film speed

[jrwillden]

What would be the best brand and speed of film for shooting outside on a sunny day or indoors with a flash?

 

[Alfred D.]

Fujichrome Sensia 200 (RM)

 

[JimmyO]

Yes
Your going to want to find a very slow film so like 200 ASA or under for best results.

 

[Socrates]

What would be the best brand and speed of film for shooting outside on a sunny day or indoors with a flash?

Outdoors, Kodachrome ASA-25, if you can get it. Check to confirm that you can get it processed!

 

[KevinDks]

You haven't given us a lot to go on, so I'll make some assumptions - that you want colour, not black and white, and that you want prints, not slides.

A good general purpose colour negative film is Fuji Superia. It comes in 100, 200 and 400 ISO and even the 400 is pretty low in grain. The 200 might be a good compromise for the general photography you seem to be describing.

If you did want slides then Fujichrome Sensia is a good choice - it's Fuji's 'consumer' slide film.

If you do want black and white, let us know.

Kevin

 

[KevinDks]

Outdoors, Kodachrome ASA-25, if you can get it. Check to confirm that you can get it processed!

Kodachrome 25 was discontinued in 2002 but it does still turn up on eBay, usually at very high prices. The only place left that can process it is Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas. It may well be the best film for shooting outdoors on a sunny day (and I would love to try it myself), but it may not be the most practical!

Kevin

 

[jrwillden]

You haven't given us a lot to go on, so I'll make some assumptions - that you want colour, not black and white, and that you want prints, not slides.

A good general purpose colour negative film is Fuji Superia. It comes in 100, 200 and 400 ISO and even the 400 is pretty low in grain. The 200 might be a good compromise for the general photography you seem to be describing.

If you did want slides then Fujichrome Sensia is a good choice - it's Fuji's 'consumer' slide film.

If you do want black and white, let us know.

Kevin

Next week my brother-in-law is getting married inside a civic center and I imagine they will take a few photos outside in the sun.

I want to experiment...I've always used the automatic function on my camera and am tired of it. I'm ready (I think) to really use this camera and although I did take a summer photog class in college, I did not retain enough information.

I am planning on using color film (not slide) but love black and white and think I'll take a roll or two with me. So, yes, I would appreciate the info on that as well.

I appreciate all the comments. It's very helpful!

 

[Alfred D.]

Next week my brother-in-law is getting married [...] I want to experiment

You want to experiment with a wedding?
Not a good idea.
Experiment first, elsewhere, with different people in a (photographically) similar situation, and get the kinks out, and when you have convinced yourself you can do it then shoot a wedding.

Good luck.

 

[KevinDks]

I am planning on using color film (not slide) but love black and white and think I'll take a roll or two with me. So, yes, I would appreciate the info on that as well.

Three options spring to mind:

1. Get your colour negatives scanned to CD by the lab and convert to b&w yourself. This may not be easy if you don't have Photoshop or something like it, so...

2. There are dozens of traditional b&w films, but rather than recommend any of them here I'll just point out that you'll probably have to send them away to be processed, depending on what labs you have locally, and it could be quite expensive, so I'm going to skip straight to what I would do, which is...

3. Get some Ilford XP2 or Kodak T400CN. These are chromogenic b&w films which can be processed in the same chemistry as colour negatives, so any mini-lab can handle them. You have to have the filtration set up correctly to get them printed without a colour cast, which means talking to a few labs and picking one that knows how to do that. Typically these are very smooth, low grain films, 400 ISO in each case.

Kevin

 

[Smilemon]

I shoot B&W.

I've been shooting with Ilford FP4 (125) and Ilford HP5 (400). It seems like decent film, its sure a lot better than the arista 400 I've used. The arista film would not dry flat for anything (professional film dryer) which made it very hard to manipulate in the darkroom. It also had a lot of grain and wasn't always consistant.

I'm sure it was given away to my photo class for a reason.

 

[jrwillden]

You want to experiment with a wedding?
Not a good idea.
Experiment first, elsewhere, with different people in a (photographically) similar situation, and get the kinks out, and when you have convinced yourself you can do it then shoot a wedding.

Good luck.

I won't be shooting the wedding, they have someone for that which is why I want to experiment. I just want to hang out in the background and snap a few here and there. Just to see if I'm even capable of doing this in the future.

With that in mind, the film everyone is suggesting, is it specialty film? Can I find it in a small city?

 

[bhop]

Personally, I like Kodak Portra 160vc for daylight shooting. I just scanned a roll I took on a recent trip, i'll be buying more. For B/W I like Ilford HP5+

 

[Socrates]

Kodachrome 25 was discontinued in 2002 but it does still turn up on eBay, usually at very high prices. The only place left that can process it is Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas. It may well be the best film for shooting outdoors on a sunny day (and I would love to try it myself), but it may not be the most practical!

Kevin

Won't Kodak process it?

By the way, a bit of trivia...
Kodachrome was developed (no pun intended) by two physicists, Dr. Godansky and Dr. Mannes. It was jokingly referred to as "the best that God and man can offer."

Also, it's lousy for portraits (too contrasty) but absolutely the greatest imaging medium that ever existed for scenics.

 

[KevinDks]

With that in mind, the film everyone is suggesting, is it specialty film? Can I find it in a small city?

Something like Fuji Superia isn't that exotic, but these days you never know what you can get locally - depends on the small city I suppose. I buy all my film by mail order because that gives me unlimited choice and the best prices. If you want to shop locally Google can help you - for example, I found this list that might be useful:

http://www.acecam.com/camera-stores-5.html#Texas

 

[KevinDks]

Won't Kodak process it?

Not any more, it all goes to Dwayne's. Only Kodachrome 64 is left now of course, and I heard they process around 2,500 rolls of that a day. Here in Europe we send our exposed films to Kodak in Switzerland, who ship it to Kansas, then the slides go back to Switzerland and then back to us. Round trip is 14 days, and at £6 to £8 (US$12 to $16) a roll including processing that doesn't sound much like a sustainable business model to me, but I'm happy just to shoot it while I can.

Also, it's lousy for portraits (too contrasty) but absolutely the greatest imaging medium that ever existed for scenics.

I've got quite a few K25 / Kodachrome II slides from the early '60s, and they are fantastic. My favourite film, although Velvia is a close second. Of course Velvia probably won't look as good in 50 years as K64 will.

Kevin