We’ve written several posts and a page about the delights of finding exposed, undeveloped film in the cameras and kit we win at auction or buy at estate sales — and here’s another one!
Our latest discovery:
A roll of Kodak Kodacolor 400 film found in a vintage Ricoh Singlex 35mm single-lens-reflex (SLR) camera (built like a tank!), with a bulky, hulking add-on light meter and a nice f1.4 Rikenon lens. The camera was marvelous! The exposed film we found inside it; not so much.
Here’s a gallery of the camera (also on Instagram), its carrying case, and two metal film canisters (empty) attached to the strap with masking tape:
The camera and roll of film inside it came from an estate sale in Connecticut but the photos look like they may have been taken elsewhere. From the cars — a “new” VW Beetle, an old TransAm (?) and a Jeep Cherokee — plus the look of the home, neighborhood, and the flatness of the landscape, I would guess middle America somewhere. But that could be anywhere from upstate New York to eastern Kansas! The stacks of CD’s surrounding a TV with rabbit-ear antenna on top and the fact that the New VW Beetle was only launched in 1997, tell us this roll was probably shot around Y2K, in the late 90’s or early 00’s.
Here are key photos from the roll of Kodacolor 400 we found in this camera, with some color correction and clarity applied to counteract the dye-fading and color-shift. An accidental double-exposure (first image), backyard, front yard, and cars are included. Blurs, duds, duplicates, and boring shots of people at a garage sale in the rain were left out. These are not great or intriguing photographs, but they do provide a “slice-of-life” view of some people, place, and time…
What do you think? Do you recognize the people, place, cars, or can you guess the approximate year these photos were taken? Let me know in the comments…
*This roll of 135 (35mm) film developed & scanned by our friends Nice Film Lab
Images of the Ricoh Singlex 35mm SLR camera, and selected photos from the film we found inside it, were also posted to the Cameras+Films Instagram feed.
Hope you enjoyed these “found-film” images!
[C+F] Cameras+Films
What happens when we find undeveloped film? We develop it, of course!
Here at Cameras+Films, there’s always a piqued-curiosity, vaguely-voyeuristic, thrill-of-discovery moment whenever exposed, undeveloped film is found in an old camera. And, as you can imagine, our discovery is followed by impatient anticipation and speculation when the film is sent out to be developed:
- Will someone out there know anyone in the images we post from the roll?
- Will there be one or more interesting views into one or more lives on the roll?
- Will there be something myopic, historic, epic, simplistic, or even artistic?
- Will there be at least one or two good photographs, a whole roll of bad ones, or nothing at all on the film?
In any case, we always end up asking, “why did they leave the film in this camera without developing it? Did something happen to the photographer, so that the film was never developed? Or did they stop using the camera and simply forget about the film inside it? No way to know for sure, but it’s fun to speculate and wonder…
So, to satisfy your curiosity and ours, we are pleased to share images from any film we find in the vintage cameras we buy/use and sell. When available and relevant, we’ll share information about the camera-owner, the person who most likely exposed the film, and any items of interest which came with the camera…
Cameras+Films 