"TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY" Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

ABOVE: Even an everyday task like garbage collection can be interesting in the right setting. (Canon Rebel G, 24-85mm lens, Fujicolor 400 negative film.)

Film: Slide vs. Prints

Assuming that you've decided to stick with film, your next choice is between slides and prints. Each has its pros and cons:

Slides (reversal film)

35mm slides are convenient to sort and store, and a slide projected onto a screen is far more impressive than any print in a photo album can be. Slides are also easy to handle if you use a film scanner. (Unlike negatives, they aren't vulnerable to fingerprints and can be plucked from a storage tray and inserted one at a time.) On the downside, slide film requires more careful exposure than print film, and you need a projector or viewer to see your photos.

Tip: Kodachrome 64 and 200 are extremely fine-grained slide films, and they use a color dye-transfer process that should prevent fading for 100 years or more if the slides aren't projected too often. (My father's 50-year-old Kodachromes are still excellent, while his Ektachromes and color snapshots from the same era have faded almost beyond recognition.)

Prints (negative film)

Today, print or negative film outsells slide film by a huge margin. There are several reasons why print film makes sense for the beginning photographer:

• Modern negative film has considerable latitude, or margin for exposure error. What's more, the printing process can compensate, at least to some degree, for an under- or overexposed negative. (With slide film, there are no opportunities for adjustments--the film itself is the finished product.)

• Print films tend to be faster than slide films, which means they work with the smaller lens openings of today's zoom lenses. (Some point-and-shoot cameras  have a maximum opening of f/8 or smaller at telephoto settings, compared to f/2-f/2.8 for the standard 50mm SLR camera lenses of 20 years ago.)

• Prints don't require a projector. Also, you can scan them into a computer with a multi-purpose flatbed scanner rather than a more expensive film scanner.

Print films come in many types and speeds. ISO 200 is a good speed for sunny days, but many experts, such as Herbert Keppler of Popular Photography, now recommend ISO 400 as a good all-around choice for cameras that have zoom lenses. ISO 800 is even better if you have a long telephoto, need to take pictures indoors, or encounter gloomy weather. Stick with mainstream brands like Kodak or Fuji, and avoid private-label brands (such as Seattle Filmworks) that require processing by the vendor.

Tips:

• Take a reasonable supply of film with you if you're traveling from North America, because film is nearly always more expensive in Europe.

• If you make ISO 400 film your standard, carry a few rolls of 200 and 800 film for use in unusually sunny or dim conditions.

• Don't pack film in checked baggage--not even in lead-lined bags--because checked bags are often subjected to extremely powerful X-rays.

• If you're going through more than a few airports, remove film cartridges from their boxes and place them in a plastic bag or Tupperware container for easy hand inspection. (U.S. airports will perform hand inspections on request; most European airports require that you send everything, including film, through the X-ray machine.)

• Avoid carrying exposed APS film through metal detectors, since it's possible (though unlikely) that exposure information on the magnetic layer could be erased.

• Take an extra set of camera batteries. It's no fun having your camera go into hibernation when you're 20 km from the nearest camera shop--or, worse yet, your camera uses an exotic battery that's hard to find.

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