Best Film for the Yashica 200-AF
The best film to use in your Yashica 200-AF will be based on the lighting conditions, your lens, and type of film you want to shoot.
To avoid having to haul around a tripod or flash, go with a film that has an ISO of 400 or faster.
If you would like to capture pictures inside or anytime there is low light, make sure you have a fast lens. For lens recommendations check out my guide on the 5 Best Lenses for the Yashica 200-AF.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - A terrific option for a variety of lighting conditions. Using Kodak UltraMax 400 you should have the ability to handhold the 200-AF in lots of scenarios.
The pictures will have fantastic skin tones and tend to be on the warm side.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - An alternative to Kodak that could have far better availability based on where you are in the world.
In comparison to to Kodak, Fuji tends to be a bit cooler with an emphasis on greens and blues.
Lomography 800 - If you want a color 35mm film with an ISO of 800, there aren’t many options. This happens to be the only film stock geared towards consumers.
Furthermore, if you have a medium format camera, Lomography 800 is also available in 120 film format.
Kodak Gold 200 - A reliable way to get that mid-80s through 90s look. Use a flash to get the “authentic” look.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to produce the best the film can achieve. This will provide the beautiful colors everyone loves Kodak Gold for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - Among the enthusiasts online, Portra 400 is hands down the most widely used color film emulsion. Overexpose the film by 1 or 2-stops to get the color the film is highly regarded for.
Portra is also available for purchase in ISO 800 and 160 versions. As well as in rolls of 120, 4x5 sheets, and 8x10 sheets.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With low costs and more than acceptable favorable for use in the Yashica 200-AF.
The main appeal for photography students and budget minded photographers is the low price. Even if you would not put yourself in that group, it’s great to have inexpensive rolls of 35 film on hand for trying out newly acquired used cameras.
Kentmere 400 - It’s produced by the parent company of Ilford, Harmon Technology. This is excellent due to the fact that allows this to be the most widely sold 35mm film out of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - It is much easier to buy in Europe as the film is made by Foma Bohemia in the Czech Republic.
A pretty good film emulsion to use for your initial couple of attempts at analog photography or home developing. Also a good choice if you’re trying out a camera to confirm that it is functioning properly.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The best store to buy this film is online directly from Ultrafine.
They make developer kits for color film, so if you develop film at home you could have previously interacted with them.
Professional
The two most frequently used black and white 35mm film stocks are Kodak Tri-X 400 and Ilford HP-5 Plus 400. They do have a number of attributes in common that make them so popular, while retaining distinctive looks.
You can create very good 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 - The major differences are that HP5 Plus has less contrast and is less expensive in comparison to Tri-X. Low amounts of contrast can be beneficial because of the fact contrast can be increased when making a darkroom print or editing digitally.
The film has subdued grain and still appears outstanding when pushed 2-stops.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film stock has a more distinctive rendering to it. To produce the old-school grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it needs to be developed in Kodak D-76.
You’ll undeniably see higher levels of contrast with Tri-X 400. That’s good if it is the style you are looking for because it results in much less work when making a print or through digital processing.
Reversal Film
Reversal film, also known as transparency film or slide film, produces a positive picture. This means the photos can be showcased with a light box or projector.
Colors are not required to be inverted to be seen, unlike the more often used negative film emulsions.
Slide films have a smaller amount of latitude and dynamic range compared to negative films and so they are considered more difficult to work with.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. There’s not any hypersaturation of colors. The film is daylight balanced.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a seriously sharp daylight color balanced transparency film with lots of contrast and saturation, giving images a beautiful rendering. Matched against all the slide films on the market, it has the greatest resolving power.
It is also available in an ISO 100 version.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Offers realistic and vibrant colors with medium color saturation and contrast. It’s a film balanced for daylight with ultra fine grain.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white transparency film, noted by Fomapan as having increased levels of contrast, fine grain, and high resolving power. It’s also regarded as a substitute for the discontinued Agfa Scala reversal film.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Professional films cost more due to the fact that they have larger latitude, dynamic range, and are easier to push.
There is a big difference in availability. Consumer film emulsions can quite often still be obtained from big-box stores and pharmacies in anemic amounts. Professional level film should really be ordered from a online retailer or specialized photography store.
ISO
The ISO refers to the film speed, that can also be regarded as the film’s light sensitivity.
The less light available to expose an image, the higher the ISO of the film will be necessary. Also, be prepared to see larger sized film grain.
It is often difficult to handhold the 200-AF with ISO 100 or slower speed films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc). This is due to the fact that if you do not have full sun, the exposure times will most likely be longer than what you can handhold without producing motion blur.
A tripod, a fast lens, and/or a flash will assist you with longer shutter speeds. The additional accessories may not be needed if you decide to use a faster ISO 400 or ISO 800 film.
As a quick note, the dial to select film speed is labeled as ASA on the Yashica 200-AF. The change to using ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) happened after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Latitude
Latitude is the amount of stops a film can be overexposed while still keeping satisfactory quality. Pro film emulsions have a greater latitude along with a slightly increased cost.
Reversal film has less latitude than negative film. That is one of the reasons why it is deemed to be more difficult to use.
Dynamic Range
The range between the brightest and darkest details of a photo is referred to as dynamic range. Areas of a photograph that are not in this range will be rendered as totally white overexposed highlights or completely black underexposed shadows.
When working in a wide variety or quickly shifting lighting situations, film stocks with a larger 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 one more factor it is regarded as difficult to shoot. Golden hour is the best time to use transparency.
Film Type
The Yashica 200-AF takes 35mm film that is sold in canisters. In addition, it is the best-selling film format and is on occasion described as 135 film.
120 or 220 film, used by medium format cameras, is the only other film format you are going to encounter}.
Changing the film stock you are using will transform the look of your photographs. This is an example of the excellent things about film.
DX Coded Film
All commercially available 35mm film made today has DX encoding on the canister. This will allow cameras to auto detect and set the ISO of the film loaded into the camera.
ASA (ISO) on the Yashica 200-AF has to be manually dialed in. So DX-coding isn’t going to matter.
Yashica 200-AF Resources
Where to Get Film Developed?
You will find a variety of choices for where to have 35mm film developed. For a more in depth explanation of the options look at my article on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Film is not processed on site at big box stores and pharmacies. They send the film away to be processed by a 3rd party. Because of this, you won’t be given your processed negatives back.
- Develop Film at Home
- Use a Local Photography Lab
- Use a Mail Order Photo Lab
- Pharmacy or Big Box Store
The least complicated method and what I would suggest using if you are just getting started using film is to ship your film to a photo lab to be processed and scanned. If you frequently shoot film, this could be a downside due to the fact that it can get expensive.
There are a few activities that can be done to limit the expenses involved in using film, given that you’re going through a medium to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
Ordering a bulk roll of 100’ of film and manually loading in into canisters by hand is among the common methods to cut costs.
Once you are done, you’ll find yourself with approximately 18 canisters of 36 exposures. Expect to see cost savings of 20-30% based on your selection.
Keep in mind that you’re going to be limited to bulk rolls of black & white film. This is in part because black and white film is quite a bit easier and more affordable to develop at home.
Home Developing and Scanning
It’s simple to develop and scan film at home. It is a smart method to spend less so you can use more film with your Yashica 200-AF.
Black & white film is significantly less complicated to process. Chemical temperature and time are both not as essential to get correct with black and white films as they are for color negative or slide film.