A surprise find in a camera auction – a roll of film still in the camera! Even after a solid 3 years of shooting more and more film photography I was so delighted to try out a new camera format and opened the camera’s back without even a second thought. Luckily the roll was still at the starting position and I quickly shut the camera back. I’m not sure if my peek did all this light leak art or if the camera had been opened in previous moments of absent-minded excitement, but I shot it without reservation.
The one compensation I made while shooting was to add an extra stop of exposure for the unknown film age. I developed it at home and left it in development step for an extra 1:15 to compensate for expiring C-41 color negative developer. All in all this roll was a lot of guesswork and testing out a camera model that goes back to the late 1950s. The results were even more surprising than a free roll of film hiding in the camera. These are my favorite shots I’ve scanned, enjoy!
Tech Specs
Camera: Yashica Mat twin lens reflex
Film: Kodak Portra 400VC, unknown expiration date & storage.
Developer: Unicolor C41 kit, 102º F, 4:45 minutes (lost track of how many rolls I’ve run through this batch of chemistry!)
Scanned: Epson V600 flatbed scanner, Lightroom to crop