What is the best film to use for landscape photography?

Lisa G: What is the best film to use for landscape photography?
I need to know this because I’m new to film and just purchased a Kodak Automatic III. I’d prefer film in the Kodak brand. Thanksss.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Qoph
There is no best. You use whatever you prefer to produce the results you want, but Fujichrome Velvia 50 is very popular for landscape and nature photography. It’s slide film, so you’ll need to find a professional laboratory to develop it. Or use prepaid mailers. You can actually bring it to a pharmacy and they’ll mail it out, but it’s likely a better choice to find a pro lab.

Velvia is very vivid, but being a slide film has a low dynamic range. You shouldn’t use it to photograph people, either. Caucasians will come out red. There’s Fujichrome Provia and Astia as well. They’re a little more balanced. For Kodak, you have Kodachrome. It’s a little blue in shady areas. There is only one place in the world to get if officially developed. https://www.dwaynesphoto.com/

Fuji’s ‘pro’ film:
https://www.fujifilm.com/products/films/

Kodak:
‘Consumer’
https://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=3316/7010/6994&pq-locale=en_US
‘Pro’

List of film manufacturers on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_film#Companies_that_manufacture_photographic_film

P.S. Ilford is popular for black & white film, but I found their site a tad bit confusing. Ask around for people who use their film if you are interested.

[Edit] Added a link to Kodak’s ‘professional’ film. Could not find it earlier. [End edit]

Answer by Sentimental Treasures Photo
guess it depends on lighting conditions… but the lower the ASA/ISO the finer the print… will you be shooting color or b/w?

Answer by Fishmeister
If you are looking at the Kodak range of films I will give you some advice. The Kodak Portra 160vc is an excellent film but not for landscapes. I tried a roll thinking that the ‘Vivid colour’ would make for some great landscape shots, I was wrong. On the other hand I used it for portraits (which it was meant for) and it was incredible, certainly one of the best portrait films around but do not be tempted to use this for landscape.

I personally use Ilford B&W for my landscapes, I seem to shoot them all in B&W these days, not sure why that is.

.

Answer by Edwin
For color landscapes I prefer either Kodak Ektar 100 or Fujicolor Superia Reala 100. Both ISO 100 color print films.

Use a tripod for the absolute best results.

I usually use a 21mm lens at f16 and focused to 6′ to give me a DOF of 2′-5” to infinity. A polarizer filter is also a necessity.

Answer by Mere Mortal
Velvia 50

Ilford Pan F

Ektar 100

All three are great choices for landscape.