i have in my possession a camera made by bell and howell that my grandfather took off his plane when he left ww1. this was a gun mounted 16mm camera. the cool thing is it still has the film in it from his last mission. i have searched high and low with no luck to find info on this camera, (worth) and where i can get the film developed. any ideas i will appreciate. i am 27 years in air force and would love to see the film. email please with info desouth44@yahoo.com
I believe you are referring to the G.S.A.P. (gun sight aiming point) camera by Bell and Howell, as far as i know they weren't made until after WW1.
You should speak with a photographer who specializes in old film restoration to try and save what is on it, of course it is possible to be in good shape.
Maybe some news station would be interested in using this in the news it is apart of our history. My father was in WW1 and I would love to know what he went through.
I've done a lot of darkroom work with x-ray film as well as conventional photography film, so here's what I can tell you: it is virtually impossible that that film could be saved.
"7440426" said that he wanted to get the film developed. Well, film that is 90 years old is definitely going to have lost its chemical composition that no amount of darkroom trickery can fix. Also, even the slightest pin-***** of light would destroy it -- and almost no box or camera can be that "airtight" or "light-tight" for that length of time.
Just to inform the unanointed, film preservation techniques and processes can only be done on film that has already been developed. So if the film wasn't first developed within a reasonable time frame of its expiration date (and 90 years is not reasonable), then I'm afraid to tell you that you're out of luck.
Sorry -- and man, I would have loved to see that footage, too!
