I’m obsessed with aquiring previously exposed (but then forgotten and never developed) film. A few months ago, I posted about developing a roll of film that was 40+ years old then figuring out who the subject (a little girl) of the photos was. Ever since then, I’ve been on the lookout for more rolls of “found film.”

I bought three rolls at an estate sale recently, and none of them turned out. I bought another old roll of Kodak Porta from eBay last month, and it didn’t turn out. Undeterred, I bid on a lot of 10 rolls of previously eposed film. Again on eBay. The lot also contained some cartridge film (110 and 126) as well as two rolls of unexposed film.

I thought it would be fun to share whatever success I have in developing the color film from this lot of film. I’m not as interested in doing a deep dive to date the photos and tracking down any folks that might be in them like I did before. But I’m curious. What will I reveal in these rolls of film!?

Since I was developing a roll of my own for a different blog post, I decided to throw in one of these other rolls into the tank along with it. I selected one at random. My random selection was a roll of Kodak Gold 100 / 24 exposure.

As best as I can determine, Kodak Gold 100 was discontinued in 2010, although Kodak Gold 200 is still widely available. Now, see? I said I wasn’t interested in dating these rolls of film, but already I’m doing the math and realizing that the photos (if they turn out) could be 15 years old or more. That’s assuming photos weren’t taken on expired film and were taken while the film was still in production.

Roll #1 was a bust. No visible negatives at all even though my other roll turned out just fine. Dang. Since one roll turned out and the other one didn’t, I knew the chemicals and process were fine.

The next day I souped two more rolls. This was another roll of Kodak Gold 100 and a roll of Kodak Gold 200. Same results as before. Darn it.

Now, see? I said I wasn’t interested in dating these rolls of film, but already I’m doing the math and realizing that the photos (if they turn out) could be 15 years old or more.

Wanting to make sure I wasn’t doing something wrong and to try and figure out what was going on, I turned to Google. The Internet said, “A roll of film being completely black means it was exposed to light or overdeveloped.” Another snippet I found told me, “Expired film can become fogged and produce poor results, including black negatives.”

This prompted me to search what fogged film looks like. “Fogged film appears black or has partial black marks.” Another cause, I learned, could be heat damage. It’s entirely possible that the film was just aged beyond usefulness and/or exposed to heat at some point which damaged it.

I took another look at those last two rolls before tossing them in the trash. I realized that on one of them I could see faint frame lines. I couldn’t quite make out any of the photos, but knew there were some there. I cut up the negatives and threw a strip in the scanner. If there were any photos there, there was insuffiecient detail for the scanner to display anything. I looked again with the naked eye and could definitely see faint images. I added the negatives to my binder for a future time when they might be sucessfully scanned.

Now a little hopeful, I selected two more rolls from the lot to develop. These were Kodak Gold 400 (24 exp) and Kodak Gold 200 (36 exp). This would be the final rolls of Kodak, leaving five rolls of Polaroid film from the original lot of 10.

Now, these two rolls definitely turned out! I didn’t want to paw the negatives too much while they were still wet, but there were images there. I returned after sufficient drying time. The Gold 400 looked better than the 200, but both had visible images. I cut ’em up into smaller strips and put them in their individual sleeves.

I started with some scans of the Kodak Gold 400. A problem I was having was the negatives were curled up and didn’t want to lay flat. Being wound up in a film cartridge for years and years will do that. A negative that won’t lay flat is hard to get in “focus” when scanning. But I got some decent, initial scans.

What follows are the first five frames from the roll of 24 exposures (and in the same order as on the roll). More photos of this roll and the other roll will follow in a separate post(s). No tweaking or editing has been done on the images at this point. I have no idea who these people, when these photos were taken or where. Looks like maybe a birthday party. Do I see an Crash Test Dummy on the cake? Internet slueths, begin your investigation.