Best Film for the Yashica FX-3 Super 2000
The best film to use in your Yashica FX-3 Super 2000 should be based on the lighting, your lens, and if you want to use color or black & white.
Buying an ISO 400 35mm or higher speed will allow you to avoid being weighed down with a tripod or flash.
If you intend to capture pictures in low light, such as indoors, make sure that you have a fast lens. For lens lens recommendations go to my short article on the 5 Best Lenses for the Yashica FX-3 Super 2000.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - The film handles a plethora of lighting conditions well and is a great option for a 35mm color film. Using this film you should have the ability to handhold the FX-3 Super 2000 in almost all circumstances.
The photographs will have extremely good skin tones and tend to be on the warm side.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Another option that might have better availability depending on what country you are in.
In comparison to to Kodak, Fuji appears to be a little cooler with notable blues and greens.
Lomography 800 - You’re limited to a few offerings if you want an ISO 800 speed color 35mm film. This happens to be the only 35mm film emulsion geared towards consumers.
Additionally, if you have a medium format camera, it is also available in 120 film format.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film stock that was launched in the mid-1980s. Kodak Gold 200 has the look and feel of home snapshots from the 1980s and 1990s. For the classic experience take advantage of an on-camera flash.
Over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops to create the most popular look the film can achieve. This will provide you with the beautiful colors people love Kodak Gold 200 for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - By far the most popular color negative film among film enthusiasts online. Overexpose it by 1 or 2-stops to get the overall look the film is highly regarded for.
Kodak Portra is also sold in ISO 800 and 160 emulsions. As well as in rolls of 120, 4x5 sheets, and 8x10 sheets.
Black and White Film
Consumer
These film stocks have reasonable prices and good quality, making them very popular to be used in the Yashica FX-3 Super 2000.
The major appeal for budget minded photographers and photography students is the affordable cost. Even if you don’t put yourself in those groups, it’s good to have economical rolls of 35 film readily available for trying out recently purchased used gear.
Kentmere 400 - It’s manufactured by the parent company of Ilford, Harmon Technology. This is excellent due to the fact that makes this the most broadly sold B&W film of the three.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Is likely to be less difficult to find in Europe as the film is manufactured in the Czech Republic by Foma Bohemia.
An ideal film emulsion to try for your initial few attempts at analog photography or developing film at home. Also a good option if you’re looking to test out a camera to make sure that it’s completely operational.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - The cheapest store to get this film is straight from Ultrafine.
If you develop color 35mm film at home, you may have done that with chemicals produced by them.
Professional
Kodak Tri-X 400 and Ilford HP-5+ 400 are the 2 best black & white 35mm films. They possess a lot of capabilities in common that make them so well received, while preserving individual styles.
You can obtain great results after pushing both emulsions 2-stops. 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 more affordable and has lower levels of contrast when compared to Tri-X. Low amounts of contrast can be advantageous because of the fact contrast can be changed when making a print or during digital post processing.
The film has subdued grain and still looks outstanding when pushed 2-stops.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film emulsion has a more distinctive style to it. To bring out the legendary grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it needs to be processed in D-76.
You’re going to undoubtedly see considerably more contrast with Tri-X. That’s good if it’s the overall look you would you like because it involves substantially less work when making a darkroom print or through digital processing.
Reversal Film
Slide film, also known as transparency film or reversal film, produces a positive image. That means a projector or lightbox can be used to exhibit the slides.
This is different from the more widespread negative film emulsions that create pictures that require inverting the colors for the image to be viewable.
Slide films are viewed as very difficult to use due to the fact slide film has less latitude and dynamic range than negative film.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. There’s almost no hypersaturation of colors. The film is daylight balanced.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a remarkably sharp daylight color balanced reversal film with high levels of contrast and saturation, giving images a distinctive appearance. It has the greatest resolving power of any available reversal film stock.
It is also available in an ISO 100 version.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Offers vibrant and realistic colors with medium color saturation and contrast. It has a daylight color balance and ultrafine grain.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white reversal film, described by Fomapan as having fine grain, high resolving power, and increased levels of contrast. It’s also regarded as a substitute for the discontinued Agfa Scala slide film.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Pro film stock have greater dynamic range, latitude, and can more easily be pushed, which is the reason they cost more.
There will be a disparity in availability. Consumer film emulsions can oftentimes be bought in pharmacies and big-box stores in anemic amounts. Pro film should really be bought from a online or specialized photography store.
ISO
The ISO refers to the speed of the film, which may also be regarded as the film’s sensitivity to light.
The less light available to get an image, the bigger the ISO of the film will need to be. In addition, be prepared for increased film grain.
ISO 100 and slower speed films (ISO 50, ISO 25, etc) can be tricky to use handheld in the FX-3 Super 2000. This is because if you do not have full sun, the shutter speeds might take more time than what you could handhold without causing motion blur.
To stop motion blur you will need to use a tripod, flash, and/or fast lens. The extra equipment may not be needed if you go with a faster ISO 800 or ISO 400 film.
As a quick note, the ISO dial is labeled as ASA on the Yashica FX-3 Super 2000. The transition to using ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) came after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Latitude
Latitude is the range of stops film can be overexposed while still retaining satisfactory quality. Pro films have a greater latitude paired with a somewhat higher price.
Negative film has a greater amount of latitude compared to transparency film. That is one of the reasons it’s regarded as more difficult to shoot.
Dynamic Range
The difference between the brightest and darkest parts of a photo is described as dynamic range. Areas of an image that are not in this range will be rendered as solid black underexposed shadows or completely white overexposed highlights.
A bigger dynamic range is preferable due to the fact that it helps make working in a wide variety of lighting conditions easier.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
The small dynamic range of reversal film is an additional reason it’s viewed as tricky to shoot. A great time to test it out is during the golden hour.
Film Type
35mm film that is sold in canisters is used by the Yashica FX-3 Super 2000. It is also the most popular type of film and sometimes called 135 film.
120 or 220 film, used by medium format cameras, is the only other film format you are going to encounter}.
One of the wonderful properties of film is that you can switch the film stock you use and get a unique look to your photographs.
DX Coded Film
Almost all commercially available 35mm film made today has a DX code. This will allow electronically controlled cameras to auto detect and set the ISO when the film canister is loaded.
DX-coding won’t change anything for the Yashica FX-3 Super 2000 because ISO needs to be set manually.
Yashica FX-3 Super 2000 Resources
Where to Get 35mm Film Developed?
You will find a few options for where to develop 35mm film. For a more detailed explanation of the possibilities take a look at my article on Where to Develop Film.
WARNING: Film doesn’t get developed on site at big box stores and pharmacies. They ship the film off to be processed by a third party. Consequently, 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
The least complicated option and what I would suggest doing if you’re just starting to use film is to ship your film to a lab to be processed and scanned. If you regularly use film, this could be a disadvantage due to the fact that it can get expensive.
There are a couple of things that you can do to minimize the costs required to shoot film, if you are shooting a moderate to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
Among the most popular ways to save money on film is to buy a roll of 100 feet of film and manually load canisters yourself.
A 100’ roll of film will load around 18 canisters of film containing 36 exposures. Based on the film stock you can expect to save 20%-30%.
Be aware that you’re going to be limited to 100 foot rolls of black & white film. This is due to black & white film is much easier and more cost-effective to process at home.
Home Developing and Scanning
You can develop and digitize any film yourself. In fact it is a good way to lower your costs so you can use more film with your Yashica FX-3 Super 2000.
Black & white film is much less complicated to develop. Temperature and time are both not as vital to get correct with black and white films as temperatures and time are for slide or color negative.