I have been given some very good and helpful advice by a number of people on the forum about lenses. I would now be grateful to receive some advice about film and processing. I have a Canon Eos 1000fn with a 50/1.8, 28-105usm and 70-210usm lenses. The film I use is Kodak Royal Gold 200 and I have my films processed at Boots. I take general snapshots (portrait and scenery. By and large the pictures are good but I wonder whether anyone would recommend a better film and processors that may result in better pictures. Thanks ~ Richard

-- Richard Williams (richard.williams@bermans.co.uk), May 07, 2002

Answers

Richard, there is a very nice film guide at the Popular Photography Magazine site - http://www.popphoto.com/Film/ArticleDisplay.asp? ArticleID=32. With Kodak Royal Gold 200 you have chosen a fine film and it is one my wife and I use extensively. You can always experiment, as different films are designed for certain uses; portraits, enlargement, scanning, color saturation, and so forth.

My current favorite is Kodak Portra Black and White. It is a chromogenic film, so it can be developed at almost any local developer, is designed to be printed on color paper and with a speed of 400 is useful in many situations. I especially like it for portraits and architecture.

Being in the US I can't comment on any developers for you.

-- Mike Bauer (mbauer@airmail.net), May 07, 2002.

I use Royal 200 extensively as well (although I am on the verge of switching to Provia 100F). Boots don't develop it too well, because they use fuji materials, which are obviously not matched to the properties of Kodak Film. I tend to use "Kodak Express" outlets to have Royal 200 developed, but since these are franchises, they can be very variable. I've had excellent results from some of their outlets, and very poor results from others.

I don't know where you are in the UK, but there are good Kodak Express outlets in Whitstable (kent), Cheltenham and Southampton. Poor ones (in my experience) have been Gloucester and Canterbury ones.

-- Isaac Sibson (isibson@hotmail.com), May 07, 2002.

Isaac hit the nail on the head,Kodak films are best on kodak paper, Fuji, agfa, and Konica are best on fuji paper. I have found that on the consumer side, Fuji xtra 400 is great when printed on Fuji archive paper. Kodak royal 200 is best on kodak professional paper. Agfa is colorful on either, but not as sharp.-JC

-- joe cap (joemocap@yahoo.com), May 07, 2002.

The lab is everything. Some labs will give you prints (regardless of the film) that are exceptional; others may be just ho-hum. You'll see a difference immediately if you use a lab that knows what it is doing.

Try a few different labs, using the same roll for reprints so you can compare.

-- Preston Merchant (merchant@speakeasy.org), May 07, 2002.