Junkyard Photographed with 80-Year-Old Film in 110-Year Old Cameras

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When I pick up some new-to-me antique photographic hardware, the first thing I do with it is bring it along on one of my junkyard journeys. Last winter, I obtained some black-and-white film from the 1940s and… well, you can guess what happened next.

These days, the widest new roll film you can get (easily) is 120, which is just under 2-½" wide. Some of my cameras from the 1890s through 1910s were made to shoot much wider roll film, though, so I bought some rolls of NOS 3-¼" wide X-ray film from the early 1970s (as one does) and tried it out in a Kodak No. 3 Brownie made to shoot 3-¼" wide 124 film. The results were beautiful, as you can see in this shot of the Pont Adolphe Bridge in Luxembourg City.

Unfortunately, I needed more 3-¼" wide spools upon which to roll my fun new film and those aren't easy to find.

Kodak once manufactured many film formats in that width, so I went to eBay and searched for old rolls of 118, 122, 124 and 125 film. I didn't care if the film itself was any good, because I just wanted to extract the spools and roll my own film on it. I ended up finding a couple rolls of 1940s Verichrome in 122 format at a good price.

One of them had a March 1948 expiration date.

The other expired in November of 1942. If you refrigerate film, it will keep for decades, but it is safe to assume that film like this wasn't kept cold for 80 or so years. Still, I've developed film that was shot 65 years ago and had it come out with decipherable images. Might as well pop this stuff in a couple of my 122 cameras and give it a try!

The original Verichrome (not to be confused with Verichrome Pan) was an orthochromatic film (that is, insensitive to red light) that sold well upon its introduction in the early 1930s. This stuff isn't labeled as safety film, which means it's almost certainly made with potentially explosive nitrate stock. What could go wrong?

One roll went into this 1916 Kodak No. 3 Brownie box camera. It was made for 124 film but 122 will fit.

The other roll went into this 1910 Kodak No. 3A Hawk-Eye folding camera, which was made to use 122 film. Then it was off to the nearest junkyard.

I had to fabricate a custom developing spool to process the film, but it turned out to be worth it when I got some usable images—see the gallery below.

When you first load a new (to you) kind of film in your ancient camera, you shoot your dining room table as a test.

122 is a very wide roll film that makes negatives measuring 5-1/2" wide by 3-1/4" tall. It was popular during the first decades of the 20th century, because cheap contact prints made with it were postcard size.

Before I went to the hassle of fabricating a developing spool for 3-1/4" film that might not produce usable images, I cut off a bit of exposed film in a dark bag and developed it separately. It worked! Then I rejoined it with the other half of the image and scanned both pieces together.

This is Colorado Auto & Parts in Englewood, my favorite Denver-area car graveyard.

You get interesting effects with tight depth of field on ancient film with a portrait lens attachment on a 1910 Kodak 3A Hawk-Eye camera.

Switching to a 1916 box camera here: a Kodak No. 3 Brownie Model B. This camera was made for 124 film, but 122 is the same width.

Box cameras load a bit differently than folding cameras.

It was a snowy winter day in Englewood, so getting these long exposures required fortitude.

This old S-K toolbox has been through a lot.