What film shall I use?
There is a huge and sometimes confusing choice of film on the market,
each claiming to be better than the last. Here are a few guiding principles
to help you decide what sort of film will suit your needs best.
Film speed
Film speed indicates how sensitive the film is to light. Speed or sensitivity
is expressed as a number written on the side of the cassette / film packet.
There are several systems that are used, ISO or International Standardisation
Organisation being the most useful. The higher the ISO number, the faster
the film. So, for example, a film of ISO 400 is twice as fast as a film
of ISO 200, which is twice as fast as a film of ISO 100.
In practical terms that means you need twice as much light to take a
reasonable photo using an ISO 200 speed film as you do using an ISO 400
speed film, and twice as much again when using an ISO 100 speed film.
Guide to light conditions and film speed
| General purpose - medium speed |
ISO |
| Outdoors, daylight, bad or overcast weather |
400 |
| Indoors, window light and / or bright artificial light |
400 |
| Outdoors, sun / cloudy weather |
200 |
| Indoors using flash |
200 |
| Outdoors bright sunny weather |
100 |
|
| Specialist - very fast |
ISO |
| Low light conditions, night photography |
1600 |
| Almost complete darkness |
3200 |
| Eg. Kodak High speed recording film |
|
|
| Specialist - slow |
ISO |
| Studio / artificial light / bright, consistent light |
50 |
| Studio / artificial light / bright, consistent light |
25 |
| Eg. Kodak Technical Pan |
|
|
