Best Film for the Konica Autoreflex T3
The best film to use in the Konica Autoreflex T3 should depend on your lens, lighting, and type of film you want to use.
To avoid having to lug around a tripod or flash, choose a film that has an ISO of 400 or higher.
If you need to shoot photographs in low light, such as inside, ensure that you have a fast lens. Take a look at my post on the 5 Best Lenses for the Konica Autoreflex T3 for lens ideas.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - A great choice for a diverse range of conditions. Using this film you should have the ability to handhold the Autoreflex T3 in the vast majority of scenarios.
The images will have wonderful skin tones and is on the warm side.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Based on where you are in the world, this film may be more widely available. It is a great alternative to Kodak emulsions.
Fuji pictures appear to have cooler tones with notable blues and greens, when compared to Kodak.
Lomography 800 - If you want an ISO 800 color film, there are only a small number of offerings. For film targeted towards consumers, this is the single option.
Furthermore, if you own a medium format camera, it is also available in 120 film format.
Kodak Gold 200 - A guaranteed solution to get that mid-1980s through 90s look. For the authentic shooting experience use a flash.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to create the best look the film has to offer. This will ensure that you get the striking colors everyone loves Kodak Gold for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - Among the enthusiasts online, Portra 400 is definitely the most popular color negative film. Overexpose it by 1 or 2-stops to get the appearance the film is known for.
Kodak Portra is also available for purchase in ISO 160 and 800 versions. 8x10 sheets, 4x5 sheets, and rolls of 120 are also available.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With low prices and good quite popular for use in the Konica Autoreflex T3.
The primary attraction for budget minded photographers and photography students is the very low price. Even if you do not put yourself in those groups, it is nice to have low cost rolls of 35 film around for trying out recently purchased used cameras.
Kentmere 400 - Produced by Harmon Technology, which is the parent company of Ilford. This is excellent since that allows this to be the most commonly available B&W film out of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - It will probably less difficult to buy in Europe as the film is produced by Foma Bohemia out of the Czech Republic.
A suitable film to work with for your initial few attempts at home developing or film photography. Also a good choice if you happen to be attempting to try out a camera to confirm that it is operating properly.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The cheapest store to buy this film is online directly from Ultrafine.
If you process 35mm color film at home, you might have done that with chemicals sold by them to develop your film.
Professional
Kodak Tri-X 400 and Ilford HP-5+ 400 are the 2 best black and white film emulsions. They possess numerous traits that are comparable that help make them so well liked, while preserving individual looks.
Both film emulsions can be pushed 2 stops and produce great photographs. This makes the film versatile as a roll can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - The most significant differences are that HP5 Plus is cheaper and has lower levels of contrast compared to Tri-X. Lower levels of contrast can be a benefit because of the fact contrast can be added when making a print in the darkroom or through digital processing.
The film still looks excellent when pushed 2-stops. It is also noted for having subdued grain.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film has got a stronger aesthetic to it. To produce the classic grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it needs to be developed in Kodak D-76.
You are going to unquestionably notice considerably more contrast with this film emulsion. That’s fantastic if that is the overall look you are looking for because it results in a great deal less work when editing digitially or making a print in the darkroom.
Slide Film
Slide film, also known as reversal or transparency film, creates a positive image. That means a projector or lightbox can be used to exhibit the photographs.
This is different from the more widespread negative film emulsions that create pictures that need inverting the colors so that they can be viewable.
Slide films have a smaller amount of dynamic range and latitude when compared with negative films and so they are believed to be more difficult to use.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - The film is known for superb skin tones and fine grain. The colors won’t look oversaturated. It is daylight balanced.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - Offers beautiful looking shots that have noticeably elevated amounts of contrast and saturation. It is sharp and balanced for daylight. Velvia has the highest resolving power of any elevated increased.
There is also another version that is ISO 100.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Delivers realistic 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 & white transparency film, claimed by Fomapan as having very fine grain, higher levels of contrast, and excellent resolving power. It is also regarded as a replacement for the discontinued Agfa Scala film emulsion.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Pro film stocks cost more since they have a greater dynamic range, are easier to push, and increased latitude.
There’s a big difference in availability. Consumer film emulsions can generally still be bought in big-box stores and pharmacies in small quantities. Pro film needs to be bought from a online retailer or photography store.
ISO
The ISO signifies the film speed, which may also be thought of as the film’s light sensitivity.
The less light there’s available to get an image, the bigger the film’s ISO will have to be. In addition, be prepared to see more film grain.
ISO 100 and slower films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc) is often quite challenging to shoot handheld with the Autoreflex T3. The will most likely be longer will likely take longer than what you are able to handhold without resulting in motion blur unless you’re out in full sun.
A fast lens, tripod, and/or flash will assist you with longer shutter speeds. Using a fast ISO 400 or ISO 800 film probably will make the additional equipment not needed.
The ISO knob is labeled as ASA on the Konica Autoreflex T3. The shift to using ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) came after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Film Latitude
Film latitude is the number of stops a film can be overexposed while still retaining good results. Professional film emulsions have a larger latitude paired with a slightly increased cost.
Transparency film has less latitude when compared to negative film. That is one of the reasons why it’s deemed to be more challenging to use.
Dynamic Range
The difference between the brightest and darkest details of an image is described as dynamic range. Parts of a photo that fall out of this range will be seen as solid black underexposed shadows or totally white overexposed highlights.
A larger dynamic range is ideal because a bigger range helps make working in various lighting situations easier.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
Transparency film is thought to be challenging to use as a consequence of the small dynamic range. Golden hour is the best time to shoot slide.
Film Type
The Konica Autoreflex T3 uses 35mm film that is sold in metal canisters. It’s also the most widely used film format and is on occasion called 135 film.
120 or 220 film, used with medium format cameras, is the only other type of film you are likely to encounter}.
Swapping the film you are using will alter the look of your pictures. This is one of the terrific things about shooting film.
DX Coded Film
Just about all available 35mm film made today has a DX code. This will allow electronically controlled cameras to detect and set the ISO when the canister is loaded.
The ASA (ISO) on the Konica Autoreflex T3 is required to be manually set. As a result DX-coding is not going to matter.
Konica Autoreflex T3 Resources
Where to Get Film Developed?
There are a handful of options for where to have film processed. For a more complete explanation of the possible choices take a look at my guide on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Pharmacies and big box stores no longer develop film locally. They send the film off-site to be processed by a separate company. Because of 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
Sending your film to a mail-order photo lab to be processed and scanned is the least complicated option if you’re just getting started shooting film. If you regularly use film, this could be a downside since it can get expensive.
As long as you’re going through a moderate to high volume of film, there are a couple of things that you are capable of doing to cut back on your costs.
Bulk Loading Film
One of the best ways to lower your costs on film is to buy a bulk roll of 100 feet of film and load it into canisters by hand.
Once you are done, you will end up getting approximately 18 rolls of 36 exposures. Expect savings of 20-30% depending on the film you opt for.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you are limited to 100 foot rolls of black & white film. This is in part because black & white film is a lot easier and more affordable to develop at home.
Home Developing and Scanning
All film can be developed at home. It is a great method to lower your costs so you can shoot more film with your Konica Autoreflex T3.
Black and white film is by far the least complicated to develop at home. Chemical temperature and time are not as essential to get correct with black & white film as they are for color negative or slide film.