words and photos by Christopher Dombrosky
Olivia King asked that photos be taken of TASI Goth Nite in June, and implied that 90s-style film photos would be cool, so I took the opportunity to finally shoot the roll of cheapo mystery film I got at Five Below, then developed it at home in coffee. The grainy, scratchy, coffee-soaked images are appropriately goth.
The $5 roll of film from Five Below is ridiculous! The box doesn’t tell you what you’re getting, and what little it does say has mistakes. You open it to discover a PLASTIC canister that only holds 10 shots instead of the usual 24 or 36, so it’s no bargain at all. It never lists a date or manufacturer, so is probably expired stock from the lousiest company on planet earth, the canister has a FAKE dx code printed on it so most cameras won’t know what settings to use, my automatic winder only got 8 shots from the roll, and the cheap plastic canister refused to wind properly. Considering all that difficulty, these shots actually came out better than I expected. Everyone says the $5 camera Five Below sells is total junk that can’t take a clear picture.
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel 2000
Film: Five Below MYSTERY FILM (probably Fomapan, possibly expired)
Format: 35mm
Developed at home.
Developer: Caffenol C
Fixer: Kodafix
