This is a story all about how my film got shipped to the upside down. If you’d like to take a minute just sit right there. I’ll tell you how my film disappeared into thin air. Pop culture references aside, have you ever wondered what happens if Kodak Gold gets abused for a couple of years?
I used to contribute articles to a couple of fairly popular photo blogs. I jumped at the chance to test and review Kodak Gold for one of the publications. We arranged to have it shipped to me, but it never arrived! Luckily Kodak was awesome about it, and quickly got a some rolls shipped for the review. A couple of years later, the missing rolls randomly appeared in my mailbox!
Kodak Gold, meet Mamiya RB67
When the film finally arrived, I suspected it lived a hard couple of years. Probably shipped around on trucks for a while before sitting in some FedEx warehouse or the upside down. Speaking of things sitting around, I also have been contemplating selling my RB67 for a while. However, I told myself I needed to take it out and use it before I decide.
So, that’s what I did. My wife and I went for a nice walk around downtown Rogers and grabbed some dinner out. I figured the mistreated Kodak Gold was a perfect choice, as I had no idea how the film would do. However, I just wanted to experience the camera again and see how I felt about the process. If I had some nice photos turn out, well, that would be even better.
Photowalking the Real World
I dedicated my large Domke F-2 shoulder bag to hauling around my RB67 and the three prime lenses I have for it. After all, I wanted to remember how using this camera as a system feels. (Heavy, that’s how it feels. Ha!) Having said that, it wasn’t as bad as I always remember it being when I’m trying to talk myself into using it. Of course, developing the film and then seeing the massive negatives makes me fall in love again, too.
However, it’s hard to forget how cool it is to look through a massive 6×7 waist level viewfinder. There is just a bit of magic in looking through a camera lens that way. Another thing about the RB67 is how intentional it makes you. Find a scene, figure out the composition, meter externally, focus, set your shutter speed and aperture, remove the dark slide, fire the shutter, cock the shutter, and finally, advance the film. That’s a lot of steps to take a single photo!
Kodak Gold 200 is Tough
I am sure that by now you can tell that these two rolls of Kodak Gold have seen some stuff. For the technical info, I metered for box speed, developed in an Arista C-41 kit, then scanned it both at home on my Epson V550 with Silverfast and then at work on a Fujifilm Frontier SP-3000. I wanted to make sure the colors really had shifted this badly and it wasn’t just my home scanning workflow. All scans in this article are from the Frontier and downsized for web use.
It’s kind of wild how well the film held up. I erred on the side of overexposure, but even so, the film kept its speed admirably. I believe that these rolls of Kodak Gold were definitely heat damaged. The normal orange color of the negatives was absent when I pulled them out of the tanks. Instead, they had shifted to a more brown-toned orange.
As you can likely tell, that mask shift did affect the colors. I scanned these as TIF files. Also, I tried correcting the color a bit while scanning and again with white balance corrections when converting from TIF to JPEG. In the end, I’m not too upset with how they turned out.
The comparison below isn’t really a fair one. I didn’t have a fresh roll of Gold on me to compare against. Also, the light was changing and my other film back had a roll of expired Fuji Velvia 50 loaded, so this is what we have to work with.
Lessons Learned
You may be asking, “So what was the point of this blog?” If so, that’s alright. It doesn’t really have much of a point outside of sharing this story and some photos with you. I suppose one takeaway can be made, however: If you dig the colors and tones these rolls gave me, buy some Kodak Gold 200 film and leave it in your glove box for a year or two. That might replicate the FedEx experience, haha.
Other than that, it does make for an interesting way to switch things up. I went out with the intention to see if the RB still brought me joy (it did) and loaded it up with questionable film. I had no real expectations and was just having fun enjoying a walk about with my wife. Now, I kind of have a better understanding of the Lomographer style of photography. It was pretty cool, and maybe a bit more free, just experimenting with different lenses and composition than I normally would.
If you enjoyed this article or my website has been entertaining and/or helpful to you, please consider buying a print! Otherwise, consider using my links to purchase items from Amazon. Many of the links on my website are Amazon Affiliate links. If you use them and make a purchase, I may get a small commission. Running a website is expensive and these things paired with ads barely cover the costs. That doesn’t even factor in the time invested!
I appreciate all of you who enjoy my blog, either way. Thanks for stopping by and reading!