A new roundup of found films …
Found film # 3: Kodachrome 135
This is not properly a found film because the box was found with slides that were already been processed and framed but, these slides allows you to understand at least part of the reason for the veneration that many photographers have had for decades to Kodachrome. The box has the postage stamp of the laboratory which dates back to 1951 and cardboard frames seem to match those of the era. This is a series of pictures of a trip to Bryce Canyon and Vancouver, as well as in the Arizona desert with its typical missions.
Just a picture of a mission here on the left shows the large capacity (matched of course to photographer’s ability) in being able to retain detail even in complex situations like these: the Sun in front would put in crisis more than a film and also a lot of sensors, but Kodachrome has perfectly represented what was the natural vision. The images are perfectly preserved and vision through projector allows you to appreciate the beautiful and natural color rendition, enhanced by some of the subjects.
The images, as mentioned, are essentially related to a multi-day excursion, nothing particularly interesting if not for those taken and been taken!
Found film # 4: Kodak Vericolor 120
I found the partially exposed roll inside a Ferrania Eura with obvious signs of mold abandoned on a stand of a country market. Having already several Eura I was quite dubious about buying but that number “8” sticking up from the frame counter window had a recall too strong! The curious thing is that I took the four missing poses and once removed the roll … the shutter of the Eura stopped working! Obviously, its only purpose was to finish this roll before dying. This is a Kodak Vericolor II, film with 100 ISO emulsion (but there were also other sensitivity emulsions marketed with the same name) fairly widespread in the ’70s and produced up to nearly ’90s; this image seem to postpone the roll end of the 70s.
Being a film to be processed in C41 chemistry it has not presented any difficulties though, for safety and fearing a possible weakening of the emulsion, I treated all at 25° C with a presoak of four minutes with increasing temperature from 20° C to get to the process temperature just before starting. The correctly exposed images at the end were only four and three depict the same subject while the last you see a familiar group during a kind of picnic.
The image on the right has suffered probably some haze as can be seen from the magenta streaks that are evident even on the negative. It should be noted also that the photos taken by me after retrieving the roll have presented surprisingly no difference in quality compared to the pre-existing and that’s a sign that the film has retained its sensitivity and was able to well preserve the latent image.
Found film # 5: Perutz BW 120
This roll comes from a Zeiss Ikonta in 6×4,5 format, a quite widespread camera among hikers in the 50s and 60s due to its quality and robustness combined with reduced dimensions. The roll was wrapped very tight and the time above (1953) resembled a heavy risk of fogging; with a thin strip cut from head I have rated the best time with Xtol stock then resulted in 7 and a half minutes at 18° C: the lower emperature allowed, apparently, the elimination of any fogging and images were of excellent quality, despite nearly 60 years awaiting processing. Pictures confirm the small journey vocation of the Ikonta and contain some shots (one above and below), relating to the truly evocative Mille Miglia 1953 Edition (or 1952, I’m still looking for the certainty).
On the area should also be the image of post flood works: at the time of the supposed shot the only news of flooding in the vicinity of Brescia is relative to the village of Marone, in 1953: some clues, so agree!
Returning for a moment to technical matters, Perutz film behaved admirably, retaining images without apparent loss of quality after more than half a century. All images presented here were printed with condensed head without any difficulty and showed an astounding tonal range.
Among the excursions of the photographer there is also a rugby match viewed from the sidelines just behind the protective mesh: from t-shirts seems to be a challenge between teams of Brescia and Milan:
But the images certainly more interesting, to me at least, are those related to a mountain climbing with rope and two images of snow-capped peak:
The remaining images are not trivial, with a couple of night and Interior views, the fourth image is Mirabella Tower of Brescia:
But it is the last image most interesting of all, a real gang of boys of the 50 ‘s, complete with sunglasses and Vespa (or Lambretta …):