The 7 Best Kodak 35mm and 120 Film Stocks: Hands On Review

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Kodak is the poster child of the analog community, and for good reason. The team assembled their hungriest film photographers to shoot for a weekend with Kodak’s most renowned film stocks. Below is a collection of our sample images to show you our favorites.

1. Kodak Professional Portra 160

Best For: Photographers needing an even tone and colorful alternative to brighter lighting conditions.

When loading Kodak Professional Portra 160, you know it’s a color-negative film, meaning it should have a decent amount of versatility within various lighting conditions. You’ll have lots of detail shine through highlights and even a fair amount from the shadows since it’s not quite in contrast as others on this list. It does spectacular with skin undertones. Those with green undertones are bound to look neutral, while folks with a more red undertone will look more natural.

Colorful Shadows

There’s something special about Kodak Portra 160’s shadow colorization; red hues and gorgeous undertones.

Great In Harsh Light

The lower ISO count makes it perfect for harsh, versatile light.

Clean Skin Tones

“Portra” is short for portraits; making clean, proper skin tones always take priority with Kodak.

2. Kodak Professional Portra 400

Best For: Photographers looking for a natural, warm film stock to capture any scene without a plan.

Many photographers rely on Kodak Professional Portra 400 as their main go-to stock for its highly reliable, always-excellent image quality in various conditions. It provides a general warmness alongside more muted colors, bringing many fans. With its sunny feel and colors and contrast that enhance a scene without making it unrealistic, Portra delivers precisely what you envision. Truly impeccable skin tone results, very true-to-life and smoothly rich.

True To Color Tones

Skin tones are real-to-life and blend lovely within the picture.

Most Popular

It’s everyone’s favorite go-to for a reason. It’s easy to handle just about any scene.

Dynamic Range

Crisp detail can be seen among every image.

3. Kodak Professional Portra 800

Best For: Photographers looking to create with Portra 400’s color profile but with a higher ISO for low light compatibility.

Kodak’s Professional Portra 800 film stock is reminiscent of Portra 400, only more grainy with added contrast. It has extraordinarily warm tones and a very good exposure balance, and while its grain is more noticeable, it’s still very pleasant looking and adds an extra taste of texture. The high ISO makes photography ideal for lower light shooting, perfect for reception dinners, moody portraits, and blue hour landscapes.

Beautiful Grain

The added grain is aesthetically pleasing and gives a natural texture.

Low Light Compatible

This is one of the fewer film stocks on the market that can actually handle low light conditions.

True To Color Tones

Skin tones are real-to-life and blend lovely within the picture.

4. Kodak Professional Tri-X 400

Best For: Photographers wanting a detailed yet textured film stock to boast moody imagery for any fine art project.

An uber sharp and super contrasty black-and-white film stock proudly boasted by Kodak. Great for high-speed panchromatic films that are a good choice for photographing dimly lighted subjects or fast action. Tri-X does the heavy lifting with its punched blacks and detailed depth. Perfect to use against solitary backdrops, portraits, or abandoned scenes.

Black and White

Simply put, we love an excellent high-concentrated black-and-white film.

Slight Grain

A textured picture makes a moody image even more intense and real.

High Contrast

Contrasted monochrome images serve their purpose; this film stock captivates every detail well and alive.

5. Kodak Professional Ektar 100

Best For: Photographers looking for a way to set their images apart with a more unique, vibrant colorway.

Kodak Professional Ektar 100 is a fantastically vibrant film stock that overdramatized colors and hues to seem larger than life yet still keeps the photo's integrity. With colorful blues in the skies and crisp detail due to the stocks’ low ISO — Ektar provides a colorway and contrast line that distinguishes itself from the other stocks.

Made For Landscapes

Hones in on significant detail and colorizes natural tones in an exciting and memorable way.

Love Harsh Light and Shadows

This film catches my attention with bright highlights and contrasty shadows.

Easy To Shoot

It’s almost too easy to achieve near-perfect tones images without crazy manual metering.

6. Kodak Gold 200

Best For: Photographers wanting an affordable option to capture warmer-toned images of any scene or subject.

Kodak Gold 200 is one of the most accessible film stocks on the market, as you can find this bad boy in almost any nearby gas station or Walgreens equivalent. Gold 200 is the Bladerunner of all film stocks, curating a warm contrast and haze around subjects of any valor. The long exposure latitude can make it hard to catastrophically under or overexpose a shot, and the signature warm Kodak tones are ideal for nostalgic holiday snaps or family snags.

Affordable

Affordable and accessible to anyone looking to start their film career.

Really Warm

It’s like a Bladerunner or another Mad Max movie equivalent, in a good way.

Great In Harsh Light

The lower ISO count makes it perfect for harsh, versatile light.

7. Kodak Professional Ektachrome E100

Best For: Photographers needing a stock to cater to their experimental colors, and wanting a more vivid expression.

Kodak Professional Ektachrome also features a signature color saturation and contrast often not reflected in other film stocks. Colors are rich, deep, and vivid with true-to-life skin tones. It holds a lower contrast formula to provide balance and a wide dynamic range, and it has a neutral tonal scale for greater color accuracy.

Unique History

Truly a remarkable and underdeveloped film stock, your images will stand out against the rest.

Saturation

Vivid colors make an even more fun, vibrant picture.

Lower Contrast

Holds a lower contrast formula to provide balance and a wide dynamic range.

How We Tested:

The Moment team is full of film photography buffs; we geek over which cameras to use, the difference in film stocks for specific environments, and which vintage strap from Grandpa’s closet will look best with our medium formats. When we heard that our team received a personal brand contact for Kodak, Fujifilm, etc. — we grew evermore stoked to be a part of the Moment team to launch our Film Store. Our supply coordinator sent the film photographers some stocks to test out throughout the weekend for launch assets. I gathered some thoughts and opinions from the team for this article and my personal testament to each film roll (I’ve used all of these myself and can’t choose which is my favorite!). My words may reign true, but our teams’ example pictures are a testament to what each of these stocks is capable of.

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