Best Film for the Olympus OM-10
The best film to use in your Olympus OM-10 will have to be based on the lighting conditions, lens, and type of film you want to shoot.
To avoid having to lug around a flash or tripod, opt for a film that has an ISO of 400 or faster.
If you want to capture photographs inside or anywhere there is low light, ensure that you are using a fast lens. For lens ideas go to my blog post on the 5 Best Lenses for the Olympus OM-10.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - The film can be used in a plethora of lighting conditions and is a great option for a color film. Kodak UltraMax 400 is fast enough so that you should be able to handhold the OM-10 in the majority of scenarios.
The pictures will have terrific skin tones and is on the warm side.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Based on where you are in the world, this film could have greater availability. It’s an excellent alternative to Kodak film.
When compared to Kodak, Fujifilm tends to be a bit cooler with stronger blues and greens.
Lomography 800 - If you want an ISO 800 color film, there are not many possible choices. This is literally the only 35mm film geared towards consumers.
Lomography 800 can also be found in the 120 film format, to be used in a medium format camera.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film emulsion that was released in the mid-1980s. Gold 200 produces the look of snapshots from the 80s and 90s. For the genuine experience take advantage of an on-camera flash.
To really bring the best out of the film, you will have to over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops. This will give you the fantastic colors people love Kodak Gold for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - By far the most popular color negative film among film shooting enthusiasts online. Overexpose Portra 400 by 1 or 2-stops to get the color the film is known for.
Portra is also available for purchase in ISO 160 and ISO 800 versions. It is also offered in rolls of 120 film, 4x5 sheets, and 8x10 sheets.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With low prices and excellent favorable for use in the Olympus OM-10.
The biggest attraction for budget minded photographers and photography students is the low price. Even if you wouldn’t put yourself in that group, it’s nice to have economical rolls of film available for trying out recently delivered used cameras.
Kentmere 400 - It’s made by the parent company of Ilford, Harmon Technology. This is great considering that makes this the most broadly sold B&W film of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Will be easier to obtain in Europe as the film is manufactured in the Czech Republic by Foma Bohemia.
A solid film to try for your first couple of attempts at home developing or analog photography. Also a good option if you happen to be trying out a camera to check that it is functioning properly.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The cheapest place to buy this film is online directly from Ultrafine.
If you process color film yourself, you might have used developer sold by them to develop your film.
Professional
The 2 most commonly used black & white 35mm film emulsions are Kodak Tri-X 400 and Ilford HP-5 Plus 400. While they both possess distinctive looks, they have a large amount of characteristics in common that help makes them so well liked.
You can achieve quality results 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 has less contrast and is more affordable. A lack of contrast can be a benefit because of the fact contrast can be adjusted when making a darkroom print or editing digitally.
The film still appears outstanding when pushed 2-stops. It is also notable for having subtle grain.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film has a more distinctive rendering. To produce the classic grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it will need to be processed in Kodak D-76.
Kodak Tri-X undoubtedly has higher levels of contrast. That is notable if it’s the look you need because it means less work when printmaking or editing digitially.
Reversal Film
Film stocks that produce a positive image can be called reversal, transparency, or slide film. That means a projector or lightbox can be used to display the pictures.
This is unique from the more prevalent negative films that make photographs that require the colors to be inverted in order to be seen.
Slide films are believed to be tricky to shoot due to the fact slide film has far less latitude and dynamic range compared to negative film.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. There’s virtually no hypersaturation of colors. Ektachrome is daylight balanced.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a remarkably sharp daylight balanced reversal film with high levels of contrast and saturation, giving photographs a unique rendering. Velvia has the top resolving power of any available reversal film stock.
There is another speed with an ISO of 100.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Delivers natural and vivid colors with moderate color saturation and contrast. It is a ultra fine grain film balanced for daylight.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black and white reversal film, described by Fomapan as having excellent resolving power, fine grain, and higher contrast. It’s also regarded as a replacement for the discontinued Agfa Scala reversal film.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Professional films cost more because they have greater dynamic range, latitude, and are easier to push.
There’s a big difference in supply. Consumer films can generally be purchased from big-box stores and pharmacies in anemic quantities. Pro film stocks will need to be ordered from a online or specialized camera store.
ISO
The filml speed is displayed by ISO, that can also be thought of as the film’s sensitivity to light.
The less light there is available to expose an image, the bigger the ISO will be needed. This comes at the expense of noticeably increased film grain.
It might be hard to handhold the OM-10 with ISO 100 or slower speed films (ISO 50, ISO 25, etc). The might take more time will most likely take longer than what you’re able to handhold without producing motion blur unless you are out in full sun.
A fast lens, flash, and/or tripod can assist you with longer exposure times. The extra equipment might not be needed if you use a faster ISO 800 or ISO 400 film.
The ISO dial is marked as ASA on the Olympus OM-10. The switch to labeling ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) came after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Latitude
Film latitude is the amount of stops film can be overexposed while producing good photographs. Pro film stocks have a larger latitude to go along with a slightly higher price.
Slide film has a smaller amount of latitude when compared to negative film. That is a reason it is deemed to be harder to shoot.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range represents the range between the shadows and highlights details of a picture that can be recorded. Areas of a picture that don’t fit in this range will appear as solid white overexposed highlights or totally black underexposed shadows.
When working in a variety or quickly shifting lighting conditions, films with a larger dynamic range is better.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
Slide film is thought to be tough to shoot because of the small dynamic range. An extremely good time to give it a try would be during the golden hour.
Film Type
The Olympus OM-10 takes 35mm film that is sold in metal canisters. It can also be referred to as 135 film, and it’s the most commonly used film format.
The only other film format you are likely to come across is 120 or 220 film that is used in medium format cameras}.
Switching the film stock you are working with will alter the look of your images. This is an example of the excellent things about shooting film.
DX Coded Film
All new 35mm film for sale today has DX encoding on the canister. This makes it possible for cameras to detect and set the ISO when the canister is loaded into the camera.
The ASA (ISO) on the Olympus OM-10 must be manually set. As a result DX-coding doesn’t make a difference.
Olympus OM-10 Resources
Where to Get Film Developed?
You will find a few possible choices for where to have 35mm film developed. For a more thorough explanation of the choices you can check out my article on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Film is no longer processed on site at pharmacies and big box stores. They send film off-site to be developed by a 3rd party. As a consequence, 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
Shipping your film to a mail-order lab to be processed and scanned is the least complicated option if you’re just beginning to shoot film. If you consistently shoot film, this could be a disadvantage due to the fact that it can get pricey.
There are a couple of things that can be done to limit the expenses involved in using film, as long as you’re shooting a moderate to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
Considered one of the leading methods to get a better price on film is to buy a roll of 100’ of film and manually load canisters yourself.
Once you’ve finished, you’ll end up making around 18 rolls of 36 frames. Depending on the film stock you can expect to save 20%-30%.
Keep in mind that you’re limited to rolls of black & white film. This is due to black and white film is easier and less expensive to develop yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
It’s simple to process and digitize any film at home. It’s an intelligence method to spend less so that you can use more film with your Olympus OM-10.
Black & white film is by far the least difficult to process at home. Chemical temperature and development times are both not as important to do correctly with black and white films as temperatures and time are for color negative or transparency film.