Best Film for the Canon T50
The best film to use in the Canon T50 should depend on the lens, lighting conditions, and type of film you want to use.
Choosing an ISO 400 35mm or faster will let you avoid being weighed down with a flash or tripod.
Make sure that you have a fast lens if you want to take images in low light, conditions that are commonly encountered indoors. Go read my brief article on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon T50 for recommendations.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - A great option for a variety of lighting conditions. Using Kodak UltraMax 400 you should be able to handhold the T50 in the majority of situations.
The photos will have extremely good colors and tend to be on the warm side.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Based on where you are in the world, this film could have greater availability. It is an excellent alternative to Kodak film.
In comparison to Kodak, Fujifilm tends to be a small amount cooler with notable blues and greens.
Lomography 800 - You’re limited to just a few offerings if you want a color ISO 800 35mm film. This is the only 35mm film focused on consumers.
Lomography 800 can also be found in the 120 film format, for use with a medium format camera.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film emulsion that was launched in the mid-1980s. Kodak Gold 200 produces the look and feel of family snapshots from the 1980s and 90s. For the classic experience try an on-camera flash.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to reveal the best look the film can achieve. This will give you the gorgeous colors everyone loves 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 rendering the film is well known for.
Plus, ISO 800 and ISO 160 emulsions of Portra. As well as in rolls of 120, 4x5 sheets, and 8x10 sheets.
Black and White Film
Consumer
These film stocks have reasonable costs and more than acceptable quality, making them very popular to use in the Canon T50.
The main draw for photography students and budget minded photographers is the very low price. Even if you do not put yourself in those groups, it’s nice to have relatively cheap rolls of 35 film around for evaluating recently purchased used gear.
Kentmere 400 - It’s made by the parent company of Ilford, Harmon Technology. This is great due to the fact that makes this the most commonly available film of the three.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Is likely to be easier to purchase in Europe as the film is manufactured in the Czech Republic by Foma Bohemia.
A decent film stock to employ for your first couple of attempts at analog photography or home developing. Also a good option if you are attempting to check out a camera to make sure that it’s operating properly.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - You can get the cheapest price by getting it straight from Ultrafine.
If you develop 35mm color film at home, you may have done that with developer produced by them to process your film.
Professional
The 2 most commonly used black & white 35mm films are Kodak Tri-X 400 and Ilford HP-5+ 400. They have quite a few attributes that are similar that make them a favourite, while preserving unique styles.
You can obtain good images after pushing both film emulsions 2-stops. A 35mm roll can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600, making them remarkably versatile.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - Between the two films, HP5 Plus is more affordable and has less contrast. Less contrast can be a benefit due to the fact contrast can be changed when making a darkroom print or through digital post processing.
The film emulsion has subdued grain and still looks outstanding when pushed 2-stops.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film stock has got a stronger rendering. To achieve the traditional grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it needs to be developed in D-76.
You’ll clearly see greater contrast with Tri-X. That’s very good if it happens to be the style you need because it means significantly less work when printmaking or editing digitially.
Slide Film
Film stocks that create a positive image are known as slide, transparency, or reversal film. That means a projector or lightbox can be used to view the pictures.
The colors do not need to be inverted to be viewed, unlike the more readily available negative film emulsions.
Slide films have much less latitude and dynamic range than negative film and so they are viewed as more difficult to use.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - The film is known for fine grain and striking skin tones. The colors will not show up oversaturated. It has been balanced for daylight.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a amazingly sharp color balanced for daylight film with lots of contrast and saturation, giving images a distinctive look. It has the greatest resolving power of any available slide film emulsion.
An ISO 100 speed is also available to buy.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Produces vivid and natural colors with moderate color saturation and contrast. It is a ultrafine grain film balanced for daylight.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white reversal film, claimed by Fomapan as having very fine grain, excellent resolving power, and higher levels of contrast. It is also mentioned as a replacement for the long discontinued Agfa Scala transparency film.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Pro films cost more due to the fact they have a greater dynamic range, are easier to push, and expanded latitude.
There’s a disparity in business that sell rolls of film. Consumer film stocks can often be purchased from big-box stores and pharmacies in small quantities. Professional quality film stocks has to be bought from a camera store or online.
ISO
A film’s sensitivity to light is shown as the ISO.
The higher the film’s ISO, the less light is required to properly expose a film frame. In addition, be prepared to see more noticeable film grain.
ISO 100 and slower films (ISO 50, ISO 25, etc) may be quite challenging to use handheld in the T50. The will be longer will be longer than what you’re able to handhold without producing motion blur unless you’re shooting in full sun.
To prevent motion blur you are going to need to use a fast lens, flash, and/or tripod. Using a fast ISO 400 or ISO 800 film will help make the additional equipment unnecessary.
The ISO knob is labeled as ASA on the Canon T50. The shift to labeling ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) came after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Film Latitude
Latitude is the range of stops film can be overexposed while still having acceptable results. Professional films have a greater latitude paired with a slightly higher cost.
Transparency film has less latitude than negative film. That is one of the reasons it is regarded as difficult to work with.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range is the range between the darkest and brightest details of a photo that can be captured. Areas of an image that do not fit in this range will be seen as completely white overexposed highlights or black underexposed shadows.
When working in a variety or quickly changing lighting conditions, film stocks with a bigger dynamic range is better.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
The constrained dynamic range of slide film is a second reason why it is considered difficult to shoot. An extremely good time to try it out is during the golden hour.
Film Type
The Canon T50 uses 35mm film that is sold in metal canisters. It can also be referred to as 135 film, and it’s the most frequently used film format.
The only other type of film you are likely to encounter is 120 or 220 film that is used with medium format cameras}.
Changing the film you are working with will transform the look of your images. This is an example of the terrific things about film.
DX Coded Film
All available 35mm film on the market at this time has a DX code. This will allow electronically controlled cameras to auto detect and set the ISO when the film is loaded.
The ISO (ASA) on the Canon T50 must be manually selected. Which means DX-coding doesn’t do anything.
Canon T50 Resources
Where to Get Film Developed?
You will find just a few possible choices for where to have film processed. For a more detailed discussion of the possibilities check out my guide on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Pharmacies and big box stores have ended developing film on site. They ship the film away to be developed by a third party. This means that, 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
The most convenient solution and the method I would suggest using if you’re just getting started using film is to ship your film to a photo lab to be processed and scanned. If you consistently use film, this may be a drawback due to the fact that it can get pricey.
So long as you are going through a medium to high volume of film, there are a couple of activities that you are capable of doing to lower your costs.
Bulk Loading Film
Considered one of the most popular methods to spend less money on film is to buy a bulk roll of 100’ of film and manually load canisters yourself.
All said and done, you will get about 18 canisters of 36 frames each. Based on the film you are likely to save 20%-30%.
Keep in mind that you are going to be limited to rolls of black & white film. This is due to the fact black and white film is easier and more cost-effective to develop yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
Any film can be developed at home. In fact it is an excellent method to lower your costs so that you can shoot more film with your Canon T50.
Black and white film is much less difficult to process. Chemical temperature and time are both not as essential to do correctly with black & white films as they are for color negative or slide film.