Spoiler alert: it’s Kodak Gold 200.
The beach is packed, sunscreens are selling out like candies, and Ray Ban is coming out with a new style every week. It's summertime!
As we are entering the season, I’m sure many of you are already thinking of which film roll to stock up on in preparation for the fun times ahead. The season calls for bright and colorful days filled with adventures, and you don’t want to be stuck with the wrong film roll to capture your summer the analog way.
To save your summer, we bring you the Kodak Gold 200.
Kodak Gold 200: Cold Hard Facts
Kodak Gold 200 is a low-speed color negative film that is available to use for 35mm film cameras. According to Kodak Alaris, it is designed for general picture-taking situations in daylight or with electronic flash. It also features wide exposure latitude — from two stops underexposure to three stops overexposure.
Its wide exposure latitude means that you can take photos in a variety of different lighting conditions - from dark to very bright. It leaves plenty of room for mistakes.
This film features saturated colors, fine grain, and high sharpness. It produces bright, colorful prints, and it also gives you high-quality results when scanned or enlarged.
Being a consumer-grade film, Gold 200 is also readily available and highly affordable. You should not have any issue finding it at a local store or online. It is typically sold in both 24 and 36 exposures. The price averages around EUR 6 for the 36 exposure film, and EUR 5.20 for 24 exposures. They even sell Gold 200 in a pack of three, so it is easy to stock up on these.
Capturing the summer with Gold 200
For so many reasons, Kodak Gold 200 is undeniably my choice to shoot for the summer.
Whether you want your summer to be jam-packed full of action or filled with lazy days by the beach, you need a film roll that is reliable in different conditions of light for you to shoot during bright days at the beach and also those late afternoons before sunset. This is exactly what the Gold 200 can do with its wide exposure.
That being said, the film does perform best in daylight. So try to take your photos outdoors as much as possible and feed it with light to get the best results.
This film also adds golden highlights to your photos that instantly give them a nostalgic, vintage look that is most fitting for summer. It has rich colors and a warm tone. I would not count on it being the most color-accurate film out there, but if you prefer summer-like characteristics to color accuracy just like me (at least during the summer), then the Gold 200 will serve you just right.
The Gold 200 has fine grain, so you might get disappointed if you are a fan of grain yourself. Although, I do share this love of grain and believe that it adds such a characteristic that is distinct to film photographs. The Gold 200 adds so much more characteristics to the photos with its color balance that the absence of grain bothers me not.
To recap, these are the features that make Kodak Gold 200 the film roll for the summer:
Wide exposure, reliable to shoot in dark lighting to very bright
Wonderful color balance fit for the summer
Widely available, highly affordable
Fine grain, high sharpness, high-quality results when scanned or enlarged
See photos below for how the Kodak Gold 200 performs with point and shoot Olympus AF-1:
Not convinced yet? Check out these other reviews of Kodak gold 200:
Kodak Gold 200 35mm Film Review
Happy summer!