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

At first glance, the shelf at the photo store looks simple: a few colorful boxes, numbers on them, and prices ranging from seven to 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 there you are.

This guide clears that up. It explains the four film families 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 only carry a small selection of film—two types—as an add-on to the camera, not as a source of supplies. If you need ten rolls, you'll get a better deal 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. What 100, 400, and 800 ISO mean in everyday use
3. The numbers on the packaging: 135-36, DX, and the degree symbol
4. Also 120, 110, Minox, and sheet film
5. The process determines who can develop your film
6. What film costs and where to get it
7. Is a bulk loader worth it?
8. Developing film: at home or at the lab?

The four film families and what they look like

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

The short answer is a standard color negative film developed using the C-41 process: When you're starting out, the decision has already been made for you: use an ordinary color negative film—Kodak Gold, ColorPlus, Fujifilm, or whatever is available. Three reasons, all of which matter more than any discussion about the look: it's available everywhere, it's more forgiving of exposure errors than any other type, and every lab can develop it. You don't have to search, ask around, or wait. Everything else in this guide answers the question of when you might want to choose something else.

Four films, four subjects, real photographs, no reconstruction. The video below shows how the same scene looks on different films better than any image gallery.

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, the street—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 incorrect exposure than slide film, and frees you from relying on a lab. Anyone who takes a lot of photos ends up here sooner or later.

Slide film (reversal film, E-6 process) delivers the finished image directly on the strip; when you hold it up to the light, 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; an expensive source of stress for a stroll through the city.

Motion-picture film is the special case. Kodak’s Vision3 material is what feature films are shot on, and for several years now 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 lies in development—and it is such a big one that it gets its own chapter.

Three Kodak color films put through their paces on the same subjects: Portra, Gold, and Ultramax side by side. Exactly the comparison that individual sample photos cannot provide. Video: fotofreunde.

Start with two films, not ten: A budget black-and-white film and a color negative film at ISO 400, several rolls of each. Only once you know how your camera exposes and how your lab scans will comparing different emulsions mean anything; before that, you're just measuring the noise of your own mistakes.

What 100, 400, and 800 ISO 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. Doubling the number means needing half as much light, and in practice, that makes 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's pushing it; indoors without a tripod, it's out of the question.

ISO 400 is the all-rounder and therefore the best-selling speed. Sunshine, overcast conditions, 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, make it this one.

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

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

Sunny 16 as an emergency light meter: If the light meter stops working or the camera doesn't have one, the Sunny 16 rule helps: In bright sunshine, set the aperture to 16 and use the reciprocal of the ISO number as the shutter speed. At ISO 400, that means aperture 16 and 1/400, or 1/500, which is what the camera offers. Open up the aperture one stop in light cloud, and two stops in overcast conditions. It sounds improvised, but is surprisingly reliable; negative film forgives the rest.

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

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

This one cartridge contains 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 designation but a type number from the Kodak catalog, which is why medium-format film is called 120 even though it is wider.
• 36 is the number of exposures. 36 and 24 are standard; with bulk film, you can decide for yourself how many there will be. 135-36 simply means: 35mm, 36 images.
• 200 is the ISO rating. The notation 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 ratings.
• 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 ring by hand, and that 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.

The ISO ring on the camera is the silent source of errors: You load a 400-speed film, but the camera is still set to 100 from last time, and the light meter cheerfully continues calculating with the wrong value. Two stops off for the entire roll. With negative film, the material’s forgiving nature often saves you; with slide film, it doesn’t. Make it a habit: load the film, set the ISO, and only then close the back.

Also 120, 110, Minox, and sheet film

Photo: Thomas Wydra, public domain via Wikimedia Commons

35mm is the standard, but it’s not the only option. If you have an inherited camera and feel lost in the shop, it’s 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 the image format your camera exposes: 16 images at 4.5 × 6, twelve at 6 × 6, and eight at 6 × 9. That information is printed on the protective paper, as shown in the image above. The negative area is several times larger than 35mm, so the results contain correspondingly more detail—and the film is used up correspondingly faster.

110 (Pocketfilm) comes in a flat plastic cassette and is still being produced, albeit in a limited selection. Anyone wanting to bring one of those small pocket cameras from the seventies back to life will find what they need here. We’ve written down 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 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 mail-order specialists almost always do. And the price per frame is noticeably higher than for 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 film that has been developed but is unusable. Every film requires a specific process, and not every lab offers every process.

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

Black-and-white film 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 control the process instead of handing it over. Watch out for the chromogenic exceptions: films like Ilford XP2 look like black-and-white film, 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 it gets 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 washed off mechanically before color development; in a normal C-41 machine, it would come loose and contaminate the chemicals and subsequent films. That 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.

Never send cinema film to a standard lab without saying anything: A Vision3 with Remjet in a C-41 machine is not a minor mistake but an expensive one: The soot layer contaminates the chemicals and can ruin other customers' films. Some labs develop cinema film in C-41 as an alternative, but only deliberately and with altered color reproduction. Ask beforehand instead of trying it.

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 wider than most people expect. A few reference prices, as of August 2026, for individual 135-36 rolls from specialist German retailers:

Individual film prices at Fotoimpex, as of August 2026. They fluctuate, but the differences between the films remain.

What stands out is this: The cheapest black-and-white film and the professional color film differ by more than a factor of three. A Portra costs around 55 cents per exposure, while a Fomapan costs 17 cents. If you buy the most expensive film for practice, you hesitate when taking a shot and learn more slowly. The cheap film is the better choice when you're starting out.

There are four ways to source film, and they differ more than it may sound. The local shop is the only place where you can ask questions; if you are buying 120 film for the first time, it can save you a lot of expensive lessons. Specialist mail-order retailers have the wider selection, often better prices, and a cold room, but shipping only becomes worthwhile when ordering several films. Drugstores and electronics stores 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 either fantastic or complete rubbish. What matters is not the date, but how it was stored.

A note about our own site, since it belongs here: We ourselves have two films on the shelf, Fomapan 200 and Kodak Gold 200. They are there for people who want to take a film along with their 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.

Film is a refrigerator product: Kept cool and dark, film remains usable for years beyond its expiration date—black-and-white film especially. That is why group orders are doubly worthwhile: the shipping cost per film drops to just a few cents, and the stock barely ages in the refrigerator. Let it acclimatize for an hour before loading it; otherwise condensation will form on the emulsion. The same rule applies in reverse when buying: a shop with high turnover has fresher stock than one where the same pack has been sitting in the shop window in the sun for two years.

Is a bulk loader worth it?

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

Film is available not only in cartridges, but also by the roll: a 30.5-meter roll that you use to fill your own cartridges. The device for this is called a bulk loader or film loader. You load the roll once in the dark; after that, you can fill the cartridges in daylight.

The appeal is obvious: it costs less per film, and you decide 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 you break even considerably sooner.

Thirty-eight films. If you expose two films a year, you’ll break even after twenty years, so it’s not worthwhile. If you go through two or three every month, you’ll be in the black after a year and a half and then permanently spend one-third less on materials. So the honest reason to use a bulk loader is rarely money alone; it’s the freedom to choose the film length and not depend on what’s on the shelf.

The complete process using the device, from inserting 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 while unwinding it. We’ve compared the popular bulk loaders, including the scratching issue with models that use velvet seals.

Label self-loaded cartridges immediately: A self-loaded cartridge looks like any other and tells you nothing about what’s inside. Put the film name, ISO, and frame count on a sticker as soon as you load it; otherwise, three months later you’ll be standing in front of an anonymous metal canister, guessing. We make film canisters with a writable lid for this purpose; a strip of masking tape works just as well.

Developing film: at home or at the 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 place to start, 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 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, bringing the development cost to roughly 40 cents per film.

Technically, black-and-white is so forgiving because the temperature does not have to be exact 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 the film out, spend half an hour in the bathroom, and the negative is hanging up to dry. No shipping, no waiting, and with the next film you already know what you want to do differently.

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

Color at home is also possible; people often make it seem more dramatic than it is. The C-41 process runs at 38 degrees, and unlike black-and-white, the temperature must be kept within a narrow range; being one degree off visibly shifts the colors. This can be managed 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 keeps 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, but becomes a losing proposition if three films are 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 your own film, you only pay the small laboratory fee.

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

One more disclosure about scanning your own film: We make film holders and scanning accessories, and they’re part of our product range. So we do have an interest in the answer “just scan it yourself.” The calculation above is still correct, and it remains just as valid if you use a flatbed scanner from the attic.

Practical tip: Send your first film to a lab, even if you want to develop it yourself. If you have an unfamiliar camera and are developing film for the first time at the same time, a blank negative won’t tell you what went wrong: shutter, exposure, chemistry, or loading the reel. Having your first film processed by a lab cleanly separates the possible causes. After that, you’ll know the camera works and can take your time dialing in your own development process.

Read more in the community

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

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