Best Film for the Canon EOS Rebel Ti
The best film to use in your Canon EOS Rebel Ti is going to depend on your lens, lighting, and if you want to use color or black & white.
To eliminate having to lug around a flash and/or tripod, purchase a film that has an ISO of 400 or faster.
If you want to be able to to take photographs indoors or anytime there is low light, ensure you have a fast lens. For lens lens recommendations check out my brief article on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS Rebel Ti.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - The film can be used in a wide variety of lighting conditions and is a good option for a 35mm color film. Using this film you should have the ability to handhold the EOS Rebel Ti in the vast majority of scenarios.
Expect pictures to look a little warm with outstanding skin tones.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Based on your location, this film could have greater availability. It is a great alternative to Kodak film.
When compared to Kodak, Fuji tends to be a little cooler with notable blues and greens.
Lomography 800 - If you want an ISO 800 color film, there are not many possible choices. This is literally the only film stock focused on consumers.
Furthermore, if you own a medium format camera, Lomography 800 is also offered in 120 film format.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film stock that was launched in the mid-1980s. Gold 200 provides the look of family snapshots from the 1980s and 1990s. For the classic shooting experience take advantage of a flash.
To really bring the best look out of this film, you will want to over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops. This will help you achieve the great colors everyone loves the film for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - Among film enthusiasts online, Portra 400 is the most frequently used color film emulsion. Overexpose it by 1 or 2-stops to get the look and feel the film is known for.
Portra is also offered in ISO 160 and 800 emulsions. As well as in rolls of 120 film, 4x5 sheets, and 8x10 sheets.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With reasonable prices and very good quite popular to use in the Canon EOS Rebel Ti.
The largest appeal for photography students and budget minded photographers is the affordable cost. Even if you wouldn’t put yourself in that group, it is good to have low-priced rolls of film around for testing newly purchased used cameras.
Kentmere 400 - Manufactured by Harmon Technology, which is also the parent company of Ilford. This is excellent due to the fact that allows this to be the most broadly available 35mm film out of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Is likely to be less difficult to get in Europe as the film is made by Foma Bohemia in the Czech Republic.
A suitable 35mm film to employ for your first couple of attempts at developing film at home or film photography. Also a good option if you are trying out a camera to make sure that it’s completely operational.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The best place to buy this film is directly from Ultrafine.
If you process color 35mm film yourself, you could have used developer sold by them to develop your film.
Professional
Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400 are the 2 most popular black & white film emulsions. While they both possess individual appearances, they possess quite a few traits that are equivalent that help makes them a favorite.
You can create great photos after pushing both films 2-stops. A roll can be used at ISO 400, 800, or 1600, making them quite flexible.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - The largest differences are that HP5 Plus has less contrast and is cheaper in comparison to Tri-X. Minimal amounts of contrast can be good because of the fact contrast can be adjusted when making a print in the darkroom or during digital processing.
The film stock still appears excellent when pushed 2-stops. It is also known for having subdued grain.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film emulsion provides a more distinctive style to it. To bring out the classic grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it needs to be processed in Kodak D-76.
You are going to definitely notice a higher level of contrast with Kodak Tri-X 400. That’s good if it is the overall look you would like because it involves substantially less work when during digital processing or printmaking.
Slide Film
Film emulsions that make a positive image are known as reversal, transparency, or slide film. That means a lightbox or projector can be used to view the photos.
Colors do not need to be inverted to be viewed, in contrast to the more readily available negative film emulsions.
Slide films are believed to be tricky to shoot due to the fact slide film has much less dynamic range and latitude when compared to negative film.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. There’s almost no hypersaturation of colors. It has a daylight color balance.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a remarkably sharp daylight balanced transparency film with high levels of contrast and saturation, giving photographs a distinctive rendering. When compared to all the transparency films offered, it has the highest resolving power.
An ISO 100 version is also on the market.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Delivers natural and vibrant colors with medium contrast and color saturation. It has a daylight color balance and ultrafine grain.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white slide film, marketed by Fomapan as having fine grain, very good resolving power, and higher contrast. It’s also regarded as a alternative for the discontinued Agfa Scala Film Stock.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Professional film stock are easier to push, have greater latitude, and dynamic range, this is why they cost more.
You should expect to see a big difference in availability. Consumer films can frequently be bought from pharmacies and big-box stores in small amounts. Professional film stocks has to be purchased from a camera store or online.
ISO
Film speed is shown as ISO, that can also be thought of as the film’s sensitivity to light.
The higher the film’s ISO, the less light will be required to get a film frame. This comes at the cost of more film grain.
ISO 100 and slower films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc) can be a challenge to shoot handheld with the EOS Rebel Ti. This is because in the absence of full sun, the shutter speeds will likely take more time than what you’re able to handhold without producing motion blur.
To stop motion blur you are going to need to use a flash, tripod, and/or fast lens. The additional accessories might not be needed if you pick a higher speed ISO 800 or ISO 400 film.
The ISO knob is labeled as ASA on the Canon EOS Rebel Ti. The shift to using ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) came after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Film Latitude
Film latitude is the number of stops film can be overexposed while still keeping acceptable photographs. Professional films have a larger latitude along with a slightly increased price.
Slide film has a smaller amount of latitude compared to negative film. That is one of the reasons why it is thought of more difficult to work with.
Dynamic Range
The difference between the darkest and brightest parts of a picture is referred to as dynamic range. Sections of an image that fall out of this range will appear as totally black underexposed shadows or white overexposed highlights.
A bigger dynamic range is ideal given that it helps make working in varied lighting conditions easier.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
Reversal film is thought to be tough to use because of the small dynamic range. Golden hour is the prime time to use slide.
Film Type
35mm film that is sold in metal canisters is used by the Canon EOS Rebel Ti. It can also be described as 135 film, and it is the most commonly used film format.
The only other type of film you are going to encounter is 120 or 220 film that is used with medium format cameras}.
Swapping the film emulsion you are using will alter the look of your images. This is one of the marvelous things about film.
DX Coded Film
Virtually all available 35mm film offered for sale at this time has a DX code. This lets cameras to auto detect and set the ISO of the film loaded.
DX-coding won’t matter for the Canon EOS Rebel Ti because ISO needs to be dialed in manually with the ASA knob.
Canon EOS Rebel Ti Resources
Where to Get Film Developed?
You will find just a few choices for where to have film processed. For a more complete explanation of the choices go look at my article on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Film does not get processed on location at pharmacies and big box stores. They ship the 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
Sending film to a mail-order lab to be developed and scanned is the simplest option if you are new to shooting film. If you regularly shoot film, this may be a drawback since it can get really expensive.
There are a couple of activities that you can do to minimize the expenses required to shoot film, given that you are going through a moderate to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
Purchasing a roll of 100 feet of film and loading in into canisters yourself is one of the most popular methods to lower your costs.
Once you’re done, you will have roughly 18 rolls of 36 exposures each. Based on the film stock you are likely to save 20%-30%.
Bear in mind that you are going to be limited to 100’ rolls of black and white film. This is in part because black & white film is a lot easier and less expensive to develop at home.
Home Developing and Scanning
Any film can be processed by hand. In fact it’s a very good option to spend less so that you can shoot more film with your Canon EOS Rebel Ti.
Black & white film is by far the simplest to develop. Chemical temperature and development times are both not as crucial to get correct with black and white film as time and temperatures are for color negative or slide film.