Most unusual NOS film finds

[Mike Gammill]

<p>Since lately we've had threads on discontinued (or recently discontinued) films I thought it might be fun to share some of the unsual finds that many of us have had over the years.<br>

I will start: in 1993 my wife and I stopped at a small drugstore just north of Gulfport. As always I would look at the film to see what they had. I found three rolls of Panatomic-X (expired around 91 or 92 I think) marked down to half price. Naturally I pounced. In time when most drugstores generally carried only color print film it was a complete surprise. And those that did carry black & white usually had Tri-X with the occasional roll of Plus-X. Likely the person in charge of ordering film was told to pick up a few rolls of black & white and not given any specifics. Didn't find any more Panatomic-X until I picked some up on ebay about 10 or 11 years later. To this day I try to check out small stores that I find (especially those in out of the way places). What tales of silver halide treasure do you have to share?</p>

[jakenorcross]

<p>I'm the guy people keep giving film to (everything from Kodacolor X (exp 1970) to Seattle Filmworks 200 is in the fridge right now), but the best would have to be the Ansco Plenachrome 616 given by a flea market dealer because I "knew what (I) was doing" when I bought a TLR... rescued out of an argus camera. It was unshot, and we immediately froze it before running it through my friends' (later fiance's) dad's old camera. I've been using those spools and backing paper ever since. </p>

[john_shriver]

<p>Probably Kodak 2475 Recording in sheet film sizes on a 0.004" ESTAR base. Both 4x5 inch and 2.25x3.25 inch. Not a stock item even then, probably special-ordered for some physics research in the 1960's. (Kodak was a really soft touch for special orders then.) Pretty badly base-fogged, not very useful unfortunately.<br>

Of course, any unexposed glass plates are pretty unusual -- I've even used some from one box. Oxidation fog of all but the center of the plate.<br>

Of course, the venue for my strange finds has pretty much always been eBay. I've gotten some slightly unusual film at the PHSNE camera show, but nothing very exotic.</p>

 

[austin_luse]

<p>I once found a free darkroom sink off cl, and when i went to pick it up, the guy turned out to be a really cool guy who was an avid leica user. He not only gave me a free sink ( a pretty nice plastic one), but then gave me 2 rolls of double-x, which is a movie film. It was an interesting film to use, and funnily enough, it is only available in 500 ft. rolls. </p>

[nano_burger]

<p>I took a trip to Germany to find a place to stay when I'm stationed there this fall. My wife is a big fan of recycling, so our car was gradually filling up with cans, paper, and plastic recyclables. While we were on Sembach air base, we stopped in at the recycling center to get rid of the lot. While standing on a platform, I looked into the "light fractions" container and saw a sea of new VHS tapes and a bunch of Kodak film boxes. I climbed in and rescued 53 rolls of film. <br>

The German employee that ran the place was not too happy with me crawling around his recycling, but my wife (who has excellent German language skills) was able to explain that I could recycle the film by actually using it for its intended purpose. He seemed to accept this pretty well and let me walk out with the film.<br>

Interesting variety, but mostly high ASA black and white and color film dated from the early 1990s. Probably forgotten in some lab or back corner when digital camera started coming out. The real find was 5 rolls of HIE. Probably was not stored that well, so no promises on the quality, but should be fun to play with.<br>

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[wblynch]

<p>Found a brick of 20 rolls of 1984 Agfa Superpan 200 last year at a photo swap. Used two already and they had some base fog. Next I'll try downrating to 100 and pull the development. Really nice film and they were packed in gorgeous cannisters.</p>