Bought a camera. Still has film in it!

[Worker 11811]

I got my old camera out of the closet last week and I discovered that it doesn't work anymore.
(Pentax Super Program - Vintage 1984)

I called around trying to find any place in town to fix it. Nobody would even touch it! I looked around on the internet for some places to fix it but the minimum price was between $130 and $150 and that doesn't include parts... IF they can get parts for it. Pentax does not sell parts for these cameras nor do they repair or support them. Paying that kind of cash to "maybe" get a camera repaired is silly!

I looked around on eBay and I found a camera body just like mine being offered for $40. I bid on it. I figure, even if the thing doesn't work, at least I'll have a source of parts to cobble a good, working camera out of. Right?

Well, I won! The package came in the mail today.
I'd say it was in "B-" condition. Obviously used but still quite clean. A bit dusty inside but still workable. I can dust it out myself.

Okay... I'm fussing around with the thing, checking it out and I notice it's still got batteries in it! I flip it on and it works, right off the bat! Good sign!

I cocked the shutter and, to my surprise, I see the rewind knob turn!
Wow! It's still got film inside! The frame counter says "18". There's at least 6 shots in the roll and maybe another 18.

I sent a message to the seller. She's one of those consignment sellers. People take things to a local "eBay Shop" who sells them and takes a percentage of the sale. The woman replied to me, "That's the way it was when I got it. Go ahead and throw the film out."

So... I've got this camera with half a roll of "mystery film" in it!
I think I'm going to shoot up the rest of the roll and develop it. (Just negatives.)
God knows what I'll find. :eek:

What do you think?

 

[Jeff L]

Over a year I have bought three cheap cameras at various antique/consignment collectives, and all three had film. I developed them and they had photos of old cars, garden statues, a farm and tractor show and a bunch of strangers. The farm show roll had a shot with a billboard in the background with a date. The last photos on the roll were a few months old. It's bizarre to me that a persons photos do not matter to them. I conducted a little poll and I think we photographers are unique in this regard - caring about our shots.

 

[Worker 11811]

It's bizarre to me that a persons photos do not matter to them. I conducted a little poll and I think we photographers are unique in this regard - caring about our shots.

Seriously! Why would somebody not even want to see whether those shots "turned out?" Even if they didn't, why would then not simply take the film out and throw it away?

Personally, I would never throw film away. Even shots that I don't think are good... even poorly exposed/focused shots get saved in a notebook. (Archival sleeves.) You just never know what you might find in those old negatives years from now. That "railroad track" photo I posted in the gallery is a prime example.

But, finally, I would never want strangers looking at pictures of my family and friends like that! That just feels creepy!

 

[Worker 11811]

Just for information, I had the film developed. It came out all black, edge to edge. Even the part that was still inside the cartridge was black so that rules out somebody opening the camera.

It must have been so old it fogged from age.
But I've never seen film fogged from being old come out so black. There's usually, at least, some vestige of an image on the film.

 

[MarkF48]

Similarly I bought an old Yashica film camera at yard sale and while fiddling with realized it had film in it. Told the seller it may be a good idea if he took it out, lest there be something possibly embarrassing on it. He smiled and took the film out.

Something to keep in mind if you sell a digital camera with the memory cards. The images can be recovered even though the card has been erased or formatted. There are free utilities that can wipe a card totally clean so nothing can be recovered.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

this would only worry me with a digital camera.fill the roll with average shots or pictures of a gray card and develop the film.plese report back.