Rolled 4 rolls at a flea market, two came back with ghosts on them

Last Saturday I grabbed a box of expired Kodak Gold at a swap meet in Tucson for $12 and burned through it on the old train depot. When I got the scans back, every shot had this weird white streak across the top that looked like a light leak, but my camera is fine and I shot a control roll right after. Turns out the film had been stored next to a bag of dryer sheets in someone's closet, so the chemicals went funky. Anyone else ever bought mystery film that came out with its own personality?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_olivia1mo ago

Check the edge markings on the negatives, not just the scans. If the frame numbers look faint or slightly off, that expired film might have been respooled from a bulk roll, which means the dryer sheet story is just a cover for some lab's leftover stock. I had a roll from a garage sale once that had Kodak's name on the canister but Fuji's edge codes inside, and it shot with this weird green cast that made everything look like a 70s crime show. That mystery personality is half the fun, but it's also worth knowing if you're dealing with a light leak or a whole different film underneath.

wilson.emma1mo ago

That actually lines up with something I read in a photography forum a while back, about how a lot of those mystery rolls from estate sales are just bulk loads someone rolled at home. Fun to shoot, but you never really know what you're getting until you're in the darkroom with it.