Story plus x
The film above is 616 Kodak Plus X.
It is an old type, in production since before the Great War. I received it from Texas along with several others; all of different formats and age, all but this were subsequently developed and yield no images.
Appearance of this roll was excellent but when I switched off the darkroom lights and tried to force it into the developing spiral it turned out to be very dry, curled and brittle with emulsion side of the film stuck to backing paper. Anyway, according to the tests the emulsion still was alive and I proceeded to the development; 4 min in 10% HC-110 at 45F.
It is very rare for the old forgotten film to keep the image quality even along the length of the roll. Usually outer parts are suffering from extreme fogging. Inside could be just 2-3 legible frames; and this is the best scenario.
This one (despite its age of ~ half century) had 15 ok quality frames (clickable):
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
The photographs are sharp across the whole frame area and carry no motion blur which (along with high view point) brings us to the conclusion of better camera and adult photographer, probably woman -- judging from the subjects chosen.
Let's see some fragments:
All the men are in light shirts with sleeves rolled up, all in long trousers with waist belt. All have short haircut.
All women are in colorful dresses, their hairs combed up and curled.
50s. I think I understand 50s better than the present day.
The World as seen for the very first time; childish country of my dreams.
The place where I was chasing the red rubber balloon like this little creature on the right:
fin