Best Film for the Konica Autoreflex TC
The best film to use in your Konica Autoreflex TC will have to depend on the available light, your lens, and if you want to shoot color or black & white.
To eliminate having to haul around a flash or tripod, purchase a 35mm film that has an ISO of 400 or faster.
Ensure you have a fast lens if you want to take photographs in low light, conditions that are frequently found indoors. For lens ideas check out my post on the 5 Best Lenses for the Konica Autoreflex TC.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - A good choice for a plethora of lighting conditions. Using this film you should have the ability to handhold the Autoreflex TC in almost all situations.
Expect images to appear slightly warm with outstanding skin tones.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - An alternative to Kodak that may have far better availability based on what country you are in.
When compared to Kodak, Fujifilm tends to be a little bit cooler with an emphasis on greens and blues.
Lomography 800 - You’re limited to just a few options if you want an ISO 800 speed color 35mm film. This is the only 35mm film stock targeted towards consumers.
Lomography 800 can also be purchased in the 120 film format, for use in a medium format camera.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film stock that started production in the mid-1980s. It offers the look and feel of home snapshots from the 1980s and 90s. Use a flash to get the “nostalgic” look the film is known for.
To bring the ideal look out of this film, you will need to over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops. This will give you the outstanding colors people love Kodak Gold for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - By far the most popular color negative film among photography enthusiasts online. Overexpose it by 1 or 2-stops to get the color the film is known for.
Portra is also available for purchase in ISO 160 and 800 emulsions. 8x10 sheets, 4x5 sheets, and rolls of 120 are also easily found.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With affordable costs and good favorable to be used in the Konica Autoreflex TC.
The primary draw for budget minded photographers and photography students is the low cost. Even if you do not put yourself in that group, it’s good to have low-priced rolls of film readily available for evaluating newly delivered camera gear.
Kentmere 400 - Made by Harmon Technology, which is also the parent company of Ilford. This is good because that makes this the most commonly sold B&W film of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Is likely to be easier to buy in Europe as the film is made by Foma Bohemia in the Czech Republic.
A fine film to work with for your first few attempts at developing film at home or analog photography. Also a good option if you are attempting to check out a camera to make sure that it’s fully functional.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - You can get the lowest price by ordering it directly from Ultrafine.
If you process 35mm color film yourself, you may have done that with chemicals sold by them.
Professional
Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400 are the two most popular black & white 35mm film stocks. They have many attributes that are comparable that help make them so well liked, while retaining individual styles.
Both films can be pushed 1 or 2 stops and while still supplying good quality photos. A roll can be used at ISO 400, 800, or 1600, making them quite versatile.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - Between the two film stocks, HP5 Plus is more affordable and has lower levels of contrast. Minimal amounts of contrast can be an advantage because of the fact contrast can be adjusted when making a darkroom print or editing digitally.
The film stock still appears great when pushed 2-stops. It is also recognized as having subdued grain.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film emulsion has a more distinctive style to it. To bring out the classic grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it needs to be processed in Kodak D-76.
You are going to clearly see greater contrast with Tri-X. That is beneficial if that is the look and feel you need because it results in a smaller amount of work when making a darkroom print or during digital processing.
Transparency Film
Films that make a positive image can be called slide, transparency, or reversal film. That means a lightbox or projector can be used to showcase the photos.
This is unique from the more often used negative films that make images that require the colors to be inverted so that they can be seen.
Slide films are believed to be very hard to work with due to the fact slide film has a lot less dynamic range and latitude compared to negative film.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - The film is known for stunning skin tones and fine grain. The colors won’t show up oversaturated. Ektachrome has a daylight color balance.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a seriously sharp daylight balanced reversal film with lots of contrast and saturation, giving photos a special appearance. It has the highest resolving power of any available transparency film.
An ISO 100 speed is also offered.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Creates vibrant and realistic colors with moderate color saturation and contrast. It has a daylight color balance and ultra fine grain.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black and white reversal film, noted by Fomapan as having excellent resolving power, elevated levels of contrast, and fine grain. It is also billed as a alternative for the discontinued Agfa Scala film emulsion.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Professional film stock have a greater dynamic range, are easier to push, and expanded latitude, that is why pro-film costs more.
There’s a significant difference in where film can be purchased. Consumer films can oftentimes still be seen in pharmacies and big-box stores in limited amounts. Professional quality film will need to be bought from a photography store or online.
ISO
The ISO refers to the film speed, which can also be thought of as the film’s light sensitivity.
The higher the film’s ISO, the less light will be necessary to expose a photograph. Additionally, be prepared for larger film grain.
ISO 100 and slower films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc) may be difficult to shoot handheld in the Autoreflex TC. The will most likely be longer will probably be longer than what you’re able to handhold without resulting in motion blur unless you are shooting in full sun.
A flash, tripod, and/or fast lens can assist you with longer exposure times. The extra equipment might not be needed if you pick a higher speed ISO 800 or ISO 400 film.
As a quick note, the ISO dial is marked as ASA on the Konica Autoreflex TC. The switch 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 a film can be overexposed while keeping tolerable results. Pro film stocks have a greater latitude paired with a slightly higher cost.
Negative film has more latitude than reversal film. That is a reason why it is perceived as more difficult to work with.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range represents the range between the shadows and highlights parts of a picture that can be recorded. Parts of a picture that don’t fit within this range will be rendered as completely white overexposed highlights or totally black underexposed shadows.
A bigger dynamic range is preferable since it makes shooting in a wide variety of lighting conditions easier.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
Transparency film is viewed as a challenge to shoot resulting from the limited dynamic range. Golden hour is the best time to use slide.
Film Type
The Konica Autoreflex TC uses 35mm film that is sold in canisters. 35mm film can also be described as 135 film, and it’s the best-selling film format.
120 or 220 film, used by medium format cameras, is the only other type of film you are probably going to see}.
One of the wonderful properties of film is that you can change the film emulsion you use and get a different look to your images.
DX Coded Film
All new 35mm film made these days has DX encoding. This makes it possible for cameras to automatically detect and set the ISO when the film is put in the camera.
The ASA (ISO) on the Konica Autoreflex TC has to be manually selected. For that reason DX-coding doesn’t matter.
Konica Autoreflex TC Resources
Where to Get 35mm Film Developed?
There are a range of options for where to have 35mm film developed. For a more comprehensive explanation of the possibilities check my article on Where to Develop Film.
WARNING: Film doesn’t get developed locally at pharmacies and big box stores. They mail film off-site to be developed by a third party. Because of this, you will not get your developed negatives back.
- Develop Film at Home
- Use a Local Photography Lab
- Use a Mail Order Photo Lab
- Pharmacy or Big Box Store
Sending film to a mail-order lab to be processed and scanned is the easiest solution if you are just beginning to use film. A disadvantage to this is that it gets very expensive if you are consistently using film.
There are a few things that can be done to lower the expenses involved in using film, assuming that you are using a moderate to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
Purchasing a bulk roll of 100’ of film and manually loading in into canisters yourself is certainly one of the most widely used options to lower your expenses.
Once you are done, you will end up getting about 18 canisters of 36 frames. Count on discounts of 20-30% based on your choice.
Be aware that you are going to be limited to rolls of black & white film. This is due to the fact black and white film is quite a bit easier and cheaper to process yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
Any film can be developed by hand. In fact it’s a smart method to cut costs so that you can use more film with your Konica Autoreflex TC.
Black and white film is by far the least difficult to process yourself. Chemical temperature and development times are not as important to do correctly with black and white film as temperatures and time are for slide or color negative.