Kodak Bantam Colorsnap 3

The Kodak bantam Colorsnap 3 was produced between 1961 and 1963. The camera's EV scale index uses four weather symbols selected by two pointers, for dark and light scenes, and another scale is added on the EV ring, below the lens, for flash use.The Colorsnap 3 is actually the same age as me, so I feel quite attached to it!

I picked up this lovely old camera from Bolton Le Sands Trash 'n' Treasure fair for £1. It contained a fully exposed roll of Kodak 828 film - Exciting! 828 film is similar to the more modern 35mm film, but produces a differently sized 28mm x 40mm negative.

Sadly the film came back from the lab completely fogged and blank.

Coronet Flashmaster

This week's new camera find is this 1955 Coronet Flashmaster, from an antique shop in Kendal (£6). The Flashmaster takes 6cm x 6cm on 120 roll film. sadly no film inside this one, but I look forward to putting some through at some point.

The advert here is from a 1955 edition of Picture Post (courtesy of old school paul).

Agfa Optima 535

The Agfa optima 535 is a small German-made 35mm film camera, first manufactured in the 1970's. It has some very nice features including a nice compact, build, a big sensor and a large and bright viewfinder. It has a 40mm/2.8 lens, and shutter speeds from 1/30s to 1/500s. The 0.9x viewfinder is equal to that found on the Leica M3.
I picked up this lovely Agfa Optima 535 from a charity shop in Clitheroe, Lancashire. It contained a fully exposed roll of Kodak 35mm 24exp 200ASA colour film. Cost £2.00

The film roll was developed at Farnells lab in Lancaster.

Results of the film processing are quite interesting. Looks like a middle aged couple in Spain/Portugal, possibly on holiday in a caravan whilst waiting for a new holiday home to be built. Some nice double exposures.

If you recognise anyone, or have any further information on the location etc, please email me.
(click an image to see a larger version)

Welcome to the Slingfilm project.

As someone who was around cameras from a very early age, thanks to my dad being a 60's hobbyist photographer, I have collected and in many cases discarded possibly hundreds of cameras. 

The Slingfilm project has developed out of my camera collecting and from finding, possibly due to the recent development of digital photography, a growing number of film cameras in charity shops and car boot sales etc which still contain undeveloped rolls of film. Given that we live in a society that has enjoyed photographing and documenting almost every aspect of our lives, and that most people would consider their photo albums as the first possession they would reach to save in a house fire, I'm more than a little interested in these cameras and photographs that have been (knowingly or unknowingly) discarded. The Slingfilm project will attempt to document the discarded cameras I find along the way, where found, how much I paid for them, some history of the camera itself perhaps, along with the films often found inside them and the results of the processing of those films - the lost memories. 

I am lucky to have a great film lab nearby (Farnells Photographic lab) who have been helpful in processing of these old films, some of them untouched for 50 years or more. The results will be patchy, many I know will be fogged and useless, others will be badly exposed, but perhaps, just occasionally, some gems might turn up. 

Let's just see how it goes...