In film for 35 mm cameras what is the difference between 200 ,100, or 400 speed?☧?

Answer 1

ISO ratings are for the 'speed" of the film...or how quickly it reactes to light.
-100 is the slower of the ones you listed, and is good for bright light situations (beach, snow, etc)
-200 is faster and is what most professional photographers use, as it's a great fine grain film, that is to say it doesn't have as much graininess (usually seen in shadows in the photo) as 400 or faster films.
-400 speed film is great all round film (it's what I used to use when I was using film) for indoors and outdoor shots.
-800 is grainy copared to the other speeds, but is a must for night shots or fireworks. It allows a faster shutter speed with less light, as it reacts faster to the light. Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Difference Between 200 And 400 Film

Answer 3

For film, the "speed" of the film is a measure of its sensitivity to light and the numbers give you an idea of how the films compare. So, for example, 200 speed film (ISO 200) is twice as light sensitive as 100 speed film.

There are differences in the film chemistry to make the film more light sensitive, and this causes film to behave differently as the ISO is increased. In practical terms, this means that low speed films like ISO 100 or 200 are less grainy than higher speed films like ISO 400, 800 or 1600.

Thus, when you need a fine image with little grain, you'll want lower speed film; when you need an image in low light (example: indoor sporting events or night football games), you generally get a higher speed film, at the cost of additional "graininess." There are exceptions of course--for example in low light, you can use a tripod and use slow film--but to get handholdable shots in dim light, usually, you use a high ISO film.

The speed of the film will also affect exposure, but that's a more complicated discussion.

Another thing to remember is the 35mm negative film has a huge exposure latitude and tolerates overexposure well, so that you can literally be off by 2 exposure stops and still get a good image. This allows cameras to be cheaply made, because any shutter errors or exposure errors can be corrected when printing and it also allows people to be poor photographers and still have usuable images.

Answer 4

100 ASA has been "standard" for a long time, for daytime shooting, though many makers seem to have moved to 200.

Basically, if you use film of double the speed (ISO/ASA number), you can reduce the aperture or increase the shutter speed by 1 stop/speed for the same exposure, or work in lower light without flash, or gain about 50% extra range for flash illumination.

The penalty of faster film, is increased grain (though current 200 is probably a match for older 100)

The other reason that you would not shoot with 400 ASA in bright conditions, is that you would be limited if you wanted to create motion blur pan effects or to limit depth of field.

So in general 100 and 200 are general purpose daylight film, while 400 is a faster film, gaining 2 stops over 100 and 1 stop over 200, but the grain will be more of an issue for enlargements.

There are actually 4 things which contribute to the exposure.
1. Aperture
2. Shutter speed
3. Film speed
4. Filters & accessories

Point 4 can be important, as if you are stuck with too fast a combination, a neutral density filter can be used to give some extra leeway, while if you are using accessories & fliters which lose a lot of light, faster film may be needed.


Another point to watch, is that some cheap compacts with auto film speed, may not properly support 200 ASA. If detected as 100, it will be overexposed by 1 stop.

Answer 5

200 is medium speed film, not too grainy. 400 is fast...grainy but fast. 800 is exceptionally fast film, very grainy. There is one shutter speed difference between each speed. If a pic needs 1/125th using ISO 200, it will need 1/500th using ISO 400, and 1/1000 using ISO 800. Same with aperature stop, or any combination thereof.

Answer 6

ISO is a measurement of the sensitivity to light of a light-sensitive surface whether film or digital sensor. The higher the number the more sensitive the surface is to light.

Most of my photography is done using either ISO 160 or 200. If I know I'll be in situations where there is low light and flash isn't allowed I'll load ISO 400 and use either a 58mm f1.2 or 50mm f1.4 lens.

I must disagree with Steve L. and his assertion that ISO 800 is needed for night photography or fireworks. I use ISO 800 and my f1.2 lens for night scenes hand-held but not for photos of a city skyline or fireworks. For those I use my usual 160 or 200 and a tripod.

Answer 7

Indoor, outdoor, all purpose shots, high speed shots.
for example: you want to go to a Nascar race to get a great shot you want to get 400 even better could be 800, because it could be an overcast day and it is a vey high speed shot.
in general 400 speed should work in all areas.

Check out this site, they have a lot of great how-tos

good luck