Vintage camera collection – photo's from old cameras
Every now and then, when I buy an old camera to add to my collection, I will find one which still has a film in it. I’ve been saving these up and yesterday I took a few of these films into my local high street photography chain to have them developed and scanned. Today I collected the developed films.
Of the 5 films I took in only 3 had any images on them and most of them were blank. It’s a fact that most of the films found in these circumstances are not completed films but ones forgotten and with only a few exposures made. Also most of the pictures which had been taken were not very good photographically with poor focus and colour balance, but for some reason there is a real interest in looking at these pictures of people and places that you will never know. You wonder who the people in the picture are and what they did in their lives. It’s also interesting trying to date the pictures from the decoration, furniture and items in the room. For example, the third picture has a CRT television so it was obviously taken before LCD panels became ubiquitous.
I have one other film which I’d misplaced, but I’ve found that now and will get that developed soon. I hope it has better images than these, but whatever they are there will still be that excitement of seeing pictures which no one has seen since the unknown photographer took the pictures all those years ago. Quite a few of these pictures have multiple exposures and because of that I have cropped a couple of the pictures.
Update: Oct 7th.
I took another film in to be developed today and found some much better exposures on this film. I’ve added them to this post.
[…] original receipt of sale for the purchase price of £157 in 1976! As an added bonus, there was a film still loaded in the camera with about 8 exposed pictures which I’ll take for development later this week. […]
[…] If the camera still has film in it, say so. This is a big plus for me and many camera collectors because there is a real excitement in having old films found in cameras developed. […]
[…] obviously still a film in it! I have had cameras in the past with film still inside, and find it fascinating to get them developed and see what’s on them. I assumed the locked shutter was simply because the batteries were […]
[…] (also checking to see if the rewind crank moved as I did this – unfortunately it didn’t so no lost film in this camera) and pressed the shutter and nothing […]
[…] When it arrived and I’d unpacked it I found that it is in very nice condition overall apart from the chrome work on the top which has started to bubble. I assume the metalwork under the chrome plating has started to corrode and this leads to the bubbling. It’s rather a shame, because as far as I can tell the rest of the camera is in very good shape and appears the be working properly. The best thing about buying the camera was the fact that there was still a film in it, so I’ve rewound that and sent it to Photo Express in Hull to see if there are any images still obtainable. I love looking at pictures found in old cameras and have a post where I publish them. […]
[…] an added bonus, there was a film still loaded in the camera with about 8 exposed pictures which I’ll take for development later this week. […]
[…] When it arrived and I’d unpacked it I found that it is in very nice condition overall apart from the chrome work on the top which has started to bubble. I assume the metalwork under the chrome plating has started to corrode and this leads to the bubbling. It’s rather a shame, because as far as I can tell the rest of the camera is in very good shape and appears the be working properly. The best thing about buying the camera was the fact that there was still a film in it, so I’ve rewound that and sent it to Photo Express in Hull to see if there are any images still obtainable. I love looking at pictures found in old cameras and have a post where I publish them. […]
[…] (also checking to see if the rewind crank moved as I did this – unfortunately it didn’t so no lost film in this camera) and pressed the shutter and nothing […]
[…] obviously still a film in it! I have had cameras in the past with film still inside, and find it fascinating to get them developed and see what’s on them. I assumed the locked shutter was simply because the batteries were […]
[…] odd colour casts and the definition is not brilliant they are certainly better than some of the other negatives I’ve recovered from old […]