What is going on everybody welcome back to the channel today we have a very exciting video for you guys whether you are a beginner at film photography or you have five-plus years under your belt recently I’ve been experimenting with new film stocks that I’ve seen online whether they are expired or newly developed uh one of them being from a company called quiet word dreaming you should definitely check them out but in the worlds of 35-millimeter film stocks alone the options are almost endless you could go through all the modern available ones and then you’ll start to find out the expired ones and then there’s going to be new ones developing it’s really easy to get lost in the sauce and kind of wonder what people are talking about in conversations of what this film stock looks like and what it can do so this is my top 5 35 millimeter film stocks that you should be using starting with number one is Kodiak gold 200.
Back in my visco ho days of my high school photography kodak gold 200 was one of my favorite emulations to make so when I kind of jumped into film photography in 2020 and found out that Kodiak gold 200 was available I was like I gotta have that this film stock is extremely underrated because everybody’s drinking from the punch bowl of portrait 400 which of course is a magnificent film stock no hate on it at all it’s popular for a reason but Kodak gold 200 gives off that portresque warmth plus the nostalgic imperfections of like the photography that we’re more familiar with like back in the day with a little bit more of a harsher grain structure and more saturation than portrait could give off naturally I would say that Kodak goes 200 is perfect for scenes that are in direct sunlight.
I’ve used it in overcast weather and it doesn’t really look that good and when Kodak gold 200 is underexposed it really doesn’t look that good unless you’re going for that more like low-fi look that a lot of people would enjoy um if you like that then underexposed Kodak cool 200 I think you might like it I usually go at box speed which means as I shoot at 200 iso I don’t really overexpose it that much because it doesn’t really have the latitude capabilities that Porsche 400 would have but you know go ahead do whatever you want but I typically shoot at 200.
number two on the list is Lomography’s color negative 800. and if you look at the sample images right now like holy crap this film stock looks super good judging by my reaction you might be wondering why it’s not number one on the list and the reason why it’s not is that it’s so freaking expensive nowadays if Kodiak and Fujifilm were kind of like that metaphorical starting five on the basketball team mammography used to be that first guy off the bench to kind of uh provide some support on the court it didn’t really have that starting five fame it provided that supplementary like scoring and people had like you know a nice soft spot for the first guy off the bench but Lomography as a company and with all of its film stocks included became that superstar status it you know left the team he got signed a 100 million dollar deal for five years and it’s now a superstar in its own team.
the colors are incredible they are one of my favorites it kind of subtracts that over warmthness that portrait 800 can give off and for an 800 uh film stock you would kind of expect it to be a little bit more grainy but the grain’s not even that bad I highly recommend using Loma 800 for photographing landscapes, especially during golden hour although it’s perfect for like you know broad daylight scenarios and portraits even I’ve used it in some overcast settings as well and I think it performs very well I kind of prefer it over Kodiak film stocks but that’s a very subjective opinion number three on the list is Kodiak ektar 100 and the opinion about this film stock it kind of doesn’t make any sense to me but it’s kind of treated like the ugly duckling of the Kodiak group a lot of people don’t like it it’s primarily meant for landscape photography but I’ve used it for portrait photography.
and I think it’s incredibly beautiful for that like I really don’t understand why it’s hated so much because it’s a very sharp film it’s perfect for broad direct sunlight because it’s a 100-speed film it’s slow but you don’t really need that fast of a film in broad daylight, to begin with, the saturation contrast I’ll leave it up to you if you really like it it’s not really you know like Porsche 400 where you can push it like crazy and have it look like all pastel and painty this ones gonna look a little bit you know a little bit edgier with that contrast and saturation punch but I personally enjoy that the common complaint that I’ve heard about ektar 100 for portraits specifically is that the reds in the skin can pop out a little bit too much because ektar is such a saturated film personally.
I haven’t really encountered that problem at all it might be because of my film lab and the scanner that they use or because I you know the way that I like slightly tweak my film scans it kind of doesn’t look like that but then again I am colorblind just like Kodiak gold 200 I typically don’t overexpose ektar 100 because it can’t really handle too much overexposure so I also shoot this at box speed number four on the list is film photography projects Eastman double x now this is a black and white film and also from a company that’s not as well known as Kodiak FujiFilm and mammography I’ve only tried this film stock out once and I want this at a contest from an event called beers and cameras that we have here in California there’s one in Sacramento.
and i think there’s one in la as well eastman double x is actually a cinema black and white film used in movies like james bond and it’s actually kodak eastman double x just rebranded but sin is still just put out a new film stock at least for 120 medium format called cinestyle uh black and white double x and it’s this exact film i think a little bit more accurate to the kodak eastman double x used in movies i know that was like a whole mouthful but it’s pretty much movie film but when i shot through one roll of this film it gave me a very flat look it’s very smooth and when i added a little bit more contrast and uh you know mess with the tone curve a little bit it was super smooth and i really liked the results that i got from it and you know it always begs the question like why shoot black and white film and like why don’t you just shoot color films and convert it in black and white look man like as as a lot of people would say like actually shooting black and white film in your camera kind of makes you think differently in terms of composition.
what to look for plus the results it does kind of come out differently than how you would uh when you convert anything to black and white and of course you can always emulate it’s just not the same experience but yeah if you want to try out any black and white film for the summer I really recommend this film photography projects Eastman double x and at number five I’ll really want to shout out and some love to Porsche 160. yeah, it’s part of the portrait line we already know that it’s really good it’s the cheapest out of you know the heavenly trio 160 400 800 I feel like 160 doesn’t get that much love it’s perfect for broad daylight scenarios like why would you want to waste a 400-speed film in broad daylight, uh when you’re going to be shooting at like f-16 for Porsche 160 you can shoot a little bit more wide open for a little bit more shallow depth of field.
but i personally still shoot at five six or eight but even in overcast scenarios if you get the scans and kind of like knock down the temperature slider like maybe like to negative three or negative four it kind of daylight balances it and makes it look pretty damn smooth and because it’s cheaper it makes it a little bit more accessible and allows you to shoot even more so you know portrait 160 is pretty freaking dope i really love the results that i get for my portraits on portrait 160. that was a mouthful it really gives a nice creamy warm richness to skin tones and it doesn’t really overdo it even in golden hour it doesn’t overdo it so that’s super awesome and that’s all i have for you guys in this video make sure you like it comment down below what your favorite film stock is whether it’s from this list or whether it’s from your personal list that’s very different or are all of these films overrated um make sure you subscribe to this channel for more film photography content whether you are a beginner or a person with five plus years of experience it doesn’t matter we welcome anybody and everybody with open arms into this channel and in the comment section below so i will see you in the next one peace usually i uh slap the camera.
