Best Film for the Yashica FX-7
The best film to use in the Yashica FX-7 will have to depend on the lens, lighting conditions, and if you want to shoot color or black & white.
Choosing an ISO 400 35mm or faster will allow you to eliminate needing to carry around a tripod or flash.
If you have a need to capture pictures in low light, such as indoors, make sure that you have a fast lens. For lens suggestions go read my guide on the 5 Best Lenses for the Yashica FX-7.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - A very good choice for an array of conditions. Using this film you should have the ability to handhold the FX-7 in just about all circumstances.
The photos will have extremely good colors and leans towards the warm side.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - Another option that might have greater availability depending on where you are in the world.
Fuji photos tend to have cooler colors with an emphasis on greens and blues, compared to Kodak.
Lomography 800 - There are a small number of offerings if you want an ISO 800 speed color 35mm film. For 35mm film stocks targeted towards consumers, Lomography 800 is the single option.
The emulsion is offered in the 120 film format, for use in a medium format camera.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film emulsion that was launched in the mid-1980s. It has the look and feel of snapshots from the 80s and 1990s. Use a flash to get the “classic” look.
To bring the best look out of this film, make sure to over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops. This will give you the wonderful colors everyone loves the film 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 rendering the film is well known for.
Kodak Portra is also offered in ISO 160 and 800 emulsions. 8x10 sheets, 4x5 sheets, and rolls of 120 are also available.
Black and White Film
Consumer
These film stocks have reasonable costs and good quality, making them favorable to use in the Yashica FX-7.
The primary appeal for photography students and budget minded photographers is the affordable price. Even if you would not put yourself in that group, it is nice to have affordable rolls of film available for trying out recently acquired used cameras.
Kentmere 400 - It is manufactured by the parent company of Ilford, Harmon Technology. This is great due to the fact that makes this the most commonly available film of the three.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Is likely to be much easier to get in Europe as the film is produced by Foma Bohemia inside of the Czech Republic.
An appropriate film stock to work with for your first few attempts at developing film at home or analog photography. Also a good option if you happen to be looking to check out a camera to ensure that it’s fully operational.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - You can get the lowest price by purchasing it from Ultrafine.
If you develop color film yourself, you could have done that with developer sold by them.
Professional
Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400 are the two most widely used black & white 35mm films. They possess quite a few capabilities that are comparable that help make them popular, while retaining distinctive appearances.
Both films can be pushed 1 or 2 stops and while still producing great results. A roll of film can be used at ISO 400, 800, or 1600, making them very versatile.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - The largest differences are that HP5 Plus has lower levels of contrast and is less expensive compared to Tri-X. Lower levels of contrast can be an advantage because of the fact contrast can be changed when making a darkroom print or through digital post processing.
The film still looks outstanding when pushed 2-stops. It is also recognized for having subtle grain.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film features a stronger look. To achieve the traditional grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it will need to be developed in Kodak D-76.
You will unquestionably see far more contrast with Kodak Tri-X 400. That is beneficial if it’s the look you are after because it involves substantially less work when printmaking or editing digitially.
Slide Film
Film emulsions that create a positive image are referred to as slide, transparency, or reversal film. This allows the photos to be showcased with a projector or light box.
Colors do not need to be inverted to be seen, as opposed to the more prevalent negative films.
Slide films have less latitude and dynamic range when compared with negative film and so they are thought to be more challenging to work with.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a film known for beautiful skin tones and fine grain. There’s virtually no hypersaturation of colors. It’s daylight balanced.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - This is a incredibly sharp daylight color balanced slide film with high levels of contrast and saturation, giving photographs a distinct look. It has the top resolving power of any elevated increased.
You can also get it in an ISO 100 speed.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Delivers vibrant and realistic colors with moderate color saturation and contrast. It’s a daylight color balanced film with ultra fine grain.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black & white slide film, noted by Fomapan as having elevated contrast, very fine grain, and very good resolving power. It’s also regarded as a substitute for the discontinued Agfa Scala.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Pro films cost more due to the fact that they have a greater dynamic range, are easier to push, and increased latitude.
There’s a big difference in where film can be purchased. Consumer film stocks can often still be bought in big-box stores and pharmacies in small amounts. Pro film stocks needs to be bought from a online or specialized camera store.
ISO
A film’s light sensitivity is shown as the ISO.
The bigger the film’s ISO, the less light will be required to capture a photograph. Additionally, expect to see larger sized film grain.
ISO 100 and slower films (ISO 50, ISO 25, etc) is often troublesome to shoot handheld with the FX-7. This is due to the fact that if you do not have full sun, the shutter speeds can be longer than what you’re able to handhold without producing motion blur.
A flash, tripod, and/or fast lens can assist you with longer shutter speeds. Using a fast ISO 400 or ISO 800 film will likely make the additional equipment not needed.
The dial to select film speed is marked as ASA on the Yashica FX-7. The shift to labeling ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) happened after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Latitude
Latitude is the number of stops film can be overexposed while still keeping acceptable quality. Professional film stocks have a greater latitude paired with a somewhat higher cost.
Reversal film has less latitude compared to negative film. That is a reason it is believed to be challenging to work with.
Dynamic Range
Dynamic range is the difference between the darkest and brightest details of a photo that can be recorded. Areas of an image that are not in this range will be rendered as completely black underexposed shadows or white overexposed highlights.
When shooting in a variety or quickly changing lighting conditions, films with a bigger dynamic range are a superior choice.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
The small dynamic range of transparency film is another reason it is considered hard to shoot. Golden hour is the best time to use transparency.
Film Type
35mm film that comes in metal canisters is used by the Yashica FX-7. 35mm film can also be called 135 film, and it’s the most frequently used film format.
The only other film format you are going to encounter is 120 or 220 film that is used with medium format cameras}.
Changing the film stock you are working with will transform the look of your pictures. This is one of the marvelous things about film.
DX Coded Film
All commercially available 35mm film offered for sale today has DX encoding. This enables cameras to detect and set the ISO when the film is loaded into the camera.
DX-coding is not going to change anything for the Yashica FX-7 because ISO needs to be dialed in manually with the ASA knob.
Yashica FX-7 Resources
Where to Get Film Developed?
You will find a range of possibilities for where to get film developed. For a more in depth discussion of the choices go to my guide on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Pharmacies and big box stores have ended processing film locally. They ship the film away to be processed by a separate company. Because of this, you will not receive your 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 photo lab to be processed and scanned is the most convenient choice if you’re new to shooting film. If you frequently shoot film, this might be a disadvantage because it can get pricey.
There are two things that you are able to do to help reduce the costs involved in shooting film, as long as you are using a moderate to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
One of the most common options to get a better price on film is to buy a roll of 100 feet of film and load canisters yourself.
A 100 foot bulk roll should load typically around 18 rolls of film containing 36 frames each. Depending on the film you will probably save 20%-30%.
Be aware that you’re limited to 100’ rolls of black and white film. This is in part because black and white film is easier and more cost-effective to process yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
Any film can be developed at home. In fact it is an excellent option to spend less so you can shoot more film with your Yashica FX-7.
Black and white film is much easier to process. Temperature and development times are both not as imperative to get correct with black & white film as temperatures and time are for color negative or slide film.