A photographer was stunned to discover that a vintage camera he bought at a charity shop still contained undeveloped film holding photographs taken in post-war Switzerland.

The amateur photographer purchased a 1930s Zeiss Ikon Baby Ikonta camera for $13 (£10) from a second-hand charity shop in Wilton, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, in the U.K. The camera appeared ordinary at first, but once home, the photographer, who asked to be anonymous, realized it still contained an exposed roll of film.

Inside the camera was a roll of Verichrome Pan 127 (VP) film from 1956, which had never been developed. Unsure whether the film could be saved, the photographer took it to camera specialist Ian Scott at Salisbury Photo Centre, a Fujifilm retailer, to see if anything could be recovered.

Scott tells PetaPixel that the film was carefully developed using Rodinal developer at a ratio of 1 to 100 over 60 minutes with no agitation. The process revealed a series of 70-year-old photographs showing an unknown family and skiers in Switzerland, including images taken outside the Badrutt’s Palace Hotel in St. Moritz.