Best Film for the Nikon Nikkorex F
The best film to use in the Nikon Nikkorex F should depend on the lens, lighting, and type of film you want to shoot.
Taking advantage of an ISO 400 35mm or faster will help you eliminate being burdened with a tripod and/or flash.
If you need to capture photos in low light, such as inside, ensure that you are using a fast lens. Check out my short article on the 5 Best Lenses for the Nikon Nikkorex F for lens suggestions.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - The film handles a wide variety of lighting conditions well and is an excellent choice for a color 35mm film. Kodak UltraMax 400 is fast enough so that you should be able to handhold the Nikkorex F in the majority of scenarios.
Expect photographs to appear slightly warm with beautiful colors.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - An alternative to Kodak that might have greater availability depending on what country you are in.
Fuji pictures appear to have cooler colors with stronger blues and greens, when compared to Kodak.
Lomography 800 - You’re limited to only a small number of options if you want an ISO 800 speed color 35mm film. For 35mm film emulsions targeted towards consumers, this is the only choice.
The emulsion is also available in the 120 film format, for use in medium format cameras.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film that debuted in the mid-1980s. It has the look of family snapshots from the 1980s and 90s. Use an on-camera flash to get the “authentic” look.
To really bring the best out of this film, make sure to over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops. This will provide the fantastic colors everyone loves Kodak Gold for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - By far the most popular color negative film among film shooting enthusiasts online. Overexpose it by 1 or 2-stops to get the look and feel the film is well known for.
There’s also ISO 160 and ISO 800 versions of Portra. 8x10 sheets, 4x5 sheets, and rolls of 120 are also available.
Black and White Film
Consumer
These film emulsions have low costs and very good quality, making them quite popular to use in the Nikon Nikkorex F.
The major draw for photography students and budget minded photographers is the very affordable price. Even if you do not put yourself in that group, it’s nice to have low cost rolls of 35 film on hand for trying out newly acquired used cameras.
Kentmere 400 - Produced by Harmon Technology, which is also the owner of Ilford. This is excellent considering that allows this to be the most broadly available 35mm film out of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Is likely to be much easier to acquire in Europe as the film is made by Foma Bohemia inside of the Czech Republic.
A solid film to work with for your first few attempts at home developing or film photography. Also a good choice if you happen to be attempting to test out a camera to guarantee that it is working correctly.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The best place to purchase this film is directly from Ultrafine.
If you develop 35mm color film at home, you may have used chemicals sold by them.
Professional
Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400 are the 2 top selling black & white 35mm film stocks. While they both have distinctive appearances, they possess many traits in common that help makes them so popular.
You can obtain great photos after pushing both films 2-stops. 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 is cheaper and has less contrast. Lower levels of contrast can be good due to the fact contrast can be added when making a print in the darkroom or during digital post processing.
The film emulsion has subdued grain and still appears great when pushed 2-stops.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film stock has a stronger rendering. To create the classic grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it should be processed in D-76.
You will unquestionably notice greater contrast with Kodak Tri-X. That’s notable if it’s the style you would you like because it results in much less work when during digital post processing or making a print in the darkroom.
Slide Film
Transparency film, also known as reversal film or slide film, produces a positive picture. That means a lightbox or projector can be used to display the photos.
Colors do not need to be inverted to be viewable, as opposed to the more often used negative film stocks.
Slide films have substantially less dynamic range and latitude when compared to negative film and so they are believed to be harder to work with.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. The colors won’t appear oversaturated. It has a daylight color balance.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a very sharp daylight balanced transparency film with lots of contrast and saturation, giving shots a distinct rendering. It has the greatest resolving power of any elevated elevated.
An ISO 100 version is also available for purchase.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Offers vibrant and realistic colors with medium contrast and color saturation. It has ultra fine grain with a daylight color balance.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white slide film, noted by Fomapan as having very good resolving power, very fine grain, and higher contrast. It is also regarded as a replacement for the long discontinued Agfa Scala slide film.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Professional film stock have a greater dynamic range, are easier to push, and bigger latitude, this is why they are more expensive.
There might be a significant difference in supply. Consumer films can generally be bought in big-box stores and pharmacies in limited quantities. Pro film should really be bought from a online or specialized camera store.
ISO
A film’s light sensitivity is represented by the ISO.
The less light there is available to properly expose an image, the bigger the ISO will need to be. This comes at the tradeoff of more film grain.
ISO 100 and slower speed films (ISO 50, ISO 25, etc) is often problematic to use handheld in the Nikkorex F. The will likely take longer might be longer than what you are able to handhold without leading to motion blur unless you are working in full sun.
A flash, fast lens, and/or tripod will assist you with longer shutter speeds. Using a high speed ISO 800 or ISO 400 film will make the additional accessories not needed.
The ISO knob is listed as ASA on the Nikon Nikkorex F. The shift to labeling 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 retaining adequate results. Pro films have a greater latitude to go along with a somewhat higher price.
Reversal film has a smaller amount of latitude compared to negative film. That is one of the reasons why it is believed to be more difficult to shoot.
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 are not in this range will be seen as completely white overexposed highlights or solid black underexposed shadows.
When working in a variety or quickly shifting lighting situations, 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 limited dynamic range of slide film is a second reason it is regarded as difficult to shoot. A great time to test it out would be during the golden hour.
Film Type
35mm film that is sold in metal canisters is used by the Nikon Nikkorex F. 35mm film can also be described as 135 film, and it is the most widely used film format.
120 or 220 film, used with medium format cameras, is the only other type of film you are going to encounter}.
Changing the film emulsion you are using will change the look of your photos. This is one of the marvelous things about using film.
DX Coded Film
All new 35mm film sold at this time has a DX code. This allows cameras to auto detect and set the ISO when the film is loaded.
ASA (ISO) on the Nikon Nikkorex F has to be dialed in manually. Which means that DX-coding doesn’t be of any use.
Nikon Nikkorex F Resources
Where to Get Film Developed?
There are a variety of possible choices for where to have 35mm film developed. For a more extensive discussion of the possible choices see my article on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Big box stores and pharmacies no longer process film locally. They mail film away to be developed by a third party. This means that, you won’t get your negatives back.
- Develop Film at Home
- Use a Local Photography Lab
- Use a Mail Order Photo Lab
- Pharmacy or Big Box Store
Shipping film to a mail-order photo lab to be processed and scanned is the easiest choice if you’re just getting started shooting film. If you frequently use film, this could be a disadvantage since it can get pricey.
Assuming that you are going through a moderate to high volume of film, there are a few actions that you are able to do to greatly reduce your expenses.
Bulk Loading Film
One of the leading methods to save money on film is to buy a bulk roll of 100 feet of film and load canisters yourself.
After you’re done, you will have roughly 18 rolls of 36 frames each. Look forward to cost savings of 20-30% based on the film you purchase.
Bear in mind that you are going to be limited to bulk rolls of black & white film. This is because black and white film is easier and cheaper to develop at home.
Home Developing and Scanning
All film can be processed by hand. It’s a good method to save money so that you can use more film with your Nikon Nikkorex F.
Black & white film is by far the easiest to develop. Temperature and time are not as important to get correct with black & white film as temperatures and time are for color negative or transparency film.