I was tidying up my fathers house and throwing an accumulation of years of clutter.

Other than finding some nice bottles of port and champagne I came across a wealth of family photos, negatives and transparancies. found a reasonably nice mid 80’s Cannon SLR with a load of prime lenses – down to 28mm, so that will be fun to play with.

More interesting though as a load of old medium format images 1950s ish and the camera that they were taken with!

I didn’t have enough space to take it back on the plane as I had a teeny bag, but I want to get some film for it to play with it when I’m in Ireland for the festive season of feasting. Where would one get it?? Internet is suggesting 120 medium format – B&W I suspect.

It also has the most vague aperture settings in the world. Only two options:

Other thing I found was a really old camera – looking like my grandfathers, probably 1920s. That may be a bit more interesting 🙂

Just put 120 film into eBay!

There’s lots available, either black and white or colour. If you get slide film (Fuji velvia for example) you can cross process it for funky colours!

Some Jessops might develop it or you can send it off to peak imaging in Sheffield

There’s a whole “logographic /toy camera movement based around it. Like the “real” Instagram

Most of my pictures here

https://www.flickr.com/photos/30093694@N03/

Are taken on film.

Just did a bit of internet wandering. Getting film will be the easy bit it appears! Wasn’t sure if it’d still be available.

Now to figure out how to digitise about 40+ years of transparencies and negatives…

Now to figure out how to digitise about 40+ years of transparencies and negatives…

http://www.mr-scan.co.uk/

or be prepared to sit in front of a scanner for a loooooong time

Update

I’ve had a look at the volume of transparencies and negatives and done a bit on the costings and I think it makes sense to get someone to digitise the images for me. It’s not too expensive considering I can use money that was left to me to pay for it, then gift the images of my grandfather to my dads brothers and families.

Interestingly I’ve also found some old 8mm and Super8 reels. Looks like they are in ok nick and a friend has a hand projector so we’re going to have a look at them in a few weeks and see what is on them.

More interestingly, I’ve had a bit of a play with the old SLR I found, and it was quite a regarded camera – Canon AE-1 Program. It has a reel in it with a few images shot, so I’m going for a wander to finish it, then send it off for processing while getting the camera serviced. The mirror return is _quite_ squeaky at the moment.

Next project, getting some medium format B&W film to see if the other two cameras work! Projects ahoy.

You have great dedication and available time Greg!

I was in somewhat similar position with my dad’s stuff, loads of transparencies, and photo albums. Sadly I decided that the bulk of the slides had to go — along with the Super 8s. It just would drive me insane to process / handle them all.

And there are very few other relatives still around. He did put a lot onto print, as well, so I have the albums of that to hold on to. You just have to decide what’s best for remaining relatives (and that includes you) – I still have half a house to clear from 40 years of accumulated stuff!

Available time is usually down time when I’m not working or training. One of the joys of having no TV and no kids (yet) is that I have time to spend doing things!

http://www.harrisoncameras.co.uk/Accessories/Camera-Accessories/Film/Ilford-XP-2-Super-400-Black-and-White-120-Roll-Film-C41-Process_1839649.htm?gclid=CLKZqerPvckCFdEYGwodPDUO1w

this stuff is a good 120 black and white film. It processes in regulare colour c41 chemistry so it’s easy to get developed and gives nice results too