Best Film for the Canon EOS Rebel K2
The best film to use in your Canon EOS Rebel K2 should be based on the available light, your lens, and type of film you want to use.
Working with an ISO 400 film or faster will allow you to avoid needing to haul around a flash and/or tripod.
If you want to be able to to shoot images inside or anywhere there is low light, ensure that you have a fast lens. For lens recommendations take a look at my blog post on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS Rebel K2.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - A terrific selection for an array of conditions. Using Kodak UltraMax 400 you should be able to handhold the EOS Rebel K2 in the majority of scenarios.
Expect pictures to look a little bit warm with wonderful skin tones.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Based on where you are in the world, this film may be more widely available. It’s a top quality alternative to Kodak emulsions.
Compared to Kodak, Fuji appears to be a little cooler with stronger blues and greens.
Lomography 800 - If you want an ISO 800 color film, there aren’t very many offerings. For film stocks geared towards consumers, this is the sole choice.
In addition, if you have a medium format camera, Lomography 800 is also available in 120 film format.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film stock that debuted in the mid-1980s. The film has the look and feel of home snapshots from the 1980s and 90s. Use a flash to get the “nostalgic” look the film is known for.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to bring out the most popular look the film has to offer. This will provide you with the exceptional colors everyone loves Kodak Gold for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - Among film enthusiasts online, Portra 400 is easily the most popular color negative 35mm film. Overexpose the film by 1 or 2-stops to get the color the film is known for.
Portra is also available for purchase in ISO 160 and ISO 800 emulsions. It is also offered in rolls of 120, 4x5 sheets, and 8x10 sheets.
Black and White Film
Consumer
These film stocks have affordable costs and excellent quality, making them quite popular to be used in the Canon EOS Rebel K2.
The major attraction for photography students and budget minded photographers is the very affordable price. Even if you don’t put yourself in that group, it’s great to have inexpensive rolls of film around for trying out recently acquired used gear.
Kentmere 400 - Made by Harmon Technology, which is the parent company of Ilford. This is great due to the fact that makes this the most widely available B&W film of the three.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Will be easier to obtain in Europe as the film is manufactured by Foma Bohemia inside of the Czech Republic.
A pretty good film emulsion to employ for your first couple of attempts at home developing or analog photography. Also a good option if you are looking to test out a camera to check that it’s working correctly.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The cheapest place to get this film is online directly from Ultrafine.
If you process color film at home, you might have used developer produced by them to develop your film.
Professional
The two top selling black & white 35mm film emulsions are Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400. While they both possess individual appearances, they do have quite a few traits that are comparable that makes them so well received.
Both emulsions can be pushed 1 or 2 stops and provide quality results. A 35mm roll of film can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600, making them remarkably flexible.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - The most significant differences are that HP5 Plus is more affordable and has less contrast in comparison to Tri-X. Lower levels of contrast can be good due to the fact contrast can be changed when making a print or during digital processing.
The film emulsion has subdued grain and still appears excellent when pushed 2-stops.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film stock has a more distinctive style to it. To create the legendary grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it should be processed in Kodak D-76.
Kodak Tri-X 400 undeniably has more contrast. That is fantastic if it is the overall look you want because it results in a smaller amount of work when making a print in the darkroom or editing digitially.
Slide Film
Reversal film, also known as slide film or transparency film, generates a positive picture. That means a lightbox or projector can be used to show the photographs.
This is distinct from the more often used negative film emulsions that create pictures that require the colors to be inverted in order to be viewed.
Slide films have less dynamic range and latitude compared to negative films and so they are thought of challenging to shoot.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. The colors do not appear oversaturated. The film has been color balanced for daylight.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a very sharp color balanced for daylight reversal film with high levels of contrast and saturation, giving photos a unique appearance. Compared to all the reversal films available to buy, it has the highest resolving power.
An ISO 100 emulsion is also available.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Delivers vibrant and natural colors with medium color saturation and contrast. It has ultra fine grain with a daylight color balance.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white slide film, reported by Fomapan as having very fine grain, higher contrast, and very good resolving power. It’s also regarded as a replacement for the long discontinued Agfa Scala reversal film.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Pro film stocks cost more because they have better latitude, are easier to push, and bigger dynamic range.
You should expect to see a big difference in supply. Consumer film stocks can commonly be bought in pharmacies and big-box stores in small quantities. Pro film will need to be purchased from a online or specialized photography store.
ISO
The ISO represents the film speed, which may also be thought of as the film’s sensitivity to light.
The less light available to expose an image, the higher the film’s ISO will need to be. This comes at the tradeoff of more film grain.
It can be problematic to handhold the EOS Rebel K2 with ISO 100 or slower films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc). This is due to the fact that if you don’t have full sun, the shutter speeds will likely take longer than what you’re able to handhold without causing motion blur.
A tripod, flash, and/or fast lens are going to assist you with longer shutter speeds. Using a high speed ISO 400 or ISO 800 film will likely make the extra gear unnecessary.
The ISO knob is labeled as ASA on the Canon EOS Rebel K2. The change to using 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 having usable photographs. Professional film stocks have a larger latitude paired with a somewhat higher cost.
Negative film has a greater amount of latitude when compared to transparency film. That is a reason why it is regarded as difficult to work with.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range is the range between the shadows and highlights parts of a photo that can be captured. Sections of a picture that fall out of this range will be seen as totally white overexposed highlights or black underexposed shadows.
When working in a variety or quickly shifting lighting situations, film stocks with a bigger dynamic range is better.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
Reversal film is considered difficult to use as a consequence of the constrained dynamic range. Golden hour is the prime time to shoot slide.
Film Type
35mm film that is sold in metal canisters is used by the Canon EOS Rebel K2. 35mm film can also be called 135 film, and it’s the best-selling film format.
The only other film format you are going to encounter is 120 or 220 film that is used by medium format cameras}.
Swapping the film stock you are working with will change the look of your shots. This is one of the best things about using film.
DX Coded Film
Just about all available 35mm film made these days has DX encoding on the canister. This will allow cameras to detect and set the ISO when the canister is loaded into the camera.
ISO (ASA) on the Canon EOS Rebel K2 has to be dialed in manually. Which means that DX-coding is not going to do anything.
Canon EOS Rebel K2 Resources
Where to Get 35mm Film Developed?
You will find just a few possibilities for where to get film developed. For a more extensive discussion of the choices you can check out my article on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Film doesn’t get processed locally at big box stores and pharmacies. They send film off to be developed by a separate company. As a consequence, you will not 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 most convenient choice if you’re just starting to use film. If you frequently use film, this can be a drawback since it can get really expensive.
Assuming that you are going through a moderate to high volume of film, there are a few actions that you can do to reduce your costs.
Bulk Loading Film
Getting a bulk roll of 100 feet of film and loading in into canisters by hand is considered one of the ideal options to save money.
A 100 foot roll of film should fill up about 18 canisters of film containing 36 frames. Depending on the film you will probably save 20%-30%.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you’re limited to 100 foot rolls of black & white film. This is due to the fact black & white film is less difficult and cheaper to process yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
Any film can be developed by hand. In fact it is an excellent option to cut costs so you can shoot more film with your Canon EOS Rebel K2.
Black & white film is much easier to process yourself. Temperature and time are both not as imperative to do correctly with black & white films as temperatures and time are for color negative or slide film.