Film Questions!

[Dreadaisy]

How do I determine what film speed to buy and howdo I determine which brand is best?

 

[Big Mike]

How do I determine what film speed to buy

First you think about what type of shooting you will be doing...then you get an appropriate speed. Ideally, you want to use the slowest (low ISO) that you can get away with. So for bright sun or when you will be using a tripod, ISO 100. ISO 400 is kind of an all around, it's not as nice as ISO 100 though. For sports/action shots and/or lower light shooting...ISO 800 or higher...although these 'faster' films will show more grain in the images.

There is no 'best' brand. If you have no idea what to use...I suggest just using what ever they have at your local store or lab. Kodak, Fuji etc. Try it for a while then try something else. After a while, you will able to pick your favorite.

 

[Garbz]

Play with all sorts of films and go to different labs too. I found after a while that I didn't like the look of film developed at Kodak labs. Then after I found that using Kodak film didn't produce as nice results as Fuji film at ISO400. That said Kodak Portra black and white films are very visually appealing to me, or if I want some vibrant colours I head to Fujifilm velvia.

For infrared I have also played with the Illford film (can't remember the model) but apparently Illford make some very nice black and white films too.

 

[Toast95135]

Fuji film tends to be more blue, and Kodak more red (from what I've noticed).