ASA Analog: Solved AZOPAN Mystery

As you may remember, I mentioned in a previous blog posting a few weeks ago about how I surprisingly came into possession of a Romanian 35mm roll of film when I purchased an old FSU (Former Soviet Union) FED 2. I've actually had the camera for quite a while and just hadn't gotten around to developing the film to find out what was on it.

This is the final part of that story.

The other week I finally remembered to take the AZOPAN roll with me to Downtown Camera, as it was on my way to class and I had a few rolls of film which needed developing. Off I dropped it, mentioning to the sales assistant that I had no idea what was on it, and told them the story about how it came into my possession.

Well, a week ago I was informed that all my film was ready to be collected. I eagerly made my way to the store, excited at the thought of what could possibly be discovered. As I hurried along, thoughts such as "What treasures might that film hold?", "Lost memories of a forgotten age", "Secret moments in history", "Blurry images of someone's apartment". Who knew what might be discovered, and that's what was the most exciting thing.

As I rushed into the store and was handed the parcel of developed film, I opened it and quickly went through the negatives of the rolls of film. To my surprise and confusion, there were no negatives or contact sheets for the AZOPAN roll. Strange, I thought, "Did I miss it on first glance". I looked through the contact sheets and negatives again. Nothing to be found.

Looking deeper into the parcel I pulled out the receipt only to notice a hand-written note on it...

"Empty"

That was all that was written.

Nothing else.

As I stared at the receipt with an expression that summed up the word 'perplexed' perfectly, it slowly dawned on me at what had happened.

The film I had dropped off for development was indeed empty, there was nothing on it, no lost historical moments, no memories, no cat photos. There wasn't even ANY film in the canister, it was "EMPTY", just as it had said on the receipt. It was a 100% Grolsch moment.

Sullenly, I made my way out of the store, it was raining and I had class to attend.

There are lost memories and treasures in the world waiting to be rediscovered, this just wasn't one of them.