Inexpensive, Good Film?

[britt_larson]

I am an amateur photographer. I am looking for a good quality film

(color negative). However, I am on a tight budget. What films do you

recommend that produce good results, yet are relatively inexpensive?

Thanks in advance!

[walter_strong3]

Long's house brand is made by Fuji, that might be worth a look.

[LenMarriott]

Britt, At the risk of being flamed, for flatly lit, low contrast subjects I'm going to recommend Fuji Superia 200. (100 or 400 are also good choices) While not so cheap, but superior for high contrast scenes & portraits, I'd recommend Superia Reala. Much is made of the relative merits of various films but for someone on a budget these will do a good job for you. No one film will record all situations equally well so it is incumbent on you to experiment for yourself using the recommendations here, on Photo.Net, as starting points. Another photographer has stated "Most lenses are better than most photographers". (let that one roll around in your old melon for a while) I think the same can be said for film for general photography. Best, LM.

[john_shaeffer]

Mitsubishi film is a great low budget film in any speed. It is repackaged Konica film--you can buy it cheap here:

 

http://www.filmart.com/cgi-bin/filmart/item_list/cat92/Mitsubishi_Color_Film.html

 

I also like Kodak Gold 100, also know as Kodak Bright Sun. It is the best print film that Kodak makes (or made, if they have discontinued it, like they did their professional 100 speed films).

[brainbubba_motornapkins]

I recently tested out "Rave", Walmart's house-brand generic color film. Grain, color and contrast are excellent, on par with Fuji @ 1/2 the price (in fact Fuji minilab prints made from it are virtually indistinguishable). You can buy it in single rolls, 6, 10 & 20-packs. It's about the cheapest film out there. I have some examples online (ISO 400 -- haven't tried the other speeds) at <A HREF="http://members.rogers.com/dsmith01/gallery4.htm">http://members.rogers.com/dsmith01/gallery4.htm</A>

[briany]

I'd stick with the Fuji that Len recommends above. At B&H you can find it for the same price as the Mitsubishi film mentioned above. Or go the slide route, and you can get film+deveolping for about $7/36exp.

[hugh_t]

Brian where are you getting $7/36 slide film and processing??

[moe_p]

I do not know of any colour print film that is actually expensive if you know where to look. You can get professional films in online stores cheaper than consumer films in the high street.

[marc schneider dc metro]

Hugh -

 

Prices from B&H:

 

Fuji Sensia 100-36 is $2.69, Fuji mailers are $3.99 = $6.69 per roll with processing. If you toss in postage ($0.60) it is just above $7 a roll.

[r.t. dowling]

Definitely Fuji. Not sure where you're located, but if you're in the U.S., you can get 4-packs of Fuji film at Wal-Mart for between $5 and $8 depending on which speed you purchase. The 4-packs occasionally include a coupon which gives you a discount off your next purchase.

 

Fuji Superia X-TRA 800 is by far the best "affordable" high speed film on the market. It works fine at 800, but if your camera allows you to manually set the ISO speed, try setting it at 500 or 640 and you'll get slightly finer grain.

[hugh_t]

Thanks Mark for that tip. I'm going to go order some film and mailers.

 

Hugh

[john_shaeffer]

I don't think B&H is a good place to buy film. Their shipping costs are outrageous. Their non USA film tends to be bad, especially the Kodak versions from Australia. The USA film prices are no better than any chain store, and then you've got to add that shipping. You are better off buying film on ebay in quantity. You can get mailers on ebay much cheaper than from B&H. The only mailers I'd buy from B&H are the A&I ones, for times when you want to be absolutely certain of a careful job on your pics.

 

I've still got some Kodak Gold Max 800 in the fridge--I'll send it to you for free if you want to see how bad film purchased from B&H can be. I've also got some Kodak 200 film that they sold me that is still in date, if you prefer that junk :). I've bought store close out film on ebay (and who knows what that has been exposed to) that is much better and loads cheaper!

[sriram1]

That Max 800 wasnt bad because you bought it from B&H - that film is terrible regardless :) I've been quite satisfied with my film purchases from B&H - I buy only Velvia and I have'nt had any complaints yet.

 

For the original poster, why not try Kodak Gold 100? Great print film with excellent sharpness and color. Its only $1.65 a roll from B&H. You'll just have to buy a few rolls to offset the $4 and change that they charge for film shipping.

 

If thats too expensive, I'd second the generic house-brand (Wal-Mart, etc) suggestions that others have made - you'll have to try a few before you find a good one that suits your tastes.

[john_shaeffer]

Gold Max 800 and Max 800 are two different films. B&H listed the film I bought as Max 800 and sent me the Gold Max 800 instead. Being relatively new at photography and not having read a lot of film reviews, I didn't know the difference until I used a few rolls, and started researching the films.

 

What I am saying is B&H, at least in this instance, was deceptive in their advertising. If I hadn't used other film in my camera and known that it worked OK, I would have thought that there was something wrong with the camera.

 

I suppose someone at B&H were laughing because he dumped some of that crap film on an unsuspecting user. So that is why there is no guarantee if you buy your film at B&H you are going to get good film.

 

That is also why I would not recommend that the original poster shop there. There are plenty of jerks out there, and they are not only on ebay. B&H obviously knew about the poor performance of that film, since I think their business is the photographic business. The fact that B&H continued to sell it (and advertise it as something else) is not good for them, IMHO.

[Brian]

<P>People on this forum can get too precious about film, particularly color print film. If your end product is prints remember that cheap film plus good processing is better than expensive film plus cr*p processing. I suggest that your priority is to find a local (or mail order) lab that is economical and consistent, then find a reasonably priced film that works well on their line.</P><P>I am able to get good, predictable results with Agfa Vista 200 ( a cheepy cheep print film) because my local lab uses an Agfa process and Agfa paper.</P>

[lex_jenkins]

Fuji-made film has been repackaged under various labels, including Polaroid, occasionally available for a buck a roll at Dollar General stores. Last time I used any of the rebadged Fuji/Polaroid it was labeled "Made in The Netherlands." If it's made in Japan, there's another pretty good tipoff, tho' it might be Konica, also a good film.

 

Another good 'un is Walgreen's house brand film - it's made by Agfa. Good snapshot film, brilliant colors. Results can vary depending on which minilab system is used to make the prints.

 

Whatever you do avoid anything labeled "Made in the U.S.A." that isn't Kodak - it'll be 3M and it'll be crap. Kodak doesn't resell film to be sold under other brand names, at least not in the U.S.

 

Ditto anything made in Italy - it'll be Ferrania and, again, it'll be crap. I've heard Ferrania makes *some* good films but you won't find 'em under the various house brands in the U.S. (including grocery store and dollar store brands).

 

One problem buying films from dollar stores is possible deterioration from poor storage conditions - hot warehouses, etc. And these films may be second quality anyway, which might explain why Fuji, Agfa, etc., would allow their films to be repackaged and sold under other brand names.

 

Once you've cut your teeth and honed your chops on affordable film for, maybe, a year, you'll want to try some good stuff. But these are perfectly good films for practice and snapshots.

[brainbubba_motornapkins]

Lex, how can you identify with certainty the origin of remarked film? Are there colored stripes on the film edge, consistent with the mfg's brand(s)?

[rodelion]

I second the opinion about Fuji Superia 100/200/400/800/1600. Fine general use print film for a reasonable price. Make sure to buy them at a good photography shop and keep your eyes open for "3 for the price of 2" packs, which are the way to go.

[lex_jenkins]

Keep in mind that all my observations (and these were echoed by Pop Photo and other sources) are a few years old. I hardly ever use any snapshot grade color negative film any more other than Kodak Gold 100 and Fuji Superia X-tra 800. But I tried a bunch of different cheap consumer grade color print films 5-10 years ago.

 

The last time I compared Fuji's Super HQ or whatever it was film labeled Made in The Netherlands with Polaroid's same speed film also made in the Netherlands, the film edge codes were the same. Some folks claim Fuji doesn't make film anywhere outside of Japan, but I've seen boxes labeled Fuji and Polaroid both made in the Netherlands. So either Fuji does make film elsewhere in the world, or they buy film from other sources and label it as their own.

 

The others are a pretty easy call. Walgreen's house brand color film is labeled Made in Germany - that pretty much narrows it down to Agfa. House brand films labeled Made in Italy (several grocery stores, dollar discount stores) is almost certainly Ferrania.

 

And since Kodak doesn't distribute film under any other brand name any film other than Kodak labeled Made in USA is almost certainly 3M. I've also heard that Fuji has, or had, a film manufacturing operation in the U.S., so it's possible that a non-Kodak, non-Fuji, U.S.-made film might actually be Fuji - but I've never seen it. Every off-brand, U.S.-made film I've seen had edge markings indicating that 3M was the manufacturer.

 

Made in Japan, labeled Brand-X? Gotta be Fuji or Konica.

 

With digital biting deeper into the consumer photography market I expect to see more and more outsourcing of film to low bid vendors.

[maxasst]

Walgreen's generic film is Agfa Vista (box is labelled touting "eye vision technology" something or another. According to my limited research, the sharpness and saturation is very close between the 200 and 400 ASA. I have tried the 400 ASA with lots of color saturation and good sharpness which is very nice by my eye. Right now, there is a special at Walgreens: 3 rolls with a bonus roll of 24 exposures 400 ASA with a coupon inside for free 1 hour developing at Walgreens. Price here in SouthEastern Wisconsin is less than $6 (1-hour developing alone is $6.99). So if you have a Walgreens with an operator you can trust to do a good job, this deal is like getting 4 rolls of film for free if you got film developed there. Ironically, I have sent my Walgreens/Agfa film to Walmart 3-day service because they do a much better job at getting colors accurate (the Frontier at Walgreens made prints Agfa too warm for my taste. However, I have seen best results with Walgreens developing when its Fuji Superia 400 or 800ASA or Kodak Gold 100 film and the operator is an acquaintance and photographer herself who will help with some minor tweaks). My personal experience is to rate the Walgreens/Agfa 400film at 320, make sure I have adjusted the flash down by 1/2 stop by using the FEC on my Canon Elan7 so it doesn't overexpose flash, develop normally, writing in the special instructions of the Walmart drop off bag, "Please process using Agfa Vista channel, NNN-0. Thank you!" I have been so pleased with the results, I cleared their shelf of the film in an attempt to have some consistency of film (same batch/expiration and hopefully conditions of storage, I presume if they are all together). To top it off, Walmart states that you may return, for any reason, any print you do not want and not pay for it. Here, it works out to 16 cents credit per print, something you don't get at Walgreens. With this, I average returning about 4-6 per roll, which saves about a dollar per roll. Overall cost: $1.50 for film plus $3.10 for developing for about 18-20 prints. Mind you, this scenario presumes available high quality, consistent developing. I hope it helps. Have fun!

[eric friedemann]

Britt, I would note that with the price wars between Kodak and Fuji in the U.S., you can get packs of four rolls of 24-exposure Fuji films eight bucks or less; even the Fuji 800, which is great for point and shoot cameras. Then too, when I started in the photo business in 1981, some of the bargain films were horrible. Today, with more modern film-making plants, even the durgstore brand films are pretty good and reasonably consistent from roll to roll. As has been noted, these are generally made by Mitsubishi, Konica, etc. Our store brand is Konica, which makes some very nice films.

[canon_eos_rules]

I'd suggest Walgeens Studio 35 400 (repackaged Agfa Vista 400)-great color, very sharp, nonexistent grain, and a great bargain-4 24 exposure rolls for $6 PLUS a coupon for free 1-hour developing- a $6.99 value (which, by the way, is excellent-if the store has a Fuji Frontier)!

 

If you prefer a slower film, Walgreens offers the same deal (4 24 exp rolls with a 1-hr developing coupon for $6) for the same price, only with 200 speed film (also made by Agfa), but I haven't tried the 200 because I prefer faster films.

[pat calcutt]

For what it's worth - I ran across a deal around Christmas at a Walmart on Polaroid 200-24 color print 35mm film for ninety-nine cents per roll! The box indicated on the back that it is made in Germany by AGFA, exp. date 03/06. I haven't run any of through a camera yet, but I certainly will, as I scarfed up the few rolls they had. At the price, it is sure worth a shot (no pun intended).

[oliver_tan1]

Agfa Ultra 100.

[ericd]

This thread is a little old. But as of today I would recommend to buy Agfa and especially Agfa rebranded by distributor (Carrefour, Casino, Photo Service in France, I don't know elsewere) if you want a cheap & good film. BTW I think Polaroid color neg is also made by Agfa. The Agfa Ultra 100 is a great film if you like very saturated colors.