Some good news, and some bad news.
There are images on the film, and most of them look fine.
When I got the camera it was advanced half way to the last frame, and it was very difficult to persuade the film to advance enough to take the picture. But I did manage without too many "crunchy sounds".
When I opened the camera to extract the film (I couldn't advance, remember?) I found that the film had been "riding the edge" of the spool, probably all the time. Not only the backing paper, much of the film too. I think Bessas may not like the "postal treatment" much - I've seen lopsided spooling before, but nothing like this!
Anyway I managed to extract the roll and feed the film into the spool. When about one third of the film was left, there as an area that was ripped to pieces - the film was almost totally severed! I had to tear the end off to load that separately, 120 film is difficult enough to load without rips and tears!
So I was understandably a little apprehensive when I opened the tank to hang the film to dry (I had run three other films at the same time, and the bl*oody magnet on the base of the drum snapped right off after only a minute of running. So the rest of the time it was hand-rolled in a JOBO CPE2).
First the short end (beginning of the film): One fine old bridge, one fine pregnant nude, and just a corner of the next frame.
Rest of the film: A wooden fence - film ripped and crinkled, but I should be able to salvage most of it! Then a blurry landscape, a blank frame, lots of bicycles, a dam, and a modern bridge (that's mine).
So: One frame partially damaged, one frame blank, one blurry, and five look fine!
Due to the damage I won't scan the negatives after all, but make prints and scan them - the glass negative carrier should help keeping it flat. So you'll have to be patient a little while longer.
