Top 10 Film Stocks According to 293 Photographers

A 2025 Film Log Report

11 min read by Dmitri.
Published on December 2, 2025.

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The above are not the top 10 films, although they all are part of the data set. The top-ranking film in this collage is CineStill 800T (#3). Also, CineStill 400D, Kodak UltraMax, and Kodak Ektar are in the list.

Film Log is a web app for tracking film usage across cameras. So far, it logged 850+ rolls of film for 293 photographers.

This weekend, I combed through the anonymized entries to reveal the top 10 most popular films amongst photographers from 40+ countries and nearly 600 brands logged since 2022.

In this article: Why? How? Film #10: A newcomer? Film #9: A skewed result? Film #8: An affordable colour-negative film. Film #7: An affordable colour-negative film in ISO 400. Film #6: “World’s finest grain.”” Film #5: An iconic black-and-white film. Film #4: *The* ISO 125 black-and-white film to shoot. Film #3: It’s more than just a respool. Film #2: Adored by the community. Film #1: The oldest formula in production gets the trophy. Exclusions. Support this blog & get premium features with GOLD memberships!

Why?

“What are the most popular photographic films sold and used today?” — seems like a basic question that should be easy to answer; however, it is not.

The top search results on Google point to sources that range from none to scams.

Tools like ChatGPT may generate an answer that represents the popularity of particular film names in its training set, something random, or results from the web that point to opinion listicles. The most reliable source is a KEH report from 2022; however, they warn that their list is influenced by stock availability at their location.

One film shop, even a popular one like KEH, won’t represent the entire market. Distributors and large manufacturers may have a better picture, but those numbers are neither definitive nor even available.

I think that I can answer this simple question better than any source on the internet.

Kodak Pro Image 100 with Voigtländer Vitessa A.

How?

Film Log saves and syncs log entries across devices and browsers using a private database. I created a script that analyzes all entries in a specific data collection and extracts just the film names.

The film names are written by hand and often include additional information about pushing/pulling, various namings (like: “Ilford HP5+ 400,” “HP5,” “ilford hp5,” “hp 400”, and many others). So I wrote another script that fuzzily matches the film names based on unique properties like ISO speed numbers and common synonyms.

Script output.

After all that, I ended up with 698 groups made from 856 film names. Admittedly, several spelling variations remained unmatched, and there’s also the question of whether rebranded films should be grouped by stock. Thankfully, the largest groups had over 20 members, accounting for more than 2% of all the films on this list.

While 856 films reported by 293 isn’t as large a sample as something that a popular shop like KEH could source, it is better distributed in terms of which films are part of the list (Film Log users come from over 40 countries and shoot films from a diverse set of shops, including expired stocks purchased locally or over eBay).

Once the film names were grouped, I arranged the groups so the largest ones appear at the top — those would be the most popular stocks. The accuracy of these rankings varies from position to position. The lowest-ranking films are easily skewed, but the top-ranking films are most likely representative of the real world.

✪ Note: Film Log is typically used for roll film; therefore, this list omits instant film stats.

CineStill 400D.

Film #10: A newcomer?

The script counted 3 entries naming CineStill 400D — although there are likely 3-5 more entries under highly unusual spellings (as is the case for all the films in this list).

400D is the only film in this series that was introduced less than 10 years ago. Despite the mixed reviews within the community, I found that this film is an excellent daylight option for medium-high ISO that’s often cheaper than Kodak Portra 400, yet it offers finer grain and a wider dynamic range than Kodak UltraMax.

This film is not a direct re-spool or rebrand of Kodak Vision 3 250D film, although there are some visual similarities between the two. In addition to the missing remjet layer, CineStill 400D uses components not found in the 250D, which increase its sensitivity, prevent static discharge, and make negative inversions easier when developed in C-41.

CineStill 400D is also available in large format; last time I checked, it was the cheapest colour option in 4x5!

Kodak Pro Image 100.

Film #9: A skewed result?

Kodak Pro Image 100 (5 entries). I almost certainly contributed to more than half of these records. Take that as you will.

Pro Image is one of the easiest films to scan (provided you don’t let your film inversion app mess with your colours). It’s relatively affordable and produces vibrant colours that are close to what you’d expect from Kodak Portra 400. A great option for making pastel-themed images on film.

Kodak ColorPlus.

Film #8: An affordable colour-negative film.

Kodak ColorPlus (7 entries). I’m not at all surprised to see this film in the top ten. Actually, I expected it to do even better, given how it’s often the cheapest colour-negative film. Not only that, but it’s also finer-grained and more colour-accurate than the newest Harman Phoenix I & II, ORWO NC 200, and maybe Lucky C200.

Despite costing less than all but some expired, or bulk-loaded cine films, properly-inverted and colour-corrected ColorPlus renders colours almost identically to Gold — a film you’ll find much closer to #1!

Fun fact: the new Kodacolor 200 is ColorPlus in a new packaging.

Kodak UltraMax.

Film #7: An affordable colour-negative film in ISO 400.

Kodak UltraMax (9 entries). UltraMax is Kodak’s cheapest ISO 400 colour-negative film.

Like ColorPlus, UltraMax is relatively affordable; a version of this film is notably sold by Kodak’s old rival, Fujifilm (with boxes marked “Made in the USA”).

In my opinion, UltraMax/Fujifilm 400 US renders colours significantly more accurately than the new ORWO NC 500, Lomography Color’92, or any other recently-launched colour-negative film formula. Plus, it has finer grain.

Kodak Ektar 100.

Film #6: “World’s finest grain.”

Kodak Ektar 100 (10 entries), which Kodak markets as having “World’s finest-grained color negative film” in its datasheet and on some packaging designs.

Ektar is not a cheap film, and some photographers find it tough to colour balance. But in addition to being fine-grained, Kodak Ektar is a high-contrast, high-saturation film which, unlike slide films, has a flexible exposure range.

Ektar maps to about 3 lux-seconds in its characteristic curves chart, which converts to about 10 stops of dynamic range. This means the film can be used comfortably in bright daylight and may be safely overexposed.

Kodak Tri-X 400.

Film #5: An iconic black-and-white film.

Kodak Tri-X 400 (12 entries). This film has been around since 1940, or 85 years as a product as of 2025. It’s an old technology, perfected over the years and revered by photographers for nearly a century.

My favourite thing about Tri-X is how quickly it can deliver excellent results in modern workflows. Scanning Tri-X is easier than any other film I tried: it dries flat, and the base has very little fog, which makes inverting it as easy as flipping a switch — even the simplest, cheapest app can do the trick. Paired with a great scanner, this film is likely unmatched for anyone wishing to produce excellent black-and-white photos fast (as edits are almost never necessary).

Ilford FP4 Plus.

Film #4: The ISO 125 black-and-white film to shoot.

Ilford FP4 Plus (15 entries) — an ISO 125 black-and-white film, another classic known for its fine grain and relatively high contrast.

I’ve shot the majority of my Moscow Dayze photobook on this film, along with many of my casual favourites.

FP4 has a lot of competition in its category of ISO ~100 black-and-white films. But upon closer inspection, it’s the only non-T-Grain emulsion that can be found almost anywhere black-and-white film is sold. There are many alternatives from Foma, Arista, Kentmere, Rollei, and Lomography — but none of them have the branding and distribution power of Ilford (Harman).

Why would anyone want a non-T-Grain film? As a more traditional film formula with larger, three-dimensional crystals, it can produce sharper results and be easier to develop in some cases.

CineStill 800T.

Film #3: It’s more than just a respool.

CineStill 800T (22 entries). That’s nearly 50% more entries than in #4. So what makes this film so special?

Halations and tungsten-balanced light sensitivity make night photographs look crisp and exciting on 800T. This film is often used to photograph celebrities, and it’s considered a cliché to use it for night shots of gas stations. Probably because anyone with a film camera, a good understanding of exposure, and an eye for composition could make an image that’s almost guaranteed an upvote on any platform.

It’s known that CineStill 800T is based on Kodak Vision 3 500T film. However, the process that creates this product is far more complicated than often presumed.

The secret recipe has since been reverse-engineered (?). Yet CineStill still dominates thanks to the 10+ years of business relationships and competitive pricing.

Kodak Gold.

Film #2: Adored by the community.

Kodak Gold (23 entries). This film is incredibly popular on the internet. It’s affordable, the colours look good, it’s easy to find, and it comes in medium format, which makes it a choice for professionals.

Sure, the colours may not be as accurate as those shot on Portra 400, and the grain isn’t as fine as on Fujifilm Fujichrome Velvia 50. But resolution and pristine colour accuracy are not the dominant forces that make film photography alluring in 2025 (almost 2026! 🥳).

Ilford HP5 Plus.

Film #1: The oldest formula in production gets the trophy.

Ilford HP5 Plus (31 entries). The original formula was created in 1931, which means this film will turn 95 in 2026!

Analogue Wonderland calls it their best-selling film. This product is so prolific that if a shop stocks just one brand of black-and-white film, it’s likely HP5+.

Not everyone likes it, of course. The film can look grainy compared to other options; plus, HP5+ may not look as slick as Tri-X out of the box. Yet this very old formula is incredibly flexible for experimentation and is forgiving of exposure mistakes. It’s the only ISO 400 film I would even consider pushing eight stops to ISO 100,000, pulling seven stops to ISO 3, and developing in weed, blood, or pee.

HP5+ is also available in a large variety of formats, pretty much most things, except 110.

While not the cheapest, Ilford HP5+ is well below the average price of a black-and-white film.

An affordable, easy to work with, malleable artistic medium for any camera — Ilford HP5 Plus has it all.

Ilford HP5+ shot at EI 100,000. Microphen 1h 45min (stock) 20℃.

Exclusions.

There may be over a hundred film brands named in the database that I’ve never heard of. However, I don’t want to accidentally stumble upon someone’s private note; thus, any film names that have fewer than 3 entries are excluded from the survey.