It’s a chilly Sunday morning, and I really need to clean my living space. I’ve got boxes of old things here and there, and I really should neaten up. Projects that I started and never finished … into the trash you go. Old clothes I never wear – there’s the Goodwill bag.
Old cameras I haven’t used in ages –
Hey, wait a second. What’s this?
Holy vintage camera, Batman, when did I buy this?
What you see here is the Rollei SL26, a high-end Rolleiflex camera for Kodak’s Instamatic film format. Oh yeah, and it comes with extra lenses. Swank.
Background.
From the 1960’s until maybe the end of 2010, Kodak manufactured an “Instamatic” film product and camera setup. The film was stored in a cartridge, you plopped the cartridge into a simple box camera, took pictures, took the cartridge out, and dropped it off at your local Fotomat or the like. If all went well, you’d receive little square photo prints and you were happy.
Well, Rollei got in on the action with their own camera. Instead of the “one shutter speed and one aperture” simplicity of the Kodak Instamatic line, Rollei’s SL26 model combined the Instamatic feature with a single-lens reflex modern camera and three swappable Tessar lenses.
And somewhere along the line, I bought this camera – and never used it. Packed it away and completely forgot about it. Because I am a moron.
Oh, and look what else is in this box – old packs of Instamatic film.
Like this GAF Anscopan 12-shot pack, with a freshness date to develop before August of 1968.
Hey, do you think Ansco will still honor their guarantee if this film doesn’t work? 😀
But truth be told, if I can squeeze twelve shots out of this baby … heck, if I can get ONE usable shot out of this baby … I’d be a happy camper.
Over the weekend, I drove out to the Black Bridge – a former railroad trestle between Green Island and Van Schaick Island, a bridge that was repurposed into a pedestrian / cyclist path – and took some photos. Nothing major, just something to see if I can make this Rollei SL26 work.
Dropped the film off at McGreevy Pro Lab (my pro lab of choice).
Yesterday, I received the developed film. Twelve images, and …
Trust me. Film that’s 60 years past its expiration date isn’t going to give you anything spectacular. In fact, as you can see from this image, the film itself has deteriorated over the years, leaving black malaria-like spots all over the frames.
There’s a railroad bridge there. Honest. I swear.
Well, eleven of those frames were absolutely trash.
But one frame actually had a semi-usable image. It’s not Competition Season-worthy, but … it’s pretty decent for film that lost its freshness date when the Monkees still had a sitcom.
Check this out.
Again … not perfect, not by any means. But I can see a cloud. I can see steel girders.
And most of all … I can see that this Rollei SL26 still works.
Now finding fresh Instamatic film – that will be a true challenge. The most I’m looking for right now would be Kodacolor Gold 200, which even at its freshest would be 30 years past its expiry date. But … if I can compensate for the slower film speed, maybe, just maybe … I can pull something for the future.
Okay. I’m feeling like this might be worth a try.
And I’m totally fine with that. 😀
Chuck The Writer 
I can relate. When I graduated from high school, my mom pulled out this old school model camera, and tried to take a picture of my then-girlfriend and I. I then took the camera
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To be fair, the Ansco film wasn’t that good in the first place (for those who don’t know, yes I was shooting fresh film in 1968). The camera is great though, and worthy of another chance.
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Spoken like the old coot that I am…
In time, those WTF?! ‘surprises’ will gradually become more frequent.
Old folks usually dread surprises, so I’m glad it was a rewarding find.
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