Nearly a year ago I bought a Bilora Stahlbox camera on eBay. This one was marketed originally by Sears under the "Tower 120" name. It had a roll of Kodacolor-X film inside, which the seller proved in the listing by showing the film still in the camera, with the back removed. Thankfully someone had rolled it at least one frame past the last frame exposed before pulling the back off.
A couple of weeks ago I finally got around to processing the film. I souped it as BW in HC110 for about 10 minutes at 54 F. I've not had particularly good luck scanning Kodakcolor film that was processed as BW. And to look at this film in normal room light it looks completely black. But hold it up to a bright light and there were negatives. I'm surprised my Canon flat bed scanner with negative attachment was able to scan anything from them.
Kodacolor-X was marketed from 1963 to 1974. The Wisconsin license plate style on the car behind the lady was used from 1968 until 1972. And the car visible in the background of this same frame 4 is a nearly new Ford Pinto, first marketed in 1971. So that pretty well narrows the time of these to 1971 or 1972.
I searched for "Golden Anchor Motel", as shown in frame 2. It is apparently still a going concern in St. Ignace, Michigan. So, unusual for many found films, we now have a near exact year and location for this set!
The German-made Bilora Stahlbox was first marketed around 1948. It's nicely made, metal construction, black crackle finish, has a threaded cable release socket on the front mounted shutter release, and this one even has a serial number inside. I've seen this exact same camera, only with a different face plate, marketed by Montgomery Wards under the "Wardette" name. This camera would have been at least 20 years old when this Wisconsin couple took it along a trip to northern Michigan.
Frame 1
Frame 2
Frame 3
Frame 4
Frame 5
The Camera
Flickr Link:
Obligatory flikr source link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddart/sets/72157602460088036/with/6825270460/
