Recently, there has been a resurgence in film photography, but whether you’re a professional photographer, photo enthusiast, or simply want to capture some analogue memories, it’s important to use the best rolls of film for your camera. Doing so will improve the quality and colour and ensure that your precious memories last longer.
Capture has preserved family photos and memories for over 20 years, and we want to make sure you keep creating new photographic memories by using the best 35mm film rolls. That’s why we put together this guide to the top 20 types!
Keep reading to learn why it’s important to select the best film, how we chose the top 20 film rolls, and the features and characteristics of each fantastic film type on our list.
Importance of Film Selection in Photography
The choice of film for your 35mm camera makes a lot of difference in the aesthetics of the image. Most noticeable is the fact that there are both color film and black and white film available. Depending on your purposes, one may be much better than the other.
Furthermore, film rolls come in 24 exposures or 36 exposures and potentially only 12 with some film formats. This is an important consideration, especially if you are attending a special family gathering and want to take pictures of all your loved ones.
When it comes to colour negative film or reversal or slide film, you need to consider the cost. However, in addition to the cost, you need to consider the aesthetic you want. Different film speeds range from ISO 25 to 3200, different brands, image rendering differences, and other characteristics can change the outcome.
For example, if you are shooting in bright areas like a sunny beach or a sunny day in a snow-covered field, you’ll want to choose a lower ISO. If you are shooting in darker environments or indoors, then a higher ISO will be preferred. However, you also want to consider how bright or dark you want the image to be.
The higher the ISO the more grain there will be, which may be desirable and may not be depending on your photography goals. Some brands may also offer high quality film rolls with more texture, vivid colourations, vintage aesthetics, and more.
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Methodology for Ranking and Reviewing
To choose the best camera film rolls for photography including both color film rolls and black and white film rolls for beginners and experts alike, we used specific criteria including quality, price, popularity, ease of use, and availability in 2024. We used both user feedback, our own experiences, and expert photographer opinions when selecting these film types to produce the closest to an objective list as possible.
When it comes to quality, we understand that your personal preference and aesthetics will come into play, so we focused more on the ability of the film to last and create optimal color and image resolution. Additionally, we also excluded film types that were extremely difficult to find today, even if the film was high quality.
When looking at price, we used the regular price for the most part. However, we also considered the sale price if it was common to find affordable film rolls on sale. Finally, we also used popularity, which means that iconic time-tested options like Kodak Professional film rolls and other film rolls for professional photographers got a slight boost to make it onto our list.
Top 20 Best 35mm Film Rolls of 2024
1. Kodak Portra 400
These film rolls for vintage cameras are fantastic because of the low contrast and vivid colours. That’s why it’s such a beloved film roll option for photography enthusiasts. Professional Portra is a C-41 color negative film with 36 exposures and ISO 400. It’s also readily available online or even at some in-person stores. This makes it perfect for multiple lighting conditions and great for photos of people.
While this is the most popular and cherished option, you also can’t go wrong with the Kodak Portra 800 or Portra 160 (great for portraits and scanning). We recommend using the Kodak Portra 400 for flexibility, but for bright or dim lighting situations, the others are good alternatives.
2. Fujifilm Provia 100F
While a little more difficult to find than Kodak Ultramax 400 or other Fuji colour print film, this slide film option deserves a spot on our list because it offers an exceptional tonal range, great blue and orange tones, reduces saturation, and flexibility for both landscape and portrait photography.
3. Ilford HP5 Plus
This is one of the classic black and white film rolls for experimental photography and offers ISO 400 that can be pushed to ISO 3200 using the right film camera. With 36 exp and an easy-to-use monochrome for lowlight use, this is a great option for anyone wanting to capture B&W photos of memorable moments.
4. Kodak Ektar 100
Another great Kodak option, this single roll film is a C-41 colour negative with 36 exposures and ISO 100. It’s perfect for high saturation and excellent ultra fine grain for sharp pictures. While it costs more than other Kodak film options, it’s great for creating large-scale photo prints of people, landscapes, and action shots.
5. Fujifilm Velvia 50
This option is one of the world’s best and sharpest color transparency film rolls for film photography and offers an ISO of 50 with 36 exposures using E-6 chemistry. While it is harder to find than Kodak Ektachrome options, many photographers prefer this Fujifilm roll because of the powerful coloration and excellent contrasting features.
6. Ilford Delta 400
If you need photos for an indoor/outdoor wedding, family vacation, or reunion, then this high speed film might be a good choice. It will demonstrate great detail and you can get both 35mm and 120mm film rolls in this type. It’s also quite affordable and readily available.
7. Kodak Tri-X 400
Another black and white film with an ISO 400, this versatile option is great for beginners to monochrome film photography. It’s versatile, iconic, and produces a wonderful grainy, gritty look that lots of people adore in the digital age. It’s good for scrapbooks, vintage aesthetics, and nostalgic presentations.
8. Fujifilm Pro 400H
This awesome film choice has light coloration and is great for a wide range of different lighting, situations, and experiences. It’s quite fun to use and offers wonderful grain. The biggest complaint is also something a lot of people enjoy: it can show greenish and purplish tints at a higher level than competitors.
9. Ilford FP4 Plus
Want the sharpest black and white photos possible for such an affordable price? This very fine grain and sharp exposure latitude roll of film will do the trick. Plus, it works for both indoor and outdoor photography. However, it only offers 12 exposures, which may not be convenient for all uses.
10. Kodak Gold 200
If you are going to be using your 35mm film camera to shoot bright, outdoor, sunny pictures, then this Kodak option might be a good choice. You can even overexpose this film slightly and still achieve fantastic bright colors that bring your photos to life. As a Fuji alternative, choose Fujicolor 200.
11. Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400
The Fujifilm Fujicolor Superia line offers fantastic film rolls for hobbyists because they are flexible and great for all types of photography. With an ISO 400, it’s good with minimal grain and good sharpness. While the colors may not be as vivid as other film rolls for artistic purposes, the smooth appearance of photos with a heavy magenta tint is great for nostalgic aesthetics.
12. Ilford XP2 Super
This black and white film roll for darkroom printing offers a wide exposure latitude, regular C-41 processing, and ultra fine grain for crisp, high-quality black and white photos. While generally considered an all-purpose film, it may also be good for artistic uses because of the easy processing and ability to create both crisp and vintage aesthetics.
13. Kodak T-Max 400
If you like the Kodak Tri-X, but want even finer grains for crisper, more modern looking images, then this may be the film roll for you. In fact, it’s marketed as the world’s finest 400-speed B&W film and is great for daylight as well as cloudy or low light indoor situations.
14. Fujifilm Neopan Acros 100
Neopan 100 Acros is a medium speed, ultra-high quality black and white negative film and features wonderful grain quality for daylight shooting. It’s popular among film enthusiasts because of the sharpness and three-dimension tone reproduction but may be more expensive than some other black and white alternatives.
15. Cinestill 800T
When you have a low light situation where other 35mm film rolls just won’t penetrate for good colour, this is a great option. Even in higher light, it produces warm images, but for night photography the tungsten-balanced tons and halation around light sources make this an optimal choice.
16. Lomography Colour Negative 800
This is a high-detail and super-fast film with 800 ISO that’s great for ultra saturated images, heavy blacks, sharp contrasting whites, and super-fine grain colors. It’s also a good choice for action shots and moving subjects like sports photos, vehicles, walking, or animal shots.
17. Rollei Retro 400S
If you want extreme exposure control using your film camera, this option offers panchromatic black and white processing that allows you to produce images based on your exposure settings. While not recommended for beginners, this option is great for artistic choices if you’re experienced with film camera exposure.
18. AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 200
This is one of the rarer types of film rolls on our list but is so adored by enthusiasts that we had to include it. People love it for its extreme sharpness and fine grain detail as well as the wide exposure latitude. You may pay a little more for this, but it was discontinued in the mid-2000s so it will be harder to come by in a few years than it is currently.
19. JCH Street Pan 400
For a moody look with muted tonal range, this fine grain 35mm film type is a fantastic choice. It’s great for urban photography and is also great for film scanning uses. It is very sensitive to red light as well, which makes it great for Winter photos as well as sunset and sunrise images.
20. Lomography LomoChrome Purple
We couldn’t have a list without this new film type that produces extreme purples that bring something artistically innovative to your photos. With this film, blue becomes green, green becomes purple, yellow becomes pink, and red stays red. This creates trippy images of nature, skin tones, and anything else for experimental fun.
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Those are the 20 best film rolls for photography that you can still buy today. While we recommend testing different film rolls and seeing what works for your purposes, the Kodak Portra 400 is great for flexible photography, you can also choose B&W options like Ilford FP4 Plus or Rollei Retro or go with something more unique like LomoChrome Purple. Regardless of which slides you choose, make sure you digitise them to preserve the images forever.
Moreover, Capture can digitise your slides as high-quality digital images that you can share, enjoy, and view for years to come. Click here to learn more about our slide digitisation services!
*This article is brought to you by Capture HK.
Capture HK is the premier analogue media digitisation company in Hong Kong.
Capture HK's business covers photographs, photo album, slide digitisation, videotapes digitisation, including VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C, S-VHS-C Hi-8, Video8, Digital8, DV, DVCAM, MiniDV, DVC and digital media digitisation, including Secure Digital (SD), Smart Media (SM), MultiMediaCard (MMC) Compact Flash (CF), xD-Picture Card, Memory Stick, USB Drive, CDROM, DVD.