Best Film for the Canon T50
The best film to use in the Canon T50 will be based on your lens, available light, and type of film you want to shoot.
Using an ISO 400 35mm or faster will let you avoid needing to haul around a tripod and/or flash.
If you want to shoot images in low light, such as indoors, ensure you are using a fast lens. For lens suggestions take a look at my blog post on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon T50.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - The film works well in a variety of lighting conditions and is a good option for a 35mm color film. Using this film you should be able to handhold the T50 in lots of situations.
Expect photos to appear slightly warm with pleasant colors.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Based on your location, this film could be more widely available. It is an excellent alternative to Kodak.
In comparison to Kodak, Fuji appears to be a little bit cooler with notable blues and greens.
Lomography 800 - There are only a few offerings if you want a color ISO 800 film. For film geared towards consumers, this is the sole choice.
Additionally, if you own a medium format camera, it is also for sale in 120 film format.
Kodak Gold 200 - An awesome means to get that mid-1980s through 90s rendering. For the authentic experience have a flash.
To really bring the ideal look out of this film, you’ll need to over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops. This will produce the beautiful colors people love the film for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - By far the most popular color negative film among film shooting enthusiasts online. Overexpose the film by 1 or 2-stops to get the look and feel the film is well known for.
Additionally, ISO 160 and 800 emulsions of Portra. It is also offered in rolls of 120, 4x5 sheets, and 8x10 sheets.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With reasonable prices and more than acceptable very popular to use in the Canon T50.
The biggest appeal for photography students and budget minded photographers is the reasonable cost. Even if you don’t put yourself in that group, it is good to have economical rolls of film readily available for testing newly obtained used gear.
Kentmere 400 - Manufactured by Harmon Technology, which is the parent company of Ilford. This is great because that allows this to be the most widely sold B&W film out of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Will be less difficult to find in Europe as the film is made by Foma Bohemia out of the Czech Republic.
A suitable film emulsion to work with for your first couple of attempts at analog photography or developing film at home. Also a good option if you are looking to test out a camera to ensure that it is operating correctly.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The cheapest place to get this film is online directly from Ultrafine.
If you develop color 35mm film at home, you may have done that with chemicals sold by them to develop your film.
Professional
Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400 are the 2 best black & white film stocks. While they both possess distinctive styles, they have a lot of characteristics that are comparable that help makes them so well received.
You can enjoy very good photographs after pushing both film stocks 2-stops. A 35mm roll can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600, making them quite flexible.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - The fundamental differences are that HP5 Plus has lower levels of contrast and is cheaper when compared to Tri-X. Minimal contrast can be nice because contrast can be adjusted when making a print or through digital post processing.
The film has subdued grain and still appears outstanding when pushed 2-stops.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film provides a stronger rendering to it. To reveal the traditional grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it needs to be processed in Kodak D-76.
Kodak Tri-X undeniably has higher levels of contrast. That’s helpful if it happens to be the look you would like because it involves less work when editing digitially or making a print.
Reversal Film
Film emulsions that make a positive image are typically referred to as slide, reversal, or transparency film. This means the slides can be displayed with a light box or projector.
This is distinct from the more commonplace negative film stocks that make photographs that need the colors to be inverted for the image to be viewable.
Slide films are viewed as very hard to use due to the fact slide film has substantially less dynamic range and latitude compared to negative film.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - The film is known for striking skin tones and fine grain. There’s no hypersaturation of colors. It is daylight balanced.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a remarkably sharp daylight color balanced reversal film with high levels of contrast and saturation, giving images a beautiful look. Compared to all the slide films available for purchase, it has the top resolving power.
There is also another speed that is ISO 100.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Offers realistic and vibrant colors with moderate color saturation and contrast. It has ultra fine grain with a daylight color balance.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white slide film, described by Fomapan as having elevated contrast, very fine grain, and high resolving power. It is also mentioned as a replacement for the discontinued Agfa Scala slide film.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Pro film stock have greater latitude, are easier to push, and increased dynamic range, which is why pro-film costs more.
There may be a big difference in business that sell it. Consumer film stocks can more often than not still be seen in big-box stores and pharmacies in anemic amounts. Professional level film stocks has to be ordered from a specialized camera store or online.
ISO
The speed of the film is represented by ISO, that can also be thought of as the film’s light sensitivity.
The higher the film’s ISO, the less light will be needed to expose a frame. Also, expect to see noticeably increased film grain.
ISO 100 and slower films (ISO 50, ISO 25, etc) might be problematic to use handheld with the T50. The are going to be longer are going to be longer than what you’re able to handhold without causing motion blur unless you’re out in full sun.
To stop this you are going to need to use a flash, fast lens, and/or tripod. Using a fast ISO 400 or ISO 800 film is likely to make the extra equipment unnecessary.
As a quick note, the ISO dial is labeled as ASA on the Canon T50. The shift to using ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) happened after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Latitude
Film latitude is the number of stops film can be overexposed while still keeping tolerable quality. Pro films have a greater latitude along with a somewhat increased cost.
Negative film has a greater amount of latitude compared to reversal film. That is one of the reasons it’s considered challenging to work with.
Dynamic Range
The difference between the shadows and highlights details of a photograph is described as dynamic range. Sections of an image that fall out of this range will be rendered as solid white overexposed highlights or black underexposed shadows.
A bigger dynamic range is ideal due to the fact that it helps make working in various lighting conditions easier.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
The limited dynamic range of transparency film is a second reason why it’s regarded as tough to shoot. Golden hour is the best time to shoot transparency.
Film Type
The Canon T50 takes 35mm film that is sold in canisters. In addition, it’s the most often used type of film and occasionally described as 135 film.
The only other type of film you are likely to encounter is 120 or 220 film that is used with medium format cameras}.
One of the marvelous things about film is that you can change the film emulsion you use and get a fresh look to your photographs.
DX Coded Film
Virtually all new 35mm film offered for sale these days has DX encoding. This will allow cameras to automatically detect and set the ISO when the film is loaded.
ASA (ISO) on the Canon T50 needs to be set manually. As a result DX-coding will not be of any use.
Canon T50 Resources
Where to Get Film Developed?
There are limited choices for where to develop 35mm film. For a more complete explanation of the possibilities take a look at my article on Where to Develop Film.
WARNING: Big box stores and pharmacies do not develop film at the store. They mail the film off to be developed by a separate company. As a consequence, 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 developed and scanned is the most convenient option if you’re new to shooting film. If you consistently shoot film, this might be a drawback since it can get very expensive.
So long as you are using a moderate to high volume of film, there are two things that can be done to limit your costs.
Bulk Loading Film
One of the most popular methods to spend less money on film is to buy a roll of 100 feet of film and load it into canisters yourself.
A 100 foot roll can load typically around 18 rolls of film containing 36 exposures. Expect discounts of 20-30% depending on the film you choose.
Bear in mind that you are going to be limited to 100 foot rolls of black and white film. This is in part because black and white film is much easier and less expensive to process yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
Any film can be processed at home. In fact it is a smart way to spend less so you can shoot more film with your Canon T50.
Black and white film is by far the easiest to develop yourself. Developer temperature and time are not as vital to get correct with black & white films as temperatures and time are for transparency or color negative.