Spidersnaps: Freshly expired

[spiderbraids]

Alongside the Svema Foto 200 (from Ukraine) I used to test the Canon AF35ML, I also purchased a roll of Svema Foto 400 to shoot with the Kodak M35, which was freshly expired (I got it in November 2021, it expired the month before; the Foto 200 was good until August 2022) A lot of the pictures on this roll left much to be desired, and that's even after I started using flash indoors... (while the film was technically expired, I don't think that was the issue)


Film and camera (note the expiry date)

And on top of that I had a few misfortunes with this roll: After my first few exposures, the M35 accidentally fell out of my unzipped bag (similar to how my previous digital camera fell into the pool) and the back opened, despite me thinking the latch would hold it shut (since then, I've used masking tape topped with black electric tape to prevent a repeat) I managed up to 33 exposures with the rest... and when it came time to rewind the film and put in the cylinder, it took me quite a bit of time to pry out the cartridge, and then a bit of the leader was still sticking out (unlike with the previous rolls), which snagged on the lip of the film cylinder when I tried to put it in, and when I tried to push it down, I heard a clunk and couldn't push the roll down completely, so expecting that the cartridge bottom fell off and the film had slid out, I taped the lid on the cylinder with masking tape topped with black electric tape, before sending it to the lab... (And on top of that, having to tape up the cylinder delayed me from helping dad put away the laundry... and dad was like "Why didn't you just leave it in the camera?" :-\) Thankfully, the exposures mostly did come out okay :-) But this film seems slower than the 400 designation would have you believe... Indoors pictures I took of a religious ceremony and a market (even with flash) came out mostly black or gray :-\ And even the pictures that exposed properly look a bit dirty or otherwise flawed...


Bird on our clothes rack, taken from behind a window... and look how dark the picture is (this was a recurring issue through the roll)



My aunt and dad making offerings to my late paternal grandma (with plenty of flaws on dad's frame, not marks on the pavement)


A fruit stall coming home the same day


A cat near my aunt's home (previously my paternal grandparents') Note again that the picture is somewhat dark; in a picture of my uncle and dad shot on the same sidewalk that same day you can't really see their faces at all due to the bright background from the street (was taken similar angle to the photo of dad above)


100% crop of the cat




Road from a pedestrian overpass (taken on the day I sent my first two rolls), suggesting that Foto 400 is contrast-y like Foto 200

My paternal grandma died early on in the corona situation (97 years, whew!) but we waited two years until it was okay for my uncle to visit from the US to float her ashes (and even then, my mom was absent due to stomach issues that came up day of), and I suppose it's fitting I used a freshly expired roll for these photos, even if again the quality leaves quite a bit to be desired :-\


An intersection in Pattaya on our way to float her ashes (thanks to the self storage ad, I've pinpointed it to a this intersection)


A grilled cuttlefish salesman flattening his cuttlefish near the restaurant where we had lunch (bought it as a "souvenir" from the trip)


We floated her ashes at sea like we did paternal grandpa's... Here's the port at which we boarded the boat to perform the ceremony


Floating grandma's ashes (was taking a video on my phone at the same time, so the photo's off-center)


View from the boat, and it looks like the last couple exposures on the roll didn't get the proper dose of developer or fixer, adding splotches of black at the top and making the pictures look much older than just a few months ago :-\ (and this is the better of the view shots I took)


Addendum: When I got the negatives back, I noticed that the first few pre-fall shots took did manage to survive somewhat, but not only were they not scanned, the lab put a job number sticker right over one of the shots :-\

Some smartphone photos I took while taking this roll to the dev lab:


Second hand camera store: They do both digital and film, and one of the signs in the window even says they sell APS film, a long-defunct format that does not lend well to reloading cartridges, speaking of which...


At the photo lab, one of their employees, with a somewhat expected hairstyle, bulk-rolling cinema film for sale (and yet they only process it as C-41 instead of ECN-2 :-\)

Currently shooting my next roll: another roll of Vision3 500T :-)