2010 March 31 | Camera Eye Cameras & Accessories

Canon Sure

Canon Sure

I got a Canon A-1 off ebay. I'm not sure what type of film I should buy for it though, I'm new to SLR?

I've just decided to broaden my horizon with an SLR as opposed to my usual DSLR. I went to get film for it and I realized that I don't know what I would prefer. I got Kodak UltraMax ISO 400 for color prints from the local A&P. Any advice not only on this topic, but for anything else I should know about shooting film would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I agree on the Ilford XP2 for black and white. For color I really like Fuji Pro 160 S and Fuji Pro 400 H. The 400 H is best shot at 320 ISO, you can shoot the 160 at 160 ISO. Kodak has a new color film out now called Ektar 100, though from what I have read, the true ISO of the film is more like 50 to 80, so it is definitely not a good choice for low light hand held photography. Beautiful color and practically no grain though.

You will find that negative film has much better dynamic range than the digital you have been using. In other words, you will not be having so many "blown" highlights with film as you do digital.

With film I never use evaualtive metering. I either use a hand held ambient light meter whenever possible, or use the spot meter function of the camera, and do exposure compensation as pertains to the subject I am metering. The meter trys to set the exposure to middle grey, and for really proper exposure you need to compensate for that. So for instance if you meter a lighter color subject such as a bright yellow or white, you will need to ADD some exposure compensation along the lines of one to two stops. If you are metering a dark object such as dark green or black, you will need to DECREASE exposure by a stop or two. But even if you just keep yout meter at "normal" exposure, you will find your results to be more "forgiving" than digital.

Personally, I use the color Fuji Pro 400 H as my "all around" film. The 400 speed can come in handy, and I can use a ND filter if needed in very bright conditions, plus the grain is not excessive at all, even in large prints. The Fuji films are supposed to be very good for scanning, which I have found to be true.

I strongly suggest you use a GOOD lab to process your film, not places such as Wal Mart or some local one hour joint. These places can often do screwy things to your negatives.

There are still good, true labs that work with the film in the old dip and dunk method instead of just running it through some automated machine. I use Chromatics in Nashville, Tn. They work mail order but shipping can get expensive if you do just one roll at a time.

http://www.chromatics.com

steve