Getting Started with Film

Getting Started

Our Favourite Films on a Budget

Whether you’re just starting with film or have been shooting for years, you don’t need to spend a lot to get great photographs. We’ve put together this blog post with our favourite films to shoot when you’re on a budget, or if you’re just getting started with film. If you’re in the latter camp, you’re much better off shooting two cheaper rolls than one expensive one whilst learning.

Consumer and Professional Film

Historically, film has been categorised as either consumer or professional film.

As the name suggests, consumer film was designed to be used by non-professional photographers for family photos and holiday snaps. When film was ubiquitous, this is what 90% of people taking photos were using. Consumer film was cheaper than professional film, and although it was less colour accurate, it handled under and over exposure well and the level of sharpness and grain was fine for what most people were using it for.

In general, professional line films were designed to be used for a specific purpose like portraiture or landscape photography. Professional films had less grain, were sharper and represented colours more accurately. This was important for portrait photographers wanting accurate skin tones, studio work and landscape photographers.

Fast forward to today. All of this doesn’t mean you can’t get good results with either type of film. Your end result will be determined by your light, your exposure and how you lab is scanning your work.

Our Picks

All of these films come in 36 exposure rolls and are budget friendly so you get the most bang for your buck.

Fujicolor 200 and Superia X-TRA 400

Both of these options from Fujifilm are under $10 a roll and are great for general purpose photography. Great sharpness, not too grainy and beautiful colours. Both handle slight under and over exposure very well. We recommend Fujicolor 200 for sunny days and Superia 400 for everything else.

Kodak Gold 200, Kodak Colorplus 200 and Kodak Ultramax 400

Both Kodak Gold and Kodak Colorplus are very similar films. Colorplus is slightly cheaper and a great every day film. We’d recommend trying both to see what you prefer.

Ultramax 400 is a nice film too, but slightly grainier and less accurate than Fuji’s Superia 400.

Ilford XP2

We couldn’t leave a black and white option out of the mix!

While Ilford XP2 is slightly more expensive than most black and white films, but you’ll make up the difference when you have it developed. Ilford XP2 is a chromogenic black and white film which means it can be developed in colour chemistry (your photos will still come out black and white!)

This makes it much much cheaper to develop than traditional black and white film. It’s sharp, contrasty and has a great look to it.