I realised that I’ve shot a lot of different films over the years, and I still can’t pick an obvious favourite. I think this points to me not having shot enough film – too much breadth and not enough depth. There’s some I like more or less for sure, but I don’t have a go-to that I always want to fall back on. It doesn’t help that I’m not that good at shooting film either, because I want to shoot it like it’s digital so my film compositions are often a bit crappy, or the focus isn’t spot-on.

I basically shoot two different things, which informs what I look for in a film:

1. Cosplay portraits
2. Travel photos

Right now (late 2025) I guess I like the look of Kodak Gold 200 as an all-rounder, it’s an easy choice. Fuji C200 is great too, but that’s discontinued of course. The internet says that the new “Fuji 200” (without the C) is just rebranded Kodak Gold 200, so that’s a “meh”.

For travel photos I like the extra punch that– y’know what, I’ll just make a table so I can throw in what I do or don’t like for certain applications. I won’t list all the films tested, just ones I have specific opinions about.

Sample photos are below, enjoy!

Purpose	Films I’d use	Films I wouldn’t use	Reasons/Notes
Cosplay and portraits	Fuji Provia 100F Fuji Velvia 50 or 100 Fuji Neopan Acros (b/w) Kodak Ektar 100 Fuji C200 (discontinued) Fuji Pro400H (discontinued) Fuji Pro NS 160 (discontinued) Fuji Superia Venus 800 (discontinued)	Cinestill (any I’ve tested, 50D or 400D) Kodak Gold 200 (very unsure)	We’re looking for nice treatment of skintones, and a bit of punch because that tends to suit cosplay. Velvia might be a hot take, but I like what I’ve seen so far.
Travel	Fuji Velvia 50 or 100 Ilford Delta 3200 (b/w) Kodak Ektar 100 Kodak Portra (need more testing) Kodak Tri-X 400 (b/w) Shanghai GP3 100 (b/w) (need more testing) Fuji Superia Venus 800 (discontinued)	Kodak E100 (for urban/buildings)	Depending on subject, I’m either looking for strong colours (landscapes) or more dramatic contrast (buildings/urban). I’m more likely to want to shoot the latter in b/w. Tri-X is a bit too grainy for my tastes.

CineStill (50D and 400D)

I’ve not yet met a Cinestill that I like. I get that the whole point is to not have the remjet layer, but honestly fuck the halation it just annoys me when I see it. I’d probably feel different if I were shooting the “right subjects” for it, like more cyberpunk aesthetic.

The first several shots are on 50D, then the rest are on 400D – I bought a pile of the latter through their Kickstarter when it was announced. I think it really benefits from having tonnes of light. The shots I took in Hinamizawa in Japan have nice colours, but the overcast sky sucks for Cinestill and it just makes the shot hazy and washed-out. The halation is just distracting for the wedding photos.

Fuji C200 (discontinued)

This is the goat! Cheap consumer film that looks nice, with the caveat that it’s discontinued. There’s a couple of cosplay photos in here taken with flash, I feel like it might not handle such high-contrast subjects very well.

Fuji Industrial 100 (discontinued)

According to the internet this stuff is consumer Fujicolor 100 in a plain business-y box. The results are pretty good, and it did alright in the shade and overcast areas when I shot the roll outdoors. It’s pleasing.

Fuji Neopan ACROS II 100 (b/w)

I’ve only shot one roll of this (the other got crunched by my camera 😭), but the results are so smooth and pleasing. The seifuku shoot was done on a mostly overcast/rainy day and I love the tones that I got back.

I don’t think Acros would suit regular cosplays, it definitely has to be a bit more portraity or moody.

Fuji Pro400H (discontinued)

I love this stuff, I love the nice skintones and punchy colours. Of course you can’t get it fresh now, but you can scrounge it from ebay and whatnot and treat it like it’s gold.

I will admit that I’m showing some wildly inconsistent results here. Most of the shots are nice and smooth, then the Uma Musume cosplay that I shot most recently? Bam, the colours are so strong! I dunno what’s happening. The earlier shots were shot on unexpired film, while the latter was about 2 years past expiry – is that the reason? Did the lab scan it differently..?

Fuji Pro NS 160 (discontinued)

Another discontinued portrait film, and another one that I’d love to keep using.

Fuji Provia 100F

Finally something that Fuji hasn’t discontinued yet! I think. This is punchier and more saturated, and I I’d like to try this out a bit more for future shoots. I don’t mind my results here, but I suspect it would’ve been good to overexpose it just a touch more.

Fuji Superia Premium 400 (discontinued)

Ahhh now we’re into consumer film territory, this naming is for the Japanese domestic market I think. I’m surprised at how poorly it performed in the snowscape, but it looked fine once we were back in Tokyo. Too much contrast? I dunno. It’s probably fine for happy snaps of humans.

Fuji Superia Venus 800 (discontinued)

Took this for an afternoon/evening portrait shoot and the results were really good. I’m pleasantly surprised at how well it held up once it was dark and we only have ambient artificial lighting to work with.

I also took a roll to Malaysia and I feel it performed much less strongly there, there’s a lot more noticeable grain. I suspect this could be due to the age of the roll, or the heat, or… who knows what. It’s discontinued so you can only guess at the possible reasons. The colours were still solid though.

Fuji Velvia 50 and 100

I’m showing off three different rolls here, I think. One was taken aaaages ago, that’s the flowers and the Chinese gardens – Velvia 100. One is all the cosplay, that’s Velvia 50. The third roll is Hokkaido in Japan, that’s Velvia 100 again.

I think it’s a little wasted on travel landscapes, unless you actually want slides because those look amazing. Although in saying that, we were in Hokkaido where it snows a lot and it can be very dull because of that. If you’re travelling to see amazing colours and landscapes then rock on. 🤘

Velvia should be too saturated for aiming at humans, but here we are. I think it works well for cosplay, and you can always back it off in Lightroom if you don’t like how it renders skin.

Ilford Delta 3200 (b/w)

Anything with this sort of speed is… a choice. It’s said that Delta 3200 is actually an 800-speed film that’s up-rated, but the box says 3200 so I’m gonna shoot it at 3200. The way I shoot it, it ends up very contrasty – I think this rewards subjects with a lot of dynamic range because you’re going to lose the more nuanced tones. Or I’m shooting it too dark and it’s struggling to raise details from the shadows.

The last couple of shots were taken in the middle of a sunny day in Greece, and they seem less contrasty. Maybe that’s how it’s meant to look? Maybe it’s just meant to look like however you shoot it. 🤷

Kodak ColorPlus 200

As a consumer film this has a bit of a complicated history, in that Kodak loves to keep reissuing existing filmstocks under new names (without saying it’s the same stock, or making changes to an existing stock without changing the name. It’s all marketing anyway.

The consensus seems to be that ColorPlus 200 is like Gold 200 but cheaper, and slightly less… gold in colour palette. Anyway, point is that I think it’s fine, but I’ve only shot it in kinda dim conditions so I don’t know how it really performs.

Kodak Ektachrome E100

This one’s a slide film, meaning you get positives instead of negatives. I think it’s pretty nice, but I wouldn’t use it for travel – I loaded it in SanFran and took some photos around the city. It’s also pricey so you want to shoot it very deliberately; we’re talking about 2.5x the price of Gold 200 and 3x the price of ColorPlus 200.

Kodak Ektar 100

This is nice, it’s like Kodak’s equivalent of Velvia to my mind. Very fine, and saturated colours. I’ve shot this in 120 and 135 formats. The 135 feels a little lacking or uneven in contrast, but the 120 came out great.

Kodak Gold 200

Alright, this is the one I’ve been shooting a bit more recently, and the results are easy to like. A nice palette and well balanced, it’s great for travel. As you can see from the latter half though, it suffers badly in poor lighting. The last couple of shots were taken under ambient indoor lighting and honestly I think they’re kinda terrible. I’ve included them to demonstrate that Gold 200 really falls down here (but maybe all films would).

Kodak Portra 160 and 400

I’ve got a bit of a mix here, about the first half are Portra 160 (up to the autumn leaves), then the rest are Portra 400. It’s honestly not particularly well shot. I think I should revisit Portra, but I just like Fuji’s stuff more.

Kodak ProImage 100

This film is apparently made for warmer climates, which tends to correlate with poorer countries like in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Well you can get it here in Australia too, which seems fair.

The results are pleasing enough, I dunno about the grain though. If I shoot it again in better light then I’ll have a better idea.

Kodak Tri-X 400TX (b/w)

This stuff is legendary, mostly for street and documentary shooting. I’ve only shot it a little, but I think I understand the appeal. The grain is a little bit rough, but that’d be part of the aesthetic for the right sorts of subjects. For travel? Just okay I think.

Shanghai GP3 100 (b/w)

I bought a pile of this ages ago because it’s cheap, and easy to develop at home. I knew it’d been stored without much care and was a few years past expiry, and that’s fine. For something cheap and cheerful out of China, I don’t mind the look at all. The scans are a bit spotty due to the poor storage and handling, but it’s solid underneath that. The negatives curl like a bitch though, that’s a bit annoying for storage.

Rumour has it that the product was sold to another company (around the early 2020’s?) and the formulation also had to be updated for environmental compliance reasons. I haven’t tried any of the new version yet, but I might well do that if I get an itch for some b/w shooting – it’s pretty affordable and easy to find on ebay in 10-roll bricks.

Arista.EDU Ultra 200

I think I bought this because I wanted a cheap roll of something different to try out. And also because I work for a company called Arista (one that does not make film).

Apparently this is repackaged Fomapan 200, which is another brand I’ve not tried before.

The film might’ve been well expired, it was probably stored in less-than-ideal conditions, my metering was kinda haphazard, and I wasn’t shooting especially well. Did my camera scratch up the film? Was it fogged by the airport’s X-ray machines? Either way, for modest ISO 200 film this is not what I was expecting. It’s rough as guts with a lot of grain, and dynamic range feels quite poor. I am not a fan.