Best Film for the Nikon Nikkorex Zoom 35
The best film to use in your Nikon Nikkorex Zoom 35 is going to be based on the lighting conditions, your lens, and type of film you want to use.
Working with an ISO 400 film or higher speed will enable you to eliminate being burdened with a tripod or flash.
If you want to be able to to take pictures inside or anywhere there is low light, ensure that you are using a fast lens. Have a look at my list on the 5 Best Lenses for the Nikon Nikkorex Zoom 35 for ideas.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - An excellent choice for a plethora of lighting conditions. Using Kodak UltraMax 400 you should be able to handhold the Nikkorex Zoom 35 in almost all situations.
The images will have great skin tones and tend to be on the warm side.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - An alternative to Kodak that may have far better availability depending on where you are in the world.
Fuji photos tend to have cooler colors with an emphasis on greens and blues, when compared to Kodak.
Lomography 800 - If you want an ISO 800 color 35mm film, there are not very many options. For 35mm film targeted towards consumers, Lomography 800 is the sole choice.
The film is also offered in the 120 film format, for use with a medium format camera.
Kodak Gold 200 - A guaranteed option to obtain that mid-80s through 90s look. Use an on-camera flash to get the “classic” look.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to bring out the best the film can achieve. This will produce the appealing colors everyone loves Gold 200 for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - By far the most popular color negative film among photography enthusiasts online. Overexpose the film by 1 or 2-stops to get the overall look the film is known for.
Portra is also available for purchase in ISO 160 and ISO 800 versions. 8x10 sheets, 4x5 sheets, and rolls of 120 are also manufactured.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With low prices and more than acceptable favorable to be used in the Nikon Nikkorex Zoom 35.
The major draw for budget minded photographers and photography students is the competitive cost. Even if you wouldn’t put yourself in those groups, it’s great to have economical rolls of film available for evaluating newly obtained camera gear.
Kentmere 400 - Manufactured by Harmon Technology, which is the parent company of Ilford. This is good due to the fact that allows this to be the most widely available film out of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Can be less difficult to obtain in Europe as the film is made inside of the Czech Republic by Foma Bohemia.
A good 35mm film to choose for your first few attempts at developing film at home or analog photography. Also a good option if you happen to be looking to try out a camera to ensure that it’s completely operational.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - You can get the lowest price on this film by purchasing it directly from Ultrafine.
If you develop 35mm color film at home, you might have done that with chemicals sold by them.
Professional
The two most frequently used black & white 35mm films are Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400. They possess quite a few capabilities that are comparable that help make them so well received, while retaining different rendering.
Both film emulsions can be pushed 1 or 2 stops and while still generating good photos. A roll of film can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600, making them very versatile.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - The largest differences are that HP5 Plus is cheaper and has less contrast when compared to Tri-X. Less contrast can be nice due to the fact contrast can be changed when making a darkroom print or during digital processing.
The film stock still looks good when pushed 2-stops. It is also recognized for having subdued grain.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film has a more distinctive style. To bring out the old-school grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it should be developed in D-76.
Kodak Tri-X unquestionably has considerably more contrast. That’s excellent if that is the look and feel you will want because it means considerably less work when printmaking or during digital processing.
Slide Film
Reversal film, also known as slide or transparency film, creates a positive picture. That means a lightbox or projector can be used to view the photos.
The colors are not required to be inverted to be viewed, unlike the more readily available negative films.
Slide films are perceived as tough to work with due to the fact slide film has far less dynamic range and latitude when compared with negative film.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. The colors will not seem oversaturated. It is daylight color balanced.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a extraordinarily sharp color balanced for daylight transparency film with lots of contrast and saturation, giving shots a distinct appearance. Velvia has the best resolving power of any available reversal film stock.
There’s also another emulsion with an ISO of 100.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Produces natural and vivid colors with medium contrast and color saturation. It has a daylight color balance and ultrafine grain.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black and white transparency film, claimed by Fomapan as having fine grain, elevated levels of contrast, and very good resolving power. It’s also billed as a replacement for the long discontinued Agfa Scala film emulsion.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Pro film stock have a greater dynamic range, are easier to push, and increased latitude, which is the reason pro-film costs more.
There is a significant difference in availability. Consumer film emulsions can commonly still be bought in big-box stores and pharmacies in limited quantities. Professional level film will need to be purchased from a online retailer or specialized photography store.
ISO
A film’s sensitivity to light is listed as the ISO.
The bigger the ISO of the film, the less light will be necessary to properly expose a photograph. In addition, be prepared to see larger film grain.
ISO 100 and slower films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc) may be problematic to use handheld in the Nikkorex Zoom 35. This is due to the fact that if you do not have full sun, the shutter speeds will probably take more time than what you could handhold without creating motion blur.
A fast lens, tripod, and/or flash are going to assist you with longer exposure times. The additional accessories might not be needed if you decide to use a higher speed ISO 800 or ISO 400 film.
As a quick note, the dial to select film speed is marked as ASA on the Nikon Nikkorex Zoom 35. The switch to using 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 good results. Professional films have a greater latitude along with a slightly higher price.
Negative film has a greater amount of latitude when compared to transparency film. That is a reason it’s perceived as difficult to work with.
Dynamic Range
The range between the shadows and highlights details of a picture is described as dynamic range. Areas of a photograph that don’t fit in this range will appear as totally white overexposed highlights or completely black underexposed shadows.
A larger dynamic range is preferable because it tends to make shooting in a variety of lighting situations easier.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
The small dynamic range of transparency film is another reason it is considered challenging to shoot. Golden hour is the best time to shoot reversal.
Film Type
The Nikon Nikkorex Zoom 35 uses 35mm film that is sold in metal canisters. In addition, it is the best-selling film format and occasionally called 135 film.
120 or 220 film, used with medium format cameras, is the only other film format you are likely to come across}.
Switching the film emulsion you are using will change the look of your shots. This is an example of the fantastic things about using film.
DX Coded Film
Most commercially available 35mm film for sale at this time has DX encoding. This enables electronically controlled cameras to automatically detect and set the ISO when the canister is loaded.
DX-coding won’t make a difference for the Nikon Nikkorex Zoom 35 because ISO is required to be set manually with the ASA knob.
Nikon Nikkorex Zoom 35 Resources
Where to Get Film Developed?
You will find limited possibilities for where to have film developed. For a more in depth explanation of the choices you can check out my guide on Where to Develop Film.
WARNING: Big box stores and pharmacies do not process film at the store. They ship film away to be processed by a 3rd party. Consequently, you will not get your negatives back.
- Develop Film at Home
- Use a Local Photography Lab
- Use a Mail Order Photo Lab
- Pharmacy or Big Box Store
The easiest choice and the method I would suggest doing if you are just getting started shooting film is to ship your film to a photo lab to be processed and scanned. If you frequently shoot film, this might be a drawback due to the fact that it can get really expensive.
There are a couple of activities that can be done to lower the costs involved in using film, on condition that you’re using a moderate to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
Considered one of the best ways to spend less money on film is to buy a bulk roll of 100’ of film and manually load it into canisters yourself.
A 100 foot bulk roll of film can fill up typically around 18 rolls of film with 36 exposures each. Based on the film stock you can expect to save 20%-30%.
Take into account that you are only going to be able to get 100 foot rolls of black and white film. This is in part because black & white film is quite a bit easier and more affordable to process yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
All film can be processed at home. In fact it’s a very good option to lower your costs so that you can shoot more film with your Nikon Nikkorex Zoom 35.
Black and white film is much simpler to develop yourself. Developer temperature and time are both not as vital to do correctly with black & white film as time and temperatures are for color negative or transparency film.