9 Best 35Mm Film | Exposures That Actually Deliver

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The black-and-white roll that saves bad exposures — wide latitude, ISO 400 speed, and a tolerance for being pushed.

If a photography class gave you a camera you have never touched, this is the roll to put in it. Ilford HP5 Plus runs at ISO 400, which sits right in the middle of the sensitivity range — bright enough to handle overcast days and dim interiors, fast enough that you are not fighting the meter on every frame. It carries 24 exposures, so you finish a roll in one outing and get development results back sooner.

The standout spec is its 400-3200 ISO range. Push-processing — deliberately underexposing the roll and then over-developing it to gain speed — is a real option here, which lets you shoot the same roll in sun and in shadow. It develops easily in standard black-and-white chemistry and returns sharp images with deep blacks and lighter grays. At 18.14 g per roll it is also the featherweight of this group, noticeably lighter in the hand than the Kodak ColorPlus pack at 27.22 g.

Here is the catch: 24 exposures means you get 12 fewer frames than the Kodak Tri-X 400TX, which packs 36 into a single roll. Fewer frames per loading is fine for a class assignment or a Saturday walk, but it means carting more rolls for a long trip. And because the film responds so well to pushing, sloppy metering on a normal exposure can still surprise you if you have been overexposed all along.

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Grain so distinctive it has a personality — and enough exposure latitude to survive a phone light meter.

Some films produce pictures; this one produces a mood. Kodak Tri-X 400TX is the black-and-white roll behind a huge swath of documentary and street photography, and it works at ISO 400 with a medium contrast rendering and a moderate degree of enlargement — meaning it holds up when you print bigger. The grain is fine but unmistakable, which is exactly why people seek it out over a cleaner emulsion.

Compared with the Ilford HP5 Plus above, this Kodak gives you more frames per roll — 36 versus 24 — and a heavier, moodier grain character. Where HP5 Plus leans sharp and even, Tri-X leans dramatic. It pushes from 1600 to 3200 ISO and forgives meterless cameras like the Leica R3.

The honest limit is age. This is not a film that sits well in a drawer — expired Tri-X goes blotchy, so buy it fresh and shoot it fresh rather than stockpiling. The other recurring note is cost: film is an ongoing expense and a bad development run wastes a whole reel, so treat each 36-exposure roll as something to shoot deliberately rather than spray.

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One roll of gold-toned daylight color — the cheapest way to find out whether that old camera still works.

Bought to test an old camera is exactly what this roll is for. Kodak Gold 200 is a single 36-exposure color negative roll in the 135 format, listed at an ISO equivalent of 300 with a 200 speed range, developed in standard color negative chemistry. The gold name is not decoration — this stock is famous for warm, sunlit skin tones, and the film is tuned for automatic exposure control, so a camera doing the thinking for you is a perfectly fair way to shoot it.

It shares more with the Arista EDU Ultra 200 than the numbers suggest. Both are 36-exposure 35mm rolls aimed at budget buyers, but Gold is color where the Arista is black-and-white — a 300 ISO equivalent against the Arista’s 200, per the manufacturer’s own listed ratings. If you are deciding between the two for a beginner’s first roll, pick Gold for daylight snapshots and the Arista for a class that requires black-and-white.

The catch comes with the light. Tungsten lighting — household bulbs rather than sun — is where this stock gets tricky, because it was built around daylight. Shoot it outdoors or in bright windows and the color sings; shoot it under indoor lamps without correction and you will get a warmer, yellower cast than you wanted. One roll also means one chance, so if the camera turns out to be broken you will not know until the prints come back.

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Three rolls of fine-grain ISO 200 color with 125 lines/mm resolution — the value workhorse you can rely on roll after roll.

For anyone who shoots color regularly rather than occasionally, this three-pack solves the real problem: having film on hand when the light is right. Each roll is 35mm color negative at ISO 200 with 36 exposures, and the resolution is listed at 125 lines/mm — a measure of how much fine detail the film can hold, which is why enlargements from this stock stay clean instead of dissolving into mush.

Fujicolor 200 is the natural rival to the Kodak ColorPlus above, and the two split buyers neatly. Where ColorPlus chases a warm Hollywood nostalgia, this Fuji leans into color saturation with a daylight balance and broad exposure latitude — meaning it tolerates a slightly overdone or underdone exposure without ruining the shot, which is exactly what you want when you are still learning to trust a meter. Grain is fine rather than heavy, and results are consistent across all three rolls, so you are not gambling on a bad batch.

The quirk worth knowing: this stock carries a slight green cast, noticeable on some scans. It is not a defect and it corrects easily during digital editing, but if you want neutral, grainless color for very large prints, a lower-speed film is the better tool. Also check that your lab returns negatives — not all of them do, and with film this good you will want the originals back.

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A faster color roll for dim rooms, with a cool blue signature you either chase or avoid.

When the light goes soft, this is where a 200 speed film stops being your friend. AgfaPhoto Color 400 runs at ISO 400, and that extra sensitivity is built for low light and mixed conditions — the roll’s own listing rates it for optimal performance in all lighting conditions, and the lighting designation on the spec sheet literally translates to low light. It is a 24-exposure color negative roll in the standard 135 format.

The color character is the story here. This film renders with a cool, blue-leaning tint rather than the honey warmth of the Kodak stocks on this list — buyers describe it as blue but artful, which is a fair summary of what it does. For portraits in shade or city scenes at dusk, that cool bias can look deliberate and cinematic. The exposure control is manual, so the camera is not compensating for you, and the 24 frames make it a good single-outing roll.

Two things to weigh before you commit. First, that blue cast is not subtle and it is not correctable in-camera — if you want true-to-life skin tones, this is the wrong choice. Second, 24 exposures against the 36 you get from the Fujifilm three-pack means you will finish the roll faster and reload more often. It is also the least-reviewed stock in this lineup, so you are buying partly on the strength of a long-running brand rather than a deep crowd of feedback.

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Slow, patient, and the smoothest grain in this lineup — for black-and-white shot in full sun.

Drop the ISO and the grain tightens. Ilford Delta 100 sits at ISO 100, the least light-sensitive film on this list, and that is precisely the point — the lower the speed, the finer the grain and the cleaner the detail. It comes as a two-pack of 36-exposure 35mm rolls, each developed in standard black-and-white chemistry, with a daylight lighting type that tells you exactly when it wants to be used.

Against the Ilford HP5 Plus earlier on this list, Delta 100 is the specialist to its generalist. HP5 Plus chases flexibility with a 400-3200 range for push-processing; Delta 100 chases image purity with fine grain and sharp pictures that hold up in daylight. Owners call it the standard for hobby black-and-white work, with beautiful whites that suit beginners and dedicated hobbyists alike.

The honest constraint is light. At ISO 100, this film needs brightness, and shot indoors without strong window light or flash it will underexpose. It also demands a nearby lab unless you develop at home, because black-and-white chemistry is a different process from the color negatives on this list. Expense is the other recurring note — excellent as it is, this is not the cheapest way to burn through a weekend of shooting.

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The cheapest way into black-and-white — sharp, contrasty, and built for a classroom budget.

Film classes burn through rolls fast, and this one lets you burn through more of them. Arista EDU Ultra 200 is a traditional black-and-white film that develops in standard black-and-white chemicals, giving you 36 exposures per roll in the 135 format at ISO 200. That speed sits between the Ilford Delta 100 and the Ilford HP5 Plus, which makes it more light-hungry than the HP5 but better-behaved in shade than the Delta.

What the film actually delivers is the reason it keeps getting recommended for coursework: sharp and contrasty, just the way black-and-white shooters who want punch rather than subtlety like it. The contrast helps images read clearly when you are learning composition, because the separation between dark and light is obvious. It is also available in additional sizes beyond 35mm if you move into other camera formats later, and the price is the lowest in this entire lineup.

The catch is that ISO 200 is not a low-light rating, so indoor class shoots or evening work will push you toward flash or a slower shutter speed. And the contrasty look is a preference — if you want soft, graduated mid-tones rather than punchy blacks and whites, the Ilford HP5 Plus handles graduation more gently. Stock is also thinner than the big Kodak and Ilford names, so reordering the same batch is not always instant.

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The fast color film for night shots and moving subjects — ISO 800 with grain that stays remarkably tight.

When the sun is gone and you still have photos to take, speed is everything. Kodak Portra 800 runs at ISO 800 — the fastest color negative on this list — spread across two rolls of 36 exposures each in the 135 format. The idea behind it is simple: high sensitivity without the ugly, clumpy grain that fast films usually carry, which is what the manufacturer means by a fineness of grain unsurpassed in its class.

That combination makes it the choice for a specific set of jobs. Long lenses, high action, and low light are the listed use cases, and it delivers on all three because the sensitivity lets you keep a shutter speed fast enough to freeze motion. It also holds background detail in bad light, which slower films simply lose. Push it to 1600 ISO when the situation demands even more speed, and the color still comes out vibrant rather than muddy.

The value question is genuinely split. Portra 800 costs more per roll than the 200 speed color films here, and the honest answer is that it earns that premium only if you actually shoot in dim conditions. Shoot it outdoors at noon and you are paying for speed you never used. The other real constraint is the light it is balanced for — daylight — so mixed indoor lighting will warm the colors unless you account for it.