Which film? (1st colour purchase)

AndyWest

AndyWest

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Have done a search but can't find an answer.

I have run a roll of C41 Kodack B&W film through my camera and am using the 2nd roll of the same film. I would now like to get some colour film to try in my Olympus OM-2. I will probably use the film and camera in the lake district in June for a fair bit of landscape photography hopefully in the sunshine!!. so.....

Can you reccomend good film and suggest ISO. I think ISO100 should be ok but not sure if i could go lower.

Thanks in advance
 
Kodak Ektar 100's nice for landscape stuff - good colour saturation and extremely fine grain. If you're going to the lakes in june, take a couple of rolls of BnW with you, an a orange filter for the lens - just in case you don't get the weather :LOL:

That's presuming you want colour prints. If you prefer slides - then either Velvia, Velvia, or Velvia...
 
No slides, just prints and scanned onto disc at the developers.

Thanks for the suggestion. (y)
 
AndyWest said:
No slides, just prints and scanned onto disc at the developers.

Thanks for the suggestion. (y)
Click to expand...

Best advice really is, take a few rolls - one of whatever people recommend on this thread - as it's so beautiful up there, you'll need plenty of film stock :)
 
Yeah i think i'll take 2 colour and 2 B&W. I will have my GF1 aswell but really want to spend some time with the OM-2.
 
You have to be good to get excellent B/W landscapes, same for other subjects......with colour it is easier and the lake district in sunny conditions demands Fuji Reala colour neg film, the last slide film I used was Kodachrome so have no suggestions.
B/W is great for cemeteries on a foggy day....... :)
 
I wonder if we could build a list of all the major film emulsions with examples and place them in a sticky thread? We get a few of these threads and it would be useful as instead of us all saying our favourite emulsions that work for us, we could point the person to somewhere with easy to compare examples.:thinking:

even better would be if we could get the same location with multiple emulsions to really show the difference.

For what its worth I like 3 films for colour, all fuji:
Fuji Pro 160S
Fuji Velvia 50
Fuji Provia 100F

The second and third are transparency so possibly no the best to learn on, Pro 160S is a wonderfully neutral, very forgiving film and responds well to filtration, it's my No1 colour negative film, although sadly will be unavailble in 135 soon (or now, I don't know)
 
So whats the difference between 120 and 135 film? What do the numbers mean?
 
120 is for medium format, not sure why its called 120..?

135 is for 35mm cameras as its 35mm wide.

A thread with a list and example of each film could be a good idea...
 
Ah thanks Liam (y)
 
ektar 100
cnv00035.jpg


cnv00036.jpg



and portra 160VC
cnv00023.jpg


cnv00019.jpg


or fujicolor superia x-tra/ reala(no samples but many on flickr).
 
Cool shots.

I find that Hive! is very good for looking at films, just search for the film and you get the best images on flickr taken with it.
 
Liam said:
120 is for medium format, not sure why its called 120..?

135 is for 35mm cameras as its 35mm wide.

A thread with a list and example of each film could be a good idea...
Click to expand...

Not true, really

These ( and other film numbers such as 620 etc) are all Kodak's number to designate various film types. The numbers are completely random; and has nothing to do with any sort of measurement.

135mm does not measure 35mm - it measure 24X36mm
 
ujjwaldey8165 said:
Not true, really

These ( and other film numbers such as 620 etc) are all Kodak's number to designate various film types. The numbers are completely random; and has nothing to do with any sort of measurement.

135mm does not measure 35mm - it measure 24X36mm
Click to expand...

Is that the sound of an anorak being zipped up I can hear? :LOL:

Also, I know you said you didn't want to do slides but it would be worth trying Kodachrome 64 at least once before it disappears completely. It has colour and detail like no other film IMHO. I'll try and dig some out.
And if you did want to try slides I'd be happy to scan them for you so you had a copy on CD.

And if you want to go for colour print film I second wblati's shout for Portra VC, it has become my favorite colour print film

4404174855_7963977cd4.jpg


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4404941306_3a27fed68d.jpg
 
135 was not given as a numerical progression naming standard though, they gave it that number because it sounded good for "35mm" film

Also saying 35mm film is 24X36mm is also wrong, different manufacturers used different standards

In the end though it doesn't matter, all thats left is 120, 220 and 135
 
AndyWest said:
No slides, just prints and scanned onto disc at the developers.

Thanks for the suggestion. (y)
Click to expand...

Slide film is just like print or b/w film, you still end up with a bit of film with an image on it, except slide is a positive.
You could choose to have them mounted for projection if you wanted, but these days generally its a scan and print just the same as print and b/w film.
The developing process for slide or transparency film is E6.
Print film or colour neg is processed in C41 chemicals.
There are b/w films that can be processed in C41 chemicals but not many.
Most b/w films are processed in room temp standard b/w chemicals.

Its important to know the difference if you don't plan on doing any processing yourself because labs offer varying degrees of service.
Your average high street will only do C41, but there may be some that do E6 or b/w or both...I dunno, generally its just C41.
For me it doesn't matter, I take my film to a proper professional Lab where they process everything.

For scapes my first choice is Velvia 100F, and Velvia 50 is my second, both are slide (transparency) film, if you want to use it you need to make sure you know a lab that will process it..:)
 
joxby said:
For scapes my first choice is Velvia 100F, and Velvia 50 is my second, both are slide (transparency) film, if you want to use it you need to make sure you know a lab that will process it..:)
Click to expand...

:LOL: like I said, Velvia (120 100asa), Velvia (135,100) or Velvia(135,50) :)
 
joxby said:
Slide film is just like print or b/w film, you still end up with a bit of film with an image on it, except slide is a positive.
You could choose to have them mounted for projection if you wanted, but these days generally its a scan and print just the same as print and b/w film.
The developing process for slide or transparency film is E6.
Print film or colour neg is processed in C41 chemicals.
There are b/w films that can be processed in C41 chemicals but not many.
Most b/w films are processed in room temp standard b/w chemicals.

Its important to know the difference if you don't plan on doing any processing yourself because labs offer varying degrees of service.
Your average high street will only do C41, but there may be some that do E6 or b/w or both...I dunno, generally its just C41.
For me it doesn't matter, I take my film to a proper professional Lab where they process everything.

For scapes my first choice is Velvia 100F, and Velvia 50 is my second, both are slide (transparency) film, if you want to use it you need to make sure you know a lab that will process it..:)
Click to expand...
Thanks but i really don't want to do slides.
 
I'm just happy with taking the film to the developers, collecting it, taking it home and uploading the jpg's from the disk and looking at the prints. I don't want to get involved with scanning, i have no more room on my desk! :D

I'm not a serious film photographer.....but that may change!!!(y)

Still too lazy to scan!
 
For your first forays Andy - whatever you can get cheap seems the best course to me...
 
Kodak Portra looks a good quality film at a good price. I think I'll give that a go. I'll order some after my holiday. Can't wait!!
 
AndyWest said:
I'm just happy with taking the film to the developers, collecting it, taking it home and uploading the jpg's from the disk and looking at the prints. I don't want to get involved with scanning, i have no more room on my desk! :D

I'm not a serious film photographer.....but that may change!!!(y)

Still too lazy to scan!
Click to expand...

Well ok, I dunno what difficulties you think exist with slide film that don't with colour neg, you just get them developed and scanned same as anything else, but there are some nice looking print films you can use without trying slide..:)
 
I guess it's bacause it's an unknown and i would rather have prints than slides. If i has slides i would be able to do nothin with them at home and i'm not buying a slide scanner just for the odd time i may use it.
 
Well I think it's been mentioned here in past threads, but for anyone who wants to try film...just get a roll of Fuji superia 100 or 200asa then take it to a large Tesco and have it developed and scanned to a CD for just under £2.
Ok you might have a few dust spots but when you get more experienced you can try different films and get them developed in a lab.
 
excalibur2 said:
Well I think it's been mentioned here is past threads, but for anyone who wants to try film...just get a roll of Fuji superia 100 or 200asa then take it to a large Tesco and have it developed and scanned to a CD for just under £2.
Ok you might have a few dust spots but when you get more experienced you can try different films and get them developed in a lab.
Click to expand...

^^^WHS^^^ Wise words indeed, it's the cheapest and easiest way to try a variety of colour film without breaking the bank and they will do a set of prints, if you want, for not too much more.
 
The 'lab' I use is next door at work and is a huge chemists. They process on sight and the guy seems to know what he's doing. They only sell Fuji Superia colour 400 and 200 at £3 for the 200 which is well cheap enough to try. Then as said i could try the posh stuff! :D
 
I was out shopping yesterday and a shop were doing 3 Fuji Superia for £8.49 so i have bought these so I'm now ready for the Lake District!! (y)
 
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