I sometimes read about old films found into cameras, and of people that enjoy developing and printing these old forgotten pictures.
I recently went to our family house and pick up my father's camera; I realised by rewinding that there still was a film sitting inside. It turned out to be a 24 frames FP4 dating more or less 15 years ago. I tried to develop it, as those could have been the very last pictures taken by my father, perhaps with some portraits of my mother. But unfortunately, to my highest surprise, it came out completely black - side bands, sprocket holes and all.
Before someone suggests the obvious, the magazine was of the current factory sealed type, so no mistakes in realoading a reusable cartridge or opening the sides by mistake. The frame counter was at 6, so no way that the entire film could have been fully exposed to light by mistake. Finally, I developed it in a two-reels tank together with another FP4 that came out absolutely perfect, so no stray light or fogging or wrong chemicals inside the tank etc.
I sometimes read that pre-developing agents are added to current emulsions, and I wonder if it has to be expected today that a film "only" 15 years old can no longer be developed as it is completely darkened by ageing, while older films could once be developed even after decades still showing the period pictures.
The only other thing I can think of is that a 55mm f:1,4 Takumar lens was mounted on the camera, which I believe has lanthanum or thorium glass. But even if this was the effect of prolonged exposure to weak radiations, I somehow expected the film to be irregularly darkened, perhaps with "printed" shadows of the thicker camera metallic parts. The film is instead very uniformly black.
What else might have happened?
I recently went to our family house and pick up my father's camera; I realised by rewinding that there still was a film sitting inside. It turned out to be a 24 frames FP4 dating more or less 15 years ago. I tried to develop it, as those could have been the very last pictures taken by my father, perhaps with some portraits of my mother. But unfortunately, to my highest surprise, it came out completely black - side bands, sprocket holes and all.
Before someone suggests the obvious, the magazine was of the current factory sealed type, so no mistakes in realoading a reusable cartridge or opening the sides by mistake. The frame counter was at 6, so no way that the entire film could have been fully exposed to light by mistake. Finally, I developed it in a two-reels tank together with another FP4 that came out absolutely perfect, so no stray light or fogging or wrong chemicals inside the tank etc.
I sometimes read that pre-developing agents are added to current emulsions, and I wonder if it has to be expected today that a film "only" 15 years old can no longer be developed as it is completely darkened by ageing, while older films could once be developed even after decades still showing the period pictures.
The only other thing I can think of is that a 55mm f:1,4 Takumar lens was mounted on the camera, which I believe has lanthanum or thorium glass. But even if this was the effect of prolonged exposure to weak radiations, I somehow expected the film to be irregularly darkened, perhaps with "printed" shadows of the thicker camera metallic parts. The film is instead very uniformly black.
What else might have happened?
