Best Film for the Nikon N6000
The best film to use in your Nikon N6000 should be based on the lighting, lens, and if you want to shoot color or black & white.
To prevent having to lug around a tripod and/or flash, opt for a 35mm film that has an ISO of 400 or faster.
If you want to be able to to capture images inside or anywhere there is low light, make sure that you are using a fast lens. For lens lens ideas go read my guide on the 5 Best Lenses for the Nikon N6000.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - This film can be used in a multitude of lighting conditions and is a great pick for a color 35mm film. The film is fast enough so that you should be able to handhold the N6000 in the majority of circumstances.
Expect images to appear slightly warm with wonderful skin tones.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Depending on where you are in the world, this film can have greater availability. It’s a very good alternative to Kodak film.
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 only a few choices. For film stocks targeted towards consumers, this is the only choice.
Furthermore, if you own a medium format camera, it’s also for sale in 120 film format.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film that was launched in the mid-1980s. The film offers the look and feel of home snapshots from the 1980s and 1990s. Use an on-camera flash to get the “nostalgic” look the film is known for.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to reveal the most popular look the film can achieve. This will give you the outstanding colors people love Kodak Gold 200 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 highly regarded for.
Kodak Portra is also available in ISO 160 and 800 versions. 8x10 sheets, 4x5 sheets, and rolls of 120 film are also easily found.
Black and White Film
Consumer
These film stocks have low costs and more than acceptable quality, making them favorable to try in the Nikon N6000.
The major attraction for budget minded photographers and photography students is the very affordable price. Even if you do not put yourself in that group, it is nice to have inexpensive rolls of film around for trying out newly delivered camera gear.
Kentmere 400 - Made by Harmon Technology, which is also the owner of Ilford. This is notable since that makes this the most widely available 35mm film of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Will be less difficult to find in Europe as the film is produced by Foma Bohemia in the Czech Republic.
An excellent film emulsion to work with for your initial couple of attempts at developing film at home or film photography. Also a good choice if you’re trying out a camera to make sure that it is completely functional.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The cheapest place to get this film is directly from Ultrafine.
They manufacture chemical developer kits for 35mm film, so if you process film at home you may have already interacted with them.
Professional
The two most widely used black and white film stocks are Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400. They do have numerous qualities in common that make them popular, while maintaining unique appearances.
Both film emulsions can be pushed 1 or 2 stops and while still producing good images. 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 has less contrast and is cheaper. Minimal amounts of contrast can be helpful due to the fact contrast can be added when making a darkroom print or during digital post processing.
The film stock has subtle grain and still looks outstanding when pushed 2-stops.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film stock possesses a more distinctive aesthetic. To showcase the old-school grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it will need to be processed in Kodak D-76.
You are going to undoubtedly notice more contrast with Kodak Tri-X 400. That is beneficial if it’s the style you are looking for because it requires a great deal less work when through digital processing or making a darkroom print.
Transparency Film
Film stocks that make a positive image are often referred to as transparency, slide, or reversal film. This means the photographs can be viewed with a light box or projector.
The colors do not need to be inverted to be viewed, unlike the more often used negative film emulsions.
Slide films have substantially less latitude and dynamic range when compared with negative films and so they are thought to be tougher to use.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. There is not any hypersaturation of colors. Ektachrome is daylight color balanced.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a amazingly sharp color balanced for daylight reversal film with high levels of saturation and contrast, giving photos a appealing appearance. Matched against all the slide films available, it has the greatest resolving power.
There is also another speed with an ISO of 100.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Produces vivid 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, marketed by Fomapan as having increased levels of contrast, fine grain, and high resolving power. It’s also billed as a alternative for the discontinued Agfa Scala.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Pro film stock have increased latitude, are easier to push, and expanded dynamic range, which is the reason pro-film costs more.
There may be a significant difference in supply. Consumer film stocks can generally be purchased from pharmacies and big-box stores in limited quantities. Professional quality film emulsions has to be purchased from a specialized photography store or online.
ISO
A film’s sensitivity to light is represented by the ISO.
The higher the ISO, the less light will be necessary to properly expose an image. This comes at the cost of larger film grain.
It is often quite challenging to handhold the N6000 with ISO 100 or slower films (ISO 50, ISO 25, etc). The will most likely be longer will probably be longer than what you can handhold without resulting in motion blur unless you’re in full sun.
To get around motion blur you’ll need to use a tripod, a fast lens, and/or a flash. Using a fast ISO 400 or ISO 800 film will likely make the extra gear not needed.
The ISO knob is labeled as ASA on the Nikon N6000. The shift to labeling ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) happened after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Latitude
Latitude is the number of stops a film can be overexposed while still maintaining acceptable results. Pro films have a greater latitude along with a slightly higher cost.
Transparency film has a smaller amount of latitude than negative film. That is a reason it is thought of harder to use.
Dynamic Range
The range between the darkest and brightest parts of a photograph is known as dynamic range. Parts of a picture that do not fit within this range will be rendered as solid black underexposed shadows or white overexposed highlights.
A bigger dynamic range is better since a bigger range tends to make shooting in a wide variety of lighting conditions easier.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
Transparency film is viewed as hard to use because of the small dynamic range. An extremely good time to try it is during the golden hour.
Film Type
35mm film that is sold in canisters is used by the Nikon N6000. In addition, it is the most commonly used type of film and sometimes called 135 film.
120 or 220 film, used with medium format cameras, is the only other type of film you are going to encounter}.
Swapping the film you are working with will transform the look of your images. This is an example of the excellent things about shooting film.
DX Coded Film
Virtually all new 35mm film manufactured at this time has a DX code. This will allow cameras to auto detect and set the ISO of the canister loaded into the camera.
ASA (ISO) on the Nikon N6000 has to be manually set. For that reason DX-coding is not going to do anything.
Nikon N6000 Resources
Where to Get Film Developed?
There are only a few possible choices for where to develop film. For a more in depth explanation of the options you can check out my article on Where to Develop Film.
WARNING: Film does not get processed locally at pharmacies and big box stores. They mail film away to be processed by a third party. Because of this, you will not get 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 your film to a mail-order lab to be processed and scanned is the least complicated choice if you’re just beginning to shoot film. A drawback to this is that it will become pricey if you’re frequently shooting film.
Assuming that you are going through a medium to high volume of film, there are a few things that can be done to decrease your expenses.
Bulk Loading Film
Getting a bulk roll of 100 feet of film and loading in into canisters by hand is considered one of the most common methods to reduce costs.
A 100’ bulk roll will load approximately 18 rolls of film containing 36 exposures each. You should expect to save 20-30% depending on the film.
Bear in mind that you are limited to 100’ rolls of black & white film. This is in part because black and white film is a lot easier and more cost-effective to develop yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
It is possible to process and scan film yourself. In fact it is an excellent option to lower your costs so that you can shoot more film with your Nikon N6000.
Black & white film is much easier to process yourself. Developer temperature and development times are both not as imperative to get correct with black and white films as time and temperatures are for slide or color negative.