountered indoors. Read my article on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS ELAN for ideas.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - The film can be used in a variety of lighting conditions and is a terrific selection for a color 35mm film. Kodak UltraMax 400 is fast enough so that you should be able to handhold the EOS ELAN in the vast majority of situations.
Expect pictures to appear slightly warm with wonderful skin tones.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Based on your location, this film could be more widely available. It’s an excellent alternative to Kodak film.
Fujifilm photographs tend to have cooler colors with an emphasis on blues and greens, when compared to Kodak.
Lomography 800 - If you want an ISO 800 color 35mm film, there are only a small number of options. For 35mm film stocks targeted towards consumers, Lomography 800 is the sole option.
The film is for sale in the 120 film format, to be used with a medium format camera.
Kodak Gold 200 - A surefire option to obtain that mid-80s through 90s feeling. Use a flash to get the “authentic” film look.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to produce the best the film has to offer. This will produce the gorgeous colors people love the film for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - Among enthusiasts online, Portra 400 is without a doubt the top color film. Overexpose Portra 400 by 1 or 2-stops to get the color the film is known for.
There are also ISO 800 and 160 versions of Kodak Portra. As well as in rolls of 120 film, 4x5 sheets, and 8x10 sheets.
Black and White Film
Consumer
These film emulsions have reasonable costs and good quality, making them favorable to use in the Canon EOS ELAN.
The primary attraction for budget minded photographers and photography students is the very low price. Even if you do not put yourself in that group, it’s nice to have comparatively cheap rolls of film around for testing recently acquired used cameras.
Kentmere 400 - It’s made by the parent company of Ilford, Harmon Technology. This is great considering that makes this the most commonly available 35mm film of the three.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Might be much easier to purchase in Europe as the film is manufactured by Foma Bohemia inside of the Czech Republic.
A decent film emulsion to work with for your initial few attempts at film photography or developing film at home. Also a good option if you are testing out a camera to be sure that it is working properly.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The cheapest place to buy this film is online directly from Ultrafine.
If you develop color 35mm film at home, you might have used chemicals sold by them.
Professional
The two most commonly used black and white 35mm films are Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400. While they both do have individual appearances, they possess a lot of characteristics in common that help makes them a favorite.
Both film stocks can be pushed 2 stops and still provide great photographs. This makes the film versatile as a roll can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - Between the two film emulsions, HP5 Plus has lower levels of contrast and is less expensive. Minimal contrast can be an advantage because contrast can be increased when making a print or during digital post processing.
The film emulsion still looks excellent when pushed 2-stops. It is also recognized for having subdued grain.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film possesses a stronger style. To produce the old-school grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it will need to be processed in D-76.
Kodak Tri-X 400 clearly has a higher level of contrast. That is awesome if it is the look you want because it results in a smaller amount of work when through digital processing or making a print.
Transparency Film
Reversal film, also known as transparency or slide film, provides a positive picture. This allows the photographs to be shown with a light box or projector.
The colors are not required to be inverted to be seen, as opposed to the more readily available negative film stocks.
Slide films have substantially less dynamic range and latitude when compared with negative film and so they are viewed as difficult to shoot.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. The colors won’t show up oversaturated. It is daylight color balanced.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a seriously sharp color balanced for daylight film with lots of contrast and saturation, giving photos a distinct look. Velvia has the greatest resolving power of any available transparency film emulsion.
An ISO 100 speed is also on the market.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Delivers vibrant and realistic colors with moderate color saturation and contrast. It’s a film balanced for daylight with ultrafine grain.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white slide film, reported by Fomapan as having fine grain, elevated contrast, and excellent resolving power. It is also billed as a alternative for the long discontinued Agfa Scala Film Stock.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Pro film stock have improved latitude, are easier to push, and larger dynamic range, which is why pro-film costs more.
There is a disparity in where film can be purchased. Consumer film emulsions can often still be obtained from pharmacies and big-box stores in small amounts. Pro film has to be ordered from a specialized photography store or online.
ISO
The speed of the film is listed as ISO, that can also be thought of as the film’s light sensitivity.
The higher the film’s ISO, the less light is needed to expose a film frame. This comes at the expense of noticeably increased film grain.
It can be challenging to handhold the EOS ELAN with ISO 100 or slower films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc). This is due to the fact that if you do not have full sun, the shutter speeds will most likely take longer than what you are able to handhold without causing motion blur.
A fast lens, tripod, and/or flash are going to assist you with longer exposure times. The additional accessories might not be needed if you choose to use a higher speed ISO 800 or ISO 400 film.
The ISO selection knob is labeled as ASA on the Canon EOS ELAN. The transition to labeling ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) came after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Film Latitude
Film latitude is the range of stops film can be overexposed while still holding onto satisfactory images. Pro film emulsions have a greater latitude along with a somewhat increased cost.
Negative film has more latitude than reversal film. That is a reason why it’s perceived as harder to work with.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range represents the range between the highlights and shadows parts of a picture that can be recorded. Areas of a photo that are not in this range will be rendered as totally white overexposed highlights or completely black underexposed shadows.
A bigger dynamic range is ideal since a larger range helps make shooting in a variety of lighting situations easier.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
Reversal film is considered to be difficult to use because of the limited dynamic range. Golden hour is the best time to shoot transparency.
Film Type
35mm film that is in canisters is used by the Canon EOS ELAN. 35mm film can also be called 135 film, and it is the most widely used type of film.
120 or 220 film, used with medium format cameras, is the only other type of film you are going to encounter}.
One of the wonderful properties of film is that you can switch the film emulsion you work with and get a different look to your shots.
DX Coded Film
Virtually all commercially available 35mm film distributed these days has DX encoding on the canister. This lets electronically controlled cameras to detect and set the ISO of the film canister put in the camera.
ASA (ISO) on the Canon EOS ELAN must be manually selected. Which means DX-coding isn’t going to do anything.
Canon EOS ELAN Resources
Where to Get 35mm Film Developed?
There are a range of choices for where to get 35mm film processed. For a more thorough discussion of the choices you can check out my guide on Where to Develop Film.
WARNING: Big box stores and pharmacies no longer develop film locally. They send film off to be processed by a separate company. This means that, you won’t receive 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 film to a mail-order photo lab to be processed and scanned is the least complicated solution if you are new to using film. If you frequently use film, this can be a downside since it can get pricey.
There are a couple of activities that you can do to limit the expenses required to shoot film, given that you are going through a moderate 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 options to cut costs.
All said and done, you will have about 18 rolls of 36 exposures. Expect to see savings of 20-30% based on your selection.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you are only going to be able to buy bulk rolls of black & white film. This is in part because black & white film is less difficult and cheaper to process at home.
Home Developing and Scanning
It is possible to develop and scan any film at home. In fact it’s an excellent method to spend less so that you can shoot more film with your Canon EOS ELAN.
Black & white film is significantly less complicated to process at home. Developer temperature and time are not as vital to get correct with black & white films as time and temperatures are for color negative or transparency film.