Buy analog film: which film, what ISO, and which format

Standing in front of the shelf at the camera shop, it looks simple at first: a few colorful boxes, numbers on them, prices between seven and thirty euros. Then someone asks whether you want color negative or slide film, which process your lab uses, and whether 400 ASA is enough — and you freeze.

This guide clears that up. It explains what the four film families are and what they look like, what the numbers on the packaging mean, why the development process determines who can accept your film at all, and what the whole thing costs. By the end, you'll know which film to buy, where to get it, and who can develop it for you.

One thing up front, so it's clear where we're coming from: we make accessories for analog cameras — battery adapters, film holders, and small parts. We carry only a small selection of film, two types, as an add-on to the camera and not as a source for stocking up. If you need ten rolls, you're better off buying from a specialist retailer; we'd rather tell you that ourselves than let you find out afterward. Wherever we have another vested interest, we'll say so at the relevant point.

Cover image: Petar Milošević — CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Table of contents

1. The four film families — and what they look like
2. ISO: what 100, 400, and 800 mean in everyday use
3. The numbers on the package: 135-36, DX, and the degree symbol
4. Not just 35mm: 120, 110, Minox, sheet film
5. The process determines who can develop your film
6. What film costs—and where to get it
7. Load your own cartridges: Is a bulk loader worth it?
8. Developing film: at home or at a lab?

The four film families — and what they look like

Everything you can buy falls into one of four groups. The difference between them is greater than the difference between two films in the same group — confuse color negative film with slide film, and you won't get a slightly different image; you'll get a lab that refuses to accept the film.

Four films, four subjects — real photographs, not recreations. The video below shows how the same scene looks on different films better than any image gallery can.

Color negative film is what most people mean when they say “film.” It is the most forgiving type: Give it one stop too much light and you still get a usable image; with two stops too much, often you do too. For anything unpredictable — vacations, family, street photography — that is why beginners should start here. It is developed using the C-41 process, which every lab can handle.

Black-and-white is the second major family and the only one you can develop yourself at home without much effort. The look is a matter of taste, but the practical side is not: Black-and-white film is cheaper to buy, more tolerant of exposure errors than slide film, and makes you independent of the lab. If you take a lot of photos, you end up here sooner or later.

Slide film (reversal film, E-6 process) delivers the finished image directly on the strip — hold it up to the light and you immediately see what you photographed. The colors are more vivid, the resolution higher, and the price for all that is unforgivingness: half a stop too much light, and the highlights are gone. Great for landscapes with a tripod and light meter, but an expensive headache for a stroll around town.

Cine film is the special case. Kodak’s Vision3 material is what feature films are shot on, and for several years it has been available packaged for still cameras — as CineStill or from smaller suppliers. The look is soft and very cinematic, and the sensitivity is often high. The catch is in the developing, and it is such a major one that it gets its own chapter.

Three Kodak color films used on the same subjects — Portra, Gold, and Ultramax side by side. Exactly the comparison that individual sample images cannot provide. Video: fotofreunde.

ISO: what 100, 400, and 800 mean in everyday use

Photo: Dnalor 01 — CC BY-SA 3.0 AT via Wikimedia Commons

The ISO number tells you how much light the film needs. Double the number means half as much light is needed—and in practice, that means the difference between “it works” and “it doesn't.”

ISO 100 needs sunshine. Outdoors in bright weather, it's the finest-grained, cleanest film you can get. In the shade, it gets tight; indoors without a tripod, it's a nonstarter.

ISO 400 is the all-rounder and therefore the best-selling speed. Sun, clouds, early evening, indoors by a window—you can get through almost any day with it without thinking about shutter speeds. If you take only one film, take this one.

ISO 800 and higher is for evenings, indoors, and concerts. You pay with significantly more grain and, with color film, a noticeable premium—high-speed color films are the most expensive on the shelf.

Grain deserves some context, because many beginners fear it like a defect: It isn't one. Grain is the structure of the material, and with black-and-white film, it's often exactly what makes it appealing. A properly exposed, grainy film looks better than a fine-grained one that turned out too dark.

The numbers on the package: 135-36, DX, and the degree symbol

Photo: Petar Milošević — CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

This single cartridge tells you everything you need to know. From top to bottom:

• 135 is the format code for what everyone calls 35mm: the 35-millimeter-wide, perforated strip in the metal cartridge, with an image size of 24 × 36 millimeters. The number is not a size specification but a type number from the Kodak catalog—that is why medium-format film is called 120 and is still wider.
• 36 is the number of exposures. 36 and 24 are standard; with bulk-loaded film, you can decide how many there will be yourself. 135-36 simply means: 35mm, 36 exposures.
• 200 is the ISO number. The designation 200/24° gives the same value twice—first in Arabic numerals according to ISO, then in degrees according to the old DIN scale. On German cameras from the 1970s, you can still find the degree values.
• DX is the checkerboard pattern on the cartridge. Cameras from around the mid-1980s onward read the film speed from it and set themselves automatically. Older cameras ignore it—you turn the ISO dial by hand, which is the most common source of errors when changing film.
• Process C-41 is the most important information if you want to have the film developed. It tells the lab which machine it belongs in. Fuji also adds CN-16, its own name for the same process.

Not just 35mm: 120, 110, Minox, sheet film

Photo: Thomas Wydra—public domain via Wikimedia Commons

35mm is the standard, but not the only option. If you have an inherited camera and feel lost in the store, it is almost always one of these formats.

120 (medium format) is the wide roll film without a cartridge—the film is wound onto a spool and protected only by black paper. The number of exposures is not fixed; it depends on which image format your camera uses: 16 images at 4.5 × 6, twelve at 6 × 6, and eight at 6 × 9. That information is printed on the backing paper at the top of the image above. The negative area is several times larger than 35mm film, so the results are correspondingly more detailed—and the film runs out correspondingly faster.

110 (Pocketfilm) comes in a flat plastic cassette and is still being produced, albeit in a limited selection. Anyone looking to bring one of those small pocket cameras from the seventies back to life will find what they need here. We’ve explained how to prepare and develop 110 film yourself in our 110 Pocket Film Guide.

Minox 8x11 is subminiature film—for classic spy cameras. Ready-made film is hardly available, so it is cut from 35mm film. The process is explained in the Minox Guide.

Sheet film (4×5 inches and larger) isn’t roll film, but individual sheets loaded into film holders. Large format is a world of its own with its own pace; if you end up there, you usually already know why. For developing at home, we’ve compared the methods for 4×5.

The same applies to all specialty formats: Regular specialist retailers rarely stock the full range, while specialist mail-order shops almost always do. And the price per image is noticeably higher than with 35mm.

The process determines who can develop your film

Photo: BastienM — CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

This is the part most buying guides leave out—and the reason people end up with a developed but unusable roll of film. Every film requires a specific process, and not every lab offers every process.

C-41 is the process for color negative film and is therefore the standard. Every lab offers it, it runs in machines, and it’s cheap. If you want color to be uncomplicated, buy C-41 film.

Black-and-white doesn’t follow a single recipe, but rather combinations of developer, dilution, time, and temperature. That sounds more complicated than it is, and it’s the reason black-and-white is the format for home developers: You can stay in control instead of handing it over. Watch out for chromogenic exceptions—films like Ilford XP2 look like black-and-white, but are processed using the C-41 process.

E-6 is the slide film process. Fewer labs offer it, it costs more, and processing often takes longer because E-6 films are collected until a batch is ready.

ECN-2 is the cinema film process, and this is where things get interesting. Classic Vision3 material has a soot layer on the back, known as Remjet, which protects the film from scratches and static charge. It must be mechanically washed off before color development—in a normal C-41 machine, it would come loose and contaminate the chemicals and the films that follow. This is why many labs do not accept ECN-2 material, and why Kodak has since introduced a generation without Remjet, in which the layer dissolves chemically. What this means for you: clarify before buying whether your lab offers the process—and whether it expects the film with or without Remjet.

What film costs—and where to get it

Photo: Artyom Svetlov — CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The price range on the 35mm film shelf is larger than most people expect. A few reference prices, as of August 2026, for individual 135-36 rolls from German specialist retailers:

Prices for individual rolls at Fotoimpex, as of August 2026. They fluctuate, but the differences between the films remain.

What stands out is this: The gap between the cheapest black-and-white film and the professional color film is more than a factor of three. A Portra costs around 55 cents per exposure, while a Fomapan costs 17. Anyone who buys the most expensive film for practice hesitates when pressing the shutter—and learns more slowly. The cheap film is the better choice for beginners.

There are four ways to buy film, and they differ more than it might seem. The local shop is the only place where you can ask questions; if you’re buying 120 film for the first time, it can save you a lot of expensive lessons. Specialist mail-order retailers have the widest selection, often better prices, and a cold-storage room—but shipping only pays off once you’re buying several films. Drugstores and electronics retailers usually carry a single color film at the highest price on the market; fine as a Saturday emergency solution, but not as a regular source. And Classified ads are the special case: expired film turns up there, and it can be brilliant or terrible. What matters is not the date, but how it was stored.

A note from us, since it belongs here: We ourselves have two films on the shelf, Fomapan 200 and Kodak Gold 200. They’re there for people who want to pick up a roll along with a camera or adapter—not as a source for stocking up. For ten films at once, a specialist mail-order retailer is the right place to go, and the prices in the table above are theirs, not ours.

Load your own cartridges: Is a bulk loader worth it?

Photo: Gmhofmann — CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Film doesn’t just come in cartridges; it’s also available in bulk rolls: a 30.5-meter roll from which you fill your own cartridges. The device for this is called a bulk loader or film loader. The roll is loaded once in darkness, after which filling can be done in daylight.

The appeal is obvious: it costs less per roll, and you choose the length yourself—twelve frames for a quick test instead of 36 sitting in the camera for three months. Whether it pays off is a matter of calculation, and here’s how:

Prices from macodirect and Fotoimpex, August 2026. Used loaders regularly turn up for a fraction of the price, in which case the calculation pays off much sooner.

Thirty-eight rolls. Someone who shoots two rolls a year will reach that point after twenty years—for them, it isn’t worth it. Someone who shoots two or three a month will break even after a year and a half and then permanently spend one-third less on film. So the honest reason to buy a bulk loader is rarely money alone; it’s usually the freedom to choose the film length and not depend on what’s on the shelf.

The complete process on the device, from loading the roll to the finished cartridge. Video: Rolf Duchene.

Which device to choose is a separate question—the models differ in how much they stress the film as it’s unwound. We’ve compared the common bulk loaders, including the scratching issue with the velvet-sealed designs.

Developing film: at home or at a lab?

Photo: Joost J. Bakker — CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The common rule of thumb is: develop black-and-white film yourself, send color film to a lab. It’s true, but not for the reason you usually hear.

Black-and-white at home really is the easiest way to get started, and cheaper than most people expect. A starter kit with a developing tank, two reels, a thermometer, measuring cups, developer, and fixer costs just under 40 euros; you will also need a changing bag if you do not have a room you can make completely dark. The chemistry afterward is the real bargain: A refill pack costing around 20 euros is enough for about 50 films, making the development cost roughly 40 cents per film.

Technically, black-and-white is so forgiving because the temperature does not have to be accurate to the degree — you can compensate for a deviation of one or two degrees by adjusting the time, and every manufacturer provides tables for this. The bigger benefit is not the money anyway, but the short turnaround: take out the film, half an hour in the bathroom, and the negative is hanging up to dry. No shipping, no waiting, and by the next film you already know what you want to do differently.

The first black-and-white film from tank to dry negative, worked through with a starter kit. Video: Shutter Speed.

Color at home is also possible — people often make it sound more dramatic than it is. The C-41 process runs at 38 degrees, and unlike with black-and-white, the temperature needs to be kept within a narrow range; being one degree off visibly shifts the colors. This can be solved with a water bath, an aquarium heater, and a thermometer, but it requires attention. The real sticking point is something else: Mixed C-41 chemistry only lasts for a limited time and needs to be used up. A kit pays off if you process ten or more films within a few weeks — and becomes a losing proposition if three films arrive spread over half a year.

A first C-41 attempt, including temperature control and what can go wrong. Video: Michael Schartner.

The lab is therefore almost always the more sensible option for color, and cheaper than its reputation suggests: developing a 35mm C-41 film alone starts at around four euros. It only gets expensive with the scan — development plus digitization costs around 17 to 27 euros per film, depending on the resolution. This is exactly where the math stops working for many people: if you scan yourself, you only pay the lab a small amount.

More than 100 labs in German-speaking countries, sortable by process and shipping — our lab directory. The guide Finding the right photo lab explains which one is right for your film.

One more disclosure about scanning your own film: We make film holders and scanning accessories, which are part of our product range. So we do have a vested interest in the answer “just scan it yourself.” The math above still checks out — and it’s just as valid if you use a flatbed scanner from the attic.

Read more in the community

We’re not the only source, and there are better ones for many topics. Here’s where we look things up ourselves when a question goes beyond our product range:

• analoge-fotografie.net — the most thorough German-language overview of currently available films, with sample images and notes on each emulsion. If you want to go deeper after this guide, start there.
• 35mmc — an English-language community blog with real-world reports on practically every film and 35mm camera, written by people who actually use the stuff.
• APHOG Forum — the German-language meeting place for serious analog photography. Questions about developer combinations or rare materials end up with people here who have been doing this for decades.
• Photrio — the large international forum, especially strong on darkrooms, chemistry, and large format.
• r/AnalogCommunity — quick and straightforward for “is this normal?” questions. A photo of the negative is usually enough.
• Lomography article about bulk film — a well-illustrated guide to rolling your own film, if the video above moves too quickly for you.

And in the other direction: If you know a shop that’s missing from our directory, or you spot an error, the comment section at the bottom of the shop page is the quickest way to let us know. No registration required, and listings remain free — there are no paid placements.