Best Film for the Nikon Nikkorex 35 II
The best film to use in your Nikon Nikkorex 35 II should depend on the lens, lighting, and if you want to shoot color or black & white.
To prevent having to haul around a flash or tripod, select a film that has an ISO of 400 or higher.
Ensure you have a fast lens if you want to take photos in low light, conditions that are frequently encountered indoors. Take a look at my list on the 5 Best Lenses for the Nikon Nikkorex 35 II for recommendations.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - A terrific choice for a diverse range of lighting conditions. Using Kodak UltraMax 400 you should have the ability to handhold the Nikkorex 35 II in most scenarios.
Expect images to look a little bit warm with beautiful colors.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Another option that could have greater availability based on what country you are in.
Fuji images tend to have cooler colors with notable greens and blues, compared to Kodak.
Lomography 800 - If you want a color 35mm film with an ISO of 800, there are only a small number of offerings. For film stocks geared towards consumers, Lomography 800 is the single option.
Lomography 800 can also be purchased in the 120 film format, for use with medium format cameras.
Kodak Gold 200 - A surefire solution to get that mid-1980s through 90s rendering. Use an on-camera flash to get the “classic” film look.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to produce the most popular look the film has to offer. This will provide you with the beautiful colors everyone loves Gold 200 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 appearance the film is known for.
Additionally, ISO 800 and 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 low prices and very good quality, making them favorable for use in the Nikon Nikkorex 35 II.
The primary attraction for photography students and budget minded photographers is the very low cost. Even if you don’t put yourself in those groups, it is great to have inexpensive rolls of film on hand for testing newly obtained camera gear.
Kentmere 400 - It’s made by the parent company of Ilford, Harmon Technology. This is great since that makes this the most commonly available B&W film of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Is likely to be easier to acquire in Europe as the film is produced by Foma Bohemia in the Czech Republic.
A good quality film stock to choose for your first couple of attempts at developing film at home or film photography. Also a good choice if you’re testing out a camera to make sure that it’s completely operational.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The best store to get this film is straight from Ultrafine.
If you process 35mm color film yourself, you may have done that with developer sold by them to process your film.
Professional
Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400 are the two best black & white film emulsions. They possess a lot of attributes in common that help make them so well received, while keeping individual styles.
Both film stocks can be pushed 1 or 2 stops and while still delivering high quality results. This makes the film versatile as a roll can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - The fundamental differences are that HP5 Plus has less contrast and is less expensive in comparison to Tri-X. Lower levels of contrast can be a benefit because of the fact contrast can be changed when making a print in the darkroom or editing digitally.
The film still appears very good when pushed 2-stops. It is also known for having subdued grain.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film stock possesses a stronger rendering. To create the classic grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it will need to be processed in Kodak D-76.
You will definitely see higher levels of contrast with Kodak Tri-X 400. That’s helpful if that is the look you want to have because it means substantially less work when through digital processing or printmaking.
Reversal Film
Transparency film, also known as reversal or slide film, generates a positive picture. That means a lightbox or projector can be used to show the photos.
Colors are not required to be inverted to be viewed, unlike the more widespread negative film emulsions.
Slide films are believed to be tough to work with because slide film has less dynamic range and latitude when compared to negative film.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. The colors do not show up oversaturated. The film is daylight balanced.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a remarkably sharp daylight color balanced reversal film with high levels of saturation and contrast, giving photos a special look. It has the top resolving power of any increased increased.
There is also another emulsion with an ISO of 100.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Creates vivid and realistic 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, reported by Fomapan as having very good resolving power, very fine grain, and increased contrast. It is also mentioned as a alternative for the long discontinued Agfa Scala reversal film.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Professional films cost more due to the fact that they have larger latitude, dynamic range, and can more easily be pushed.
You should be prepared for a significant difference in supply. Consumer films can quite often be seen in big-box stores and pharmacies in anemic quantities. Pro film emulsions often need to be ordered from a photography store or online retailer.
ISO
A film’s light sensitivity is listed as the ISO.
The less light there’s available to expose an image, the bigger the film’s ISO will need to be. Additionally, expect to see increased film grain.
ISO 100 and slower speed films (ISO 50, ISO 25, etc) can be troublesome to use handheld in the Nikkorex 35 II. This is due to the fact that in the absence of full sun, the shutter speeds will most likely be longer than what you can handhold without resulting in motion blur.
A tripod, flash, and/or fast lens will assist you with longer shutter speeds. Using a high speed ISO 800 or ISO 400 film can make the additional gear unnecessary.
As a quick note, the ISO knob is listed as ASA on the Nikon Nikkorex 35 II. The switch to using ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) happened after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Latitude
Film latitude is the range of stops film can be overexposed while still maintaining good images. Pro film emulsions have a greater latitude to go along with a slightly increased price.
Negative film has a larger amount of latitude than reversal film. That is one of the reasons why it’s perceived as difficult to work with.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range is the range between the darkest and brightest details of a photograph that can be recorded. Areas of a photo that do not fit within this range will be seen as totally black underexposed shadows or solid white overexposed highlights.
When working in a wide variety or quickly shifting lighting conditions, film stocks with a bigger dynamic range are a superior choice.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
The limited dynamic range of slide film is a further factor it is thought to be challenging to shoot. The best time to try it out is during the golden hour.
Film Type
35mm film that comes in metal canisters is used by the Nikon Nikkorex 35 II. In addition, it’s the most frequently used film format and occasionally referred to as 135 film.
The only other film format you are probably going to see is 120 or 220 film that is used in medium format cameras}.
Changing the film you are working with will transform the look of your pictures. This is an example of the marvelous things about shooting film.
DX Coded Film
Virtually all available 35mm film on the market today has DX encoding. This makes it possible for cameras to auto detect and set the ISO when the film canister is put in the camera.
The ASA (ISO) on the Nikon Nikkorex 35 II must be manually dialed in. So DX-coding is not going to do anything.
Nikon Nikkorex 35 II Resources
Where to Get 35mm Film Developed?
There are a range of possibilities for where to have film developed. For a more in depth discussion of the possibilities check my article on Where to Develop Film.
WARNING: Film does not get developed locally at big box stores and pharmacies. They send the film off to be developed by a 3rd party. Consequently, you will not be given your processed 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 least complicated option if you are just getting started shooting film. If you consistently use film, this may be a drawback because it can get pricey.
There are two actions that you are capable of doing to limit the expenses required to use film, on condition that you are going through a medium to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
Considered one of the most popular options to get a better price on film is to buy a bulk roll of 100 feet of film and load it into canisters yourself.
A 100’ bulk roll of film should fill up typically around 18 canisters of film containing 36 frames. Look forward to discounts of 20-30% depending on your pick.
Bear in mind that you are only going to be able to get bulk rolls of black & white film. This is due to the fact black & white film is much easier and less expensive to develop at home.
Home Developing and Scanning
You can easily develop and digitize any film at home. In fact it is a smart way to save money so you can shoot more film with your Nikon Nikkorex 35 II.
Black and white film is significantly easier to process. Temperature and time are both not as necessary to do correctly with black and white films as they are for slide or color negative.