Best Film for the Nikon N80
The best film to use in the Nikon N80 should be based on the lighting, lens, and type of film you want to use.
To prevent having to haul around a flash or tripod, select a 35mm film that has an ISO of 400 or faster.
Make sure you have a fast lens if you want to take images in low light, conditions that are often found indoors. Take a look at my post on the 5 Best Lenses for the Nikon N80 for lens ideas.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - This film works well in a multitude of lighting conditions and is a good pick for a color 35mm film. Using this film you should have the ability to handhold the N80 in the vast majority of scenarios.
Expect photos to appear slightly warm with beautiful skin tones.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Based on where you are in the world, this film could have greater availability. It is a top quality alternative to Kodak film.
When compared to Kodak, Fujifilm tends to be a small amount cooler with notable greens and blues.
Lomography 800 - If you want a color film with an ISO of 800, there aren’t many options. This happens to be the only film geared towards consumers.
Lomography 800 is also sold in the 120 film format, to be used in medium format cameras.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film that was launched in the mid-1980s. The film offers the look and feel of family snapshots from the 80s and 1990s. For the authentic photography experience have a flash.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to bring out the most popular look the film can achieve. This will provide the great colors people love Kodak Gold 200 for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - Among photography enthusiasts online, Portra 400 is the top color negative 35mm film. Overexpose the film by 1 or 2-stops to get the appearance the film is well known for.
Kodak Portra is also for sale in ISO 800 and ISO 160 emulsions. 8x10 sheets, 4x5 sheets, and rolls of 120 are also available.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With reasonable costs and good quite popular to try in the Nikon N80.
The main appeal for photography students and budget minded photographers is the very affordable cost. Even if you wouldn’t put yourself in those groups, it’s good to have economical rolls of 35 film readily available for testing recently obtained camera gear.
Kentmere 400 - Produced by Harmon Technology, which is the owner of Ilford. This is great due to the fact that allows this to be the most widely sold B&W film out of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Might be less difficult to get in Europe as the film is produced by Foma Bohemia inside of the Czech Republic.
A great film to work with for your initial few attempts at analog photography or home developing. Also a good choice if you are testing out a camera to guarantee that it’s totally operational.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - You can get the cheapest price on this film by purchasing it from Ultrafine.
If you develop color film yourself, you could have done that with developer produced by them to develop your film.
Professional
The two most widely used black & white films are Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400. They possess several attributes that are similar that help make them a favourite, while keeping distinctive rendering.
You can create good quality photographs after pushing both film stocks 2-stops. A roll can be used at ISO 400, 800, or 1600, making them remarkably useful.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - The fundamental differences are that HP5 Plus has less contrast and is less expensive in comparison to Tri-X. Less contrast can be a benefit due to the fact contrast can be added when making a print in the darkroom or editing digitally.
The film emulsion has subtle grain and still appears excellent when pushed 2-stops.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film possesses a more distinctive aesthetic to it. To showcase the classic grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it will need to be processed in Kodak D-76.
You will without a doubt see a higher level of contrast with Kodak Tri-X 400. That is beneficial if it’s the look you want to have because it involves much less work when during digital post processing or making a print in the darkroom.
Slide Film
Film emulsions that create a positive image are typically referred to as reversal, transparency, or slide film. That means a lightbox or projector can be used to showcase the photographs.
This is distinct from the more prevalent negative films that produce photographs that require inverting the colors in order to be viewed.
Slide films have far less dynamic range and latitude compared to negative films and so they are viewed as more challenging to shoot.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a film known for wonderful skin tones and fine grain. There is not any hypersaturation of colors. Ektachrome has been color balanced for daylight.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - Delivers distinct looking shots that have elevated amounts of saturation and contrast. It is razor-sharp and balanced for daylight. Velvia has the best resolving power of any available transparency film emulsion.
You can also get it in an ISO 100 emulsion.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Delivers vivid and realistic colors with medium contrast and color saturation. It’s a ultra fine grain film with a daylight color balance.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black and white slide film, noted by Fomapan as having very fine grain, high resolving power, and higher contrast. It is also regarded as a alternative for the discontinued Agfa Scala.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Professional films cost more due to the fact that they can more easily be pushed, have improved dynamic range, and latitude.
You should expect a significant difference in where film can be purchased. Consumer films can usually still be purchased from pharmacies and big-box stores in small amounts. Professional quality film has to be purchased from a photography store or online.
ISO
A film’s light sensitivity is listed as the ISO.
The less light there’s available to properly expose an image, the higher the film’s ISO will need to be. In addition, be prepared to see bigger film grain.
It may be challenging to handhold the N80 with ISO 100 or slower speed films (ISO 50, ISO 25, etc). This is because without full sun, the exposure times will probably take longer than what you are able to handhold without creating motion blur.
A fast lens, tripod, and/or flash are going to assist you with longer exposure times. Using a fast ISO 800 or ISO 400 film often makes the additional accessories not needed.
As a quick note, the ISO knob is labeled as ASA on the Nikon N80. The switch to labeling ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) came after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Film Latitude
Film latitude is the amount of stops a film can be overexposed while still retaining usable photographs. Professional films have a larger latitude to go along with a somewhat increased cost.
Negative film has more latitude compared to slide film. That is one of the reasons it’s regarded as challenging to work with.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range represents the range between the highlights and shadows parts of an image that can be captured. Areas of a picture that fall out of this range will be seen as completely white overexposed highlights or black underexposed shadows.
When shooting in a variety or quickly changing lighting conditions, film stocks with a larger dynamic range is better.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
The constrained dynamic range of transparency film is a further reason it’s thought to be a challenge to shoot. Golden hour is the best time to shoot reversal.
Film Type
35mm film that is in canisters is used by the Nikon N80. It is also the best-selling film format and is on occasion called 135 film.
120 or 220 film, used by medium format cameras, is the only other type of film you are likely to encounter}.
One of the excellent things about film is that you can switch the film you use and get a totally different look to your shots.
DX Coded Film
Almost all new 35mm film on the market currently has DX encoding. This makes it possible for electronically controlled cameras to automatically detect and set the ISO when the film is put in the camera.
DX-coding isn’t going to matter for the Nikon N80 because ISO needs to be selected manually.
Nikon N80 Resources
Where to Get 35mm Film Developed?
There are limited options for where to process film. For a more complete explanation of the possibilities see my guide on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Film is no longer developed locally at big box stores and pharmacies. They mail film away to be developed by a separate company. Consequently, you won’t 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
The least complicated choice and the method I suggest doing if you’re just starting to shoot film is to ship your film to a lab to be developed and scanned. If you consistently shoot film, this might be a disadvantage since it can get expensive.
There are a few actions that can be done to help reduce the costs involved in using film, on condition that you are using a moderate to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
One of the most well known ways to lower your expenses on film is to buy a roll of 100’ of film and load canisters yourself.
A 100’ bulk roll of film should fill up approximately 18 canisters of film with 36 frames. Expect to see savings of 20-30% based on the film.
Be aware that you’re limited to 100 foot rolls of black & white film. This is due to the fact black and white film is easier and less expensive to process yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
You can easily process and scan film at home. In fact it is a very good way to save money so that you can shoot more film with your Nikon N80.
Black and white film is by far the easiest to process. Developer temperature and development times are both not as necessary to do correctly with black & white films as time and temperatures are for transparency or color negative.