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35mm Film Buying Guide

If you're sticking to your guns on the classic photography  front and shying away from digital  options, 35mm is the most commonly used film gauge in the world.  From taking photos on a compact camera  to creating motion pictures,  35mm film's size allows for a good trade-off between cost and the quality of the images it captures.  For more information on the advantages of going 35mm and some other handy buying tips, read on, budding photographer! 

Why 35mm?

  • More flexibility. 
    • With 35mm film, you get a larger negative that you can make into a sharper enlargement, if need be.
    • Plus, 35mm films come in a bunch of different speeds, depending upon your shooting needs.
      • Slow ISO 50  is good for daylight shooting.
      • Fast ISO 800  or 1600  is good for any low-light conditions.
    • 35mm comes in black-and-white as well as colour.
    • You can use particular brands of 35mm as transparency films for slides, or infra-red films for to create more surreal images.
  • Low cost.
    • 35mm film and the cameras that utilize it are often less expensive than their digital counterparts, which often require internal memory cards  to store pictures.

Buying TIps

When buying 35mm film, the biggest thing to remember is that you need a 35mm camera to use it!  It simply won't work in any other model, so don't bother trying.  Here are some other important film buying tips:

  • Label, label, label.  It's important to mark all of your film with the expiration date so you don't wind up losing any of your photos.   
  • Some like it room temperature.  You should try to allow your film a couple of hours to reach room temperature before you load it into your camera.  This will ensure it takes optimum quality photos. 
  • Buy film in bulk.  We're not talking Costco style cases here, more like four or five-packs.  Even if you only use one roll a month, you can freeze the film you don't use right away to keep it beyond the expiration date.
  • Who likes foreign films anyway?  Avoid film with foreign language on the packaging.  Even if it's a familiar brand, this could mean that it was shipped from a different country that has a different climate.  This means that the film could be intended to work best in that climate, and may even work better with different flesh tones.
  • Testing 1-2-3.  Even if your film is a familiar brand, make sure you test it out before photographing any important occasion.

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SLR Cameras

35mm Cameras

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