Best Film for the Canon EOS RT
The best film to use in the Canon EOS RT will depend on the lighting, lens, and if you want to use color or black & white.
Buying an ISO 400 35mm or higher speed will allow you to skip needing to haul around a flash and/or tripod.
If you would like to take images in low light, such as inside, make sure that you are using a fast lens. Take a look at my blog post on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS RT for recommendations.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - This film can be used in a multitude of lighting conditions and is an excellent option for a color 35mm film. The film is fast enough so that you should be able to handhold the EOS RT in the majority of situations.
The photos will have extremely good colors and leans towards the warm side.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Based on your location, this film can have greater availability. It’s an excellent alternative to Kodak.
In comparison to Kodak, Fuji appears to be a small amount cooler with stronger greens and blues.
Lomography 800 - If you want an ISO 800 color 35mm film, there aren’t very many choices. This happens to be the only 35mm film geared towards consumers.
It can also be bought in the 120 film format, for use with a medium format camera.
Kodak Gold 200 - An outstanding option to obtain that mid-80s through 90s rendering. Use a flash to get the “nostalgic” look.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to reveal the best the film has to offer. This will provide the spectacular colors everyone loves the film for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - By far the most popular color negative film among film enthusiasts online. Overexpose it by 1 or 2-stops to get the appearance the film is known for.
Additionally, ISO 800 and 160 emulsions of Kodak Portra. It is also offered in rolls of 120, 4x5 sheets, and 8x10 sheets.
Black and White Film
Consumer
These film stocks have low costs and good quality, making them favorable to try in the Canon EOS RT.
The primary appeal for photography students and budget minded photographers is the very affordable price. Even if you do not put yourself in those groups, it is great to have economical rolls of film readily available for evaluating recently acquired used cameras.
Kentmere 400 - It is manufactured by the parent company of Ilford, Harmon Technology. This is excellent because that allows this to be the most widely available B&W film out of the three.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Might be less difficult to find in Europe as the film is manufactured by Foma Bohemia out of the Czech Republic.
A suitable 35mm film to work with for your initial couple of attempts at developing film at home or analog photography. Also a good selection if you happen to be testing out a camera to be sure that it is fully functional.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - You can get the cheapest price by purchasing it straight from Ultrafine.
They sell chemical developer kits for 35mm color film, so if you process film at home you may have previously interacted with them.
Professional
Kodak Tri-X 400 and Ilford HP-5+ 400 are the 2 top selling black & white films. They have a large amount of attributes in common that help make them popular, while preserving unique styles.
You can achieve good quality photos after pushing both films 2-stops. 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 is less expensive and has less contrast. Less contrast can be helpful because contrast can be increased when making a print in the darkroom or during digital post processing.
The film emulsion still looks good when pushed 2-stops. It is also known for having subtle grain.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film emulsion provides a more distinctive aesthetic. To achieve the legendary grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it needs to be developed in D-76.
Tri-X 400 clearly has a higher level of contrast. That’s notable if it’s the style you want because it results in significantly less work when during digital post processing or making a print in the darkroom.
Transparency Film
Reversal film, also known as transparency film or slide film, provides a positive picture. That means a lightbox or projector can be used to display the slides.
This is unique from the more prevalent negative films that result in photographs that require the colors to be inverted for the image to be seen.
Slide films have far less latitude and dynamic range than negative film and so they are considered more difficult to work with.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a film known for fine grain and terrific skin tones. There is not any hypersaturation of colors. Ektachrome has a daylight color balance.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a incredibly sharp daylight color balanced reversal film with lots of contrast and saturation, giving shots a special appearance. Velvia has the highest resolving power of any available reversal film stock.
It is also available in an ISO 100 emulsion.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Creates vibrant and realistic colors with medium contrast and color saturation. It is a film balanced for daylight with ultra fine grain.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white reversal film, described by Fomapan as having increased levels of contrast, very good resolving power, and fine grain. It’s also regarded as a alternative for the discontinued Agfa Scala transparency film.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Professional film stock have improved latitude, are easier to push, and larger dynamic range, which is the reason pro-film costs more.
There is a significant difference in supply. Consumer film stocks can oftentimes be seen in big-box stores and pharmacies in limited amounts. Professional film stocks has to be bought from a photography store or online.
ISO
The ISO shows the speed of the film, which can also be thought of as the film’s sensitivity to light.
The less light available to properly expose an image, the bigger the ISO of the film will need to be. This comes at the cost of larger sized film grain.
It may be troublesome to handhold the EOS RT with ISO 100 or slower films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc). The will probably be longer will be longer than what you can handhold without leading to motion blur unless you are out in full sun.
To prevent this you’ll need to use a fast lens, flash, and/or tripod. The additional gear might not be needed if you pick a higher speed ISO 800 or ISO 400 film.
As a quick note, the ISO dial is labeled as ASA on the Canon EOS RT. The shift to labeling ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) happened after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Film Latitude
Latitude is the range of stops a film can be overexposed while having adequate results. Professional film emulsions have a greater latitude along with a somewhat increased price.
Reversal film has a smaller amount of latitude in comparison with negative film. That is one of the reasons why it’s perceived as challenging to work with.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range is the range between the shadows and highlights details of an image that can be captured. Parts of an image that fall out of this range will be rendered as white overexposed highlights or totally black underexposed shadows.
When working in a variety or quickly changing lighting conditions, films with a larger dynamic range are a superior choice.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
The constrained dynamic range of transparency film is one more reason why it’s regarded as hard to shoot. An extremely good time to test it out is during the golden hour.
Film Type
35mm film that is in canisters is used by the Canon EOS RT. It is also the most often used type of film and in some instances is called 135 film.
120 or 220 film, used in medium format cameras, is the only other type of film you are likely to notice}.
One of the best properties of film is that you can change the film stock you use and get a fresh look to your pictures.
DX Coded Film
All available 35mm film offered for sale at this point has a DX code. This enables cameras to auto detect and set the ISO of the film loaded into the camera.
ASA (ISO) on the Canon EOS RT has to be selected manually. As a result DX-coding isn’t going to do anything.
Canon EOS RT Resources
Where to Get 35mm Film Developed?
You will find a variety of possibilities for where to get film processed. For a more complete discussion of the choices go look at my article on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Film is no longer processed on location at big box stores and pharmacies. They ship the film away to be processed by a third party. This means that, you won’t receive your negatives back.
- Develop Film at Home
- Use a Local Photography Lab
- Use a Mail Order Photo Lab
- Pharmacy or Big Box Store
The simplest option and the method I suggest doing if you are just getting started shooting film is to mail your film to a photo lab to be developed and scanned. If you frequently use film, this might be a downside due to the fact that it can get really expensive.
So long as you are shooting a medium to high volume of film, there are a few things that you are capable of doing to greatly reduce your expenses.
Bulk Loading Film
Investing in a roll of 100 feet of film and loading in into canisters yourself is considered one of the common options to lower your costs.
A 100 foot roll will fill up typically around 18 canisters of film containing 36 frames. Based on the film stock you are likely to save 20%-30%.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you’re only going to be able to get 100 foot rolls of black and white film. This is in part because black and white film is less difficult and less expensive to develop at home.
Home Developing and Scanning
Any film can be processed at home. In fact it is a great method to cut costs so you can use more film with your Canon EOS RT.
Black and white film is by far the least difficult to develop. Chemical temperature and development times are both not as essential to do correctly with black & white films as time and temperatures are for color negative or transparency film.