Here’s another shot converted from digital to analogue. The streaks on the top aren’t clouds, but rather expired artifacts from the old old 669 film. The original was transferred to 35mm slide film then tranferred to Polaroid film via a Polaprinter.
2 weeks ago, I was using my lovely Konica Mermaid camera to shoot action figures underwater. Unfortunately, I had somehow dislodged the the waterproof backing while I was underwater, flooding the camera. The camera electronics died and even the film was exposed to salt water.
I thought surely someone out there on the internets who would have posted whether salt watered exposed film was salvageable or not. I couldn’t find one.
The film was not able to be rewound by the electric rewind. I opened the camera in the dark. I could feel the salt water on the film. The film was in the camera, exposed to salt water for about a full day. When I eventually decided to take out the film in my darkroom, I felt the saltwater run off the film.
Anyways, I had my Colortec chemicals on hand and decided to give it go. I even push developed the film (going an 45 secondss beyond recommended developing time). I was surprised as anyone to to the see the results – you can go to my Flickr photostream to see the rest of the shots from my now defunct Konica Mermaid.
If you want to develop your film here in New Zealand, its a bit tricky to get the materials. You can special order the colour chemicals from Camera stores, but they charge a premium to do an order for you.
Initially, I thought I could order colour development kits from the USA, as heaps and heaps are available. However, they are not allow to send colour chemicals outside the USA. After a bit of further hunting, I found that the chemicals could be bought from the UK at a fair rate, at least much cheap than special ordering a kit from New Zealand.
Yes, you can send your film to a lab to get developed. Yes, it is cheaper. But where is the fun in that? And what control do you have over the quality?
I developed my first batch of colour film and I was amazed at the results. Despite reading in forums how difficult it is to develop colour film, it was not difficult at all, just more quality control is involved.
Here is a great resource from Youtube that helped me develop my first rolls of colour film.
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