Best Film for the Nikon Nikkorex 35
The best film to use in the Nikon Nikkorex 35 is going to depend on the available light, your lens, and if you want to use color or black & white.
To avoid having to lug around a tripod or flash, choose a 35mm film that has an ISO of 400 or faster.
If you have a need to take pictures indoors or anywhere there is low light, ensure that you are using a fast lens. For lens lens suggestions go read my blog post on the 5 Best Lenses for the Nikon Nikkorex 35.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - The film can be used in a variety of lighting conditions and is a terrific option for a color film. The film is fast enough so that you should be able to handhold the Nikkorex 35 in almost all circumstances.
The photos will have very 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 can be more widely available. It’s a great alternative to Kodak emulsions.
In comparison to Kodak, Fuji appears to be a bit cooler with stronger blues and greens.
Lomography 800 - If you want a color 35mm film with an ISO of 800, there are only a few options. This is literally the only film stock geared towards consumers.
It can also be purchased in the 120 film format, for use with a medium format camera.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film stock that started production in the mid-1980s. Kodak Gold 200 provides the look of home snapshots from the 1980s and 1990s. Use an on-camera flash to get the “classic” look.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to create the best the film can achieve. This will produce the wonderful colors people love Kodak Gold for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - By far the most popular color negative film among enthusiasts online. Overexpose it by 1 or 2-stops to get the rendering the film is well known for.
Additionally, ISO 800 and ISO 160 emulsions of Kodak Portra. 8x10 sheets, 4x5 sheets, and rolls of 120 are also available.
Black and White Film
Consumer
These film stocks have affordable costs and very good quality, making them very popular to use in the Nikon Nikkorex 35.
The main draw for photography students and budget minded photographers is the competitive price. Even if you do not put yourself in that group, it’s nice to have comparatively cheap rolls of 35 film on hand for evaluating newly delivered used cameras.
Kentmere 400 - It is produced by the parent company of Ilford, Harmon Technology. This is good due to the fact that allows this to be the most widely sold film out of the three.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Will be easier to acquire in Europe as the film is made by Foma Bohemia out of the Czech Republic.
An excellent film emulsion to employ for your first few attempts at developing film at home or analog photography. Also a good selection if you’re testing out a camera to check that it is operating properly.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The cheapest store to purchase this film is directly from Ultrafine.
If you develop film at home, you may have used chemicals sold by them to process your film.
Professional
The two most frequently used black & white films are Kodak Tri-X 400 and Ilford HP-5+ 400. While they both have unique looks, they have many attributes in common that makes them so popular.
Both films can be pushed 2 stops and deliver good quality photographs. This makes the film versatile as a roll can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - The most important differences are that HP5 Plus has lower levels of contrast and is less expensive compared to Tri-X. Lower levels of contrast can be nice because contrast can be increased when making a darkroom print or editing digitally.
The film stock has subdued grain and still appears outstanding when pushed 2-stops.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film has got a stronger rendering to it. To produce the legendary grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it should be processed in D-76.
Kodak Tri-X 400 undoubtedly has more contrast. That’s great if it is the style you would prefer because it involves considerably less work when making a print in the darkroom or editing digitially.
Slide Film
Reversal film, also known as transparency or slide film, produces a positive picture. This means the pictures can be exhibited with a projector or light box.
The colors do not need to be inverted to be seen, contrary to the more readily available negative film stocks.
Slide films have substantially less latitude and dynamic range when compared to negative films and so they are believed to be tougher to work with.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. There’s not any hypersaturation of colors. It is daylight balanced.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a extraordinarily sharp daylight balanced reversal film with high levels of saturation and contrast, giving shots a distinct look. When compared to all the transparency films available to buy, it has the top resolving power.
An ISO 100 emulsion is also out there.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Creates realistic and vibrant colors with medium contrast and color saturation. It has a daylight color balance and ultrafine grain.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white transparency film, reported by Fomapan as having very good resolving power, very fine grain, and increased levels of contrast. It’s also billed as a substitute for the long discontinued Agfa Scala transparency film.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Professional film stocks cost more because they can more easily be pushed, have larger latitude, and dynamic range.
There’s a big difference in business that sell 35mm rolls of film. Consumer film stocks can generally still be found in pharmacies and big-box stores in meager quantities. Professional quality film stocks needs to be purchased from a photography store or online retailer.
ISO
The ISO refers to the speed of the film, which can also be thought of as the film’s light sensitivity.
The less light there’s available to properly expose an image, the higher the ISO of the film will be needed. Also, be prepared to see more noticeable film grain.
ISO 100 and slower speed films (ISO 50, ISO 25, etc) may be frustrating to use handheld with the Nikkorex 35. The might take more time might take longer than what you are able to handhold without resulting in motion blur unless you’re working in full sun.
A fast lens, flash, and/or tripod are going to assist you with longer exposure times. The additional gear might not be needed if you choose to use a faster ISO 400 or ISO 800 film.
The ISO selection knob is marked as ASA on the Nikon Nikkorex 35. The transition to labeling ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) happened after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Film Latitude
Latitude is the number of stops a film can be overexposed while still maintaining usable photographs. Pro films have a greater latitude paired with a somewhat higher price.
Transparency film has less latitude than negative film. That is a reason why it is viewed as harder to work with.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range represents the range between the shadows and highlights parts of a picture that can be captured. Areas of an image that do not fit within this range will be rendered as white overexposed highlights or black underexposed shadows.
A bigger dynamic range is ideal because it helps make working in variable lighting conditions easier.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
Reversal film is regarded as tough to shoot as a consequence of the constrained dynamic range. Golden hour is the prime time to shoot transparency.
Film Type
35mm film that is in canisters is used by the Nikon Nikkorex 35. It’s also the most frequently used film format and is on occasion called 135 film.
The only other film format you are going to encounter is 120 or 220 film that is used in medium format cameras}.
One of the fantastic things about film is that you can switch the film stock you work with and get a new look to your photographs.
DX Coded Film
Nearly all new 35mm film offered for sale currently has DX encoding on the canister. This lets electronically controlled cameras to automatically detect and set the ISO when the film canister is loaded.
The ISO (ASA) on the Nikon Nikkorex 35 is required to be manually dialed in. So DX-coding does not be of any use.
Nikon Nikkorex 35 Resources
Where to Get 35mm Film Developed?
You will find just a few options for where to get film developed. For a more comprehensive explanation of the possibilities check out my guide on Where to Develop Film.
WARNING: Big box stores and pharmacies do not process film at the store. They ship the film away to be processed by a 3rd party. Because of that, you won’t get your processed negatives back.
- Develop Film at Home
- Use a Local Photography Lab
- Use a Mail Order Photo Lab
- Pharmacy or Big Box Store
The most straightforward solution and the method I would suggest doing if you are just beginning to use film is to ship your film to a photo lab to be processed and scanned. A downside to this is that it will become very expensive if you regularly shoot film.
There are a few activities that you can do to lower the expenses required to use film, provided that you’re using a moderate to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
Certainly one of the leading methods to reduce costs on film is to buy a roll of 100 feet of film and manually load canisters yourself.
A 100 foot roll can fill up around 18 rolls of film containing 36 exposures. Depending on the film you can expect to save 20%-30%.
Be aware that you’re only going to be able to get rolls of black and white film. This is in part because black & white film is easier and more cost-effective to process at home.
Home Developing and Scanning
It’s possible to process and scan film at home. It’s an intelligence option to cut costs so you can shoot more film with your Nikon Nikkorex 35.
Black and white film is much simpler to process at home. Chemical temperature and development times are both not as crucial to get correct with black & white film as they are for color negative or slide film.