Talk:Advanced Photo System
Page contents not supported in other languages.
Does anyone know if APS negatives, once processed, are safe for long term storage inside the cartridge?—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.35.56.100 (talk • contribs) 14:41, 1 August 2006.
If I take an APs camera outside of the US is it likely that I will be able to find APS film? I am just wondering if I would be adding dead weight if there is no film APS available. 134.250.72.174 19:03, 14 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I don't believe that the format was ever intended for positive film (slide, transparancy), or for traditional black and white print film. I know there was (is?) a chromogenic (C-41 development) black and white film available (b&w400) in the aps format from Kodak. The last time I saw it was a few months ago and the expiration date on it was 3/2006. It was in single, carded packages. For that matter I think aps film was only ever offered in carded packaging.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.67.55.225 (talk • contribs) 07:50, 20 August 2006 (UTC).[reply]
Did the fact that 35mm cameras can now be made auto loading and very small like the Olympus Stylus Epic Also help make this format obsolete?—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.68.180.10 (talk • contribs) .
I work in a photo lab and we get APS film in on occasion(usually at least 5 rolls a week of APS). Now I know that there are manufacturers that still produce APS film, but I don't know if the citation tag is referring to the manufacture of APS film or if it's referring to the 'small number'. I can provide evidence of the former, direct from Fujifilm's official site(http://www.fujifilm.com/products/consumer_film/index.html), but I don't know if this counts as a cite-able source. Can anyone offer any clarification?--Vercalos 06:47, 9 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Rather than this being a purely functional/technical article, it would be useful to explain in the introduction why Kodak invented APS -- which is that it greatly simplifies camera use and provides higher-quality photos by reducing customer contact with raw film, and was introduced as a way for film cameras to keep up with the ease-of-use of the emerging digital photography technology.
There is a statistic that says Kodak found a large percentage of amateur 35mm shots are missed because the photographer screwed up the film loading and the film wasn't advancing as they assumed, resulting in a large degree of consumer frustration with the 35mm format. While the film can be securely spooled several times with the back open to prevent sprocket detachment, this also means film is wasted and fewer shots can be taken. Meanwhile since the consumer must handle the bare 35mm film directly during loading, it is easily contaminated with dirt and oils on the user's hands.
APS eliminates loading and handling annoyances by autoloading from the cartridge and allowing the film to rewind and even allows a roll to be removed mid-roll and reloaded later, which was virtually impossible to do without overlapping frames or wasted film with the old 35mm sprocket film. The end-user is required to do little more than insert a sealed plastic film cartridge that fits only one way into a specially shaped slot on the camera. After use it auto-rewinds, and when the film is developed it is again stored in the original roll catridge protecting the bare film from scratches and fingerprints.
Even the auto-rewinding is important. It prevents the user from pulling the film off the end-spool, which was easily possible since most film was held on the end-spool with adhesive tape. Detachment results in a mess that either means opening the camera to remove the detached film and exposing all the film, or taking the camera in to a processor and hoping they can open it blind in a darkroom and get the film out without damaging the film too much. The loose film tail could also cause problems by coating the inside of the camera body and shutter with mechanism-jamming adhesive goop.
Then there's the preview/guide sheet printed with every roll of APS. Since the film is permanently stored in the cassette, and cannot be pulled out by the end-user, the preview sheet is used to indicate to a film processor what pictures should be [re-]printed from the roll. Although most film processing includes prints of the entire roll, the basic processing requires only developing the roll and printing the preview sheet.
I suppose I will add this at some later time, but need to research the history some more.
DMahalko (talk) 05:51, 26 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The "Adoption and Marketshare" section ends with this orphaned paragraph:
It comes out of nowhere and needs more explanation; it should really be closer to the beginning of the article. Who is Roger Field? What became of his patent, and his process? When was the patent awarded? -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 19:11, 19 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The article states, without citation: "The film area of APS is usually only suitable for 4×6 inch prints; enlargements to 8×10 inches start to show its lack of resolution"
So by extrapolation, 35mm (which is less than twice the size of APS) isn't good enough for prints bigger than 8x10? Anybody who has done serious photography with 35mm knows this isn't true. I'm sure that people did get disappointing 8x10 prints from APS systems but, just for starters, how many people bought good quality lenses to put on an APS camera? As it stands I think this statement is misleading and unless anybody can expand on it and cite references, it should be removed. Eggybacon (talk) 11:48, 29 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
can anyone tell me if developed APS film can be digitized? I do digital scrapbooking and would like my APS file transfered to cd's. thanks for anyones input.
Lonna —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lonjeanwat (talk • contribs) 01:48, 16 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I've heard of people having APS film scanned, so I know it's possible... 152.91.9.219 (talk) 04:11, 20 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Scanning APS negatives is easy. You can buy a scanner that will do it as easy as loading an APS camera, just drop the cartridge in. Or, most photo labs should be able to do it. The best quality will be to scan the film itself.--Cranialsodomy (talk) 21:20, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
When you consider that the minimum print resolution required for a good-looking photo is approx 150dpi, the result really wouldn't allow you to go beyond about 12 x 8 inches, and you'd be happier with it at about 10 x 6 (for a sharper 200 dpi) - and if you cropped or zoomed it, the problem would be further compounded; that's equivalent to a zoom/crop ratio of only 2:1 for an acceptable 6x4 print at 150dpi.
Thus you might be better off getting a good optical print of the originals (perhaps high quality enlargements, even), and using a good photo scanner to read THOSE in. A 7x4 print scanned at a true optical 600dpi can then have a similar 2:1 crop but still be blown up to 12 x 8 and still look as good as the scanned negative. (That, or find somewhere that can scan the negs at a genuine, guaranteed higher resolution.) .... bear in mind we're not even bothered about the grain, here. That's by the by, is analogue and rounded by its very nature, and is just accepted as part of film photography. Squared-off pixels are much starker and ugly looking.
(Not as bad as 110, though - with the same machine, you'd be looking at more like 1200x900, or barely more than 1 megapixel - and the 5.5 x 4 prints have noticeable grain when scanned even at 300dpi) 193.63.174.211 (talk) 10:10, 1 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Another uncited statement: "Despite the added features, APS never really caught on with professional photographers because the film area was just too small"
I don't dispute the fact that it never caught on with professionals, but was this really just because of the frame size? Was APS ever marketed to professionals? Did anybody make professional APS cameras? Eggybacon (talk) 13:05, 29 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Right. I've seen 3 different shapes specified for this, including two different ones right here on this page.
10 x 4 --- as it was described when buying two different APS cameras, reading their manuals, and ordering prints (I think I measured it once and the output tended to be between 9.6 x 3.8 and 10.5 x 4.1? I'll see if I can pull a pack out to doublecheck)
11 x 4 --- "X by Y" size as described on this page
12 x 4 --- "3:1" basic ratio as described right next to the 11x4 dimension.
Which is it? It can't be 11x4 AND 12x4 at once, and both of those are news to me. The three choosable shapes provided a surprisingly large variation for what was actually a numerically small change (6x4*, 7x4, 10x4...). There must be citeable stuff somewhere?(( * think this is rounded up, it measured out at 5.5 x 4?? ))
A bit pedantic and nerdy I know, but I'm trying to work out some stuff to do with maximum possible resolutions with limited display memory, and having the correct ratio to work from can make a fair old difference. 193.63.174.11 (talk) 11:12, 11 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Did APS maybe use cheaper, lower quality film in its cartridges, seeing as it was meant as a point-and-shoot consumer system that would rarely be enlarged beyond 4 inches high, and not to compete with high-end, high definition 135-based interchangeable lens systems and the like?
I'm just starting to ask, after having made comments above about comparing it to 110 when it seemed the format was based on a 24mm frame (and thus effectively only half a 135 frame, and not quite equivalent to two 110s) and thus the poor quality seemed explicable... it turns out that it's actually a 30mm frame instead, and closer to 135 all round than 110.
But my observed results, with film and cameras of a similar (low) cost, is that the quality of APS shots seems rather closer to 110 than 135, not the other way around. If we think in terms of digital camera sensors, then assuming an equal pixel density, 135 is equivalent to about 4 to 5 megapixel (depending on how much of the available frame is actually used), APS to about 2.5 megapixel (with a slightly wider aspect), and 110 to maybe 1.2mpx at best (slightly narrower). There should be an identifiable improvement in grain and over definition at each step along the way, but the two smaller formats seem rather more similar, and 135 rather more different from either of them, than would be expected from this relationship.
(Or to put it another way, if they're all printed four inches high - thus, 5.25, 7.2 and 6.0 inches wide - the improvement in linear resolution should be x1.29 between 110 and APS, and.... huh... wait... 1.44x from APS to 135? I guess the change in aspect is deceptive. Even so, that's not far off 1.3 and 1.4x, it's not like it's 1.1 and 1.9 or something. Maybe screen resolution comparisons would be better; 110 is conceptually 256x192, APS 448x240, and 135 is 512x352... no? Oh, I give up.)
tl;dr anyone know if they used the same quality film stock across all three formats, or whether one or the other maybe got higher quality film? (Either 135, or maybe in fact 110 in an attempt to compensate for the small frame size - with APS having the same grain as 35mm?) 193.63.174.211 (talk) 10:28, 1 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Actually APS was envisioned by Kodak as the successor to 35 mm, not as a lower-quality format, so I believe that they used the same stock as other films at the time. Note that Instamatic was doomed to lower quality point-and-shoot because of limited accuracy of position of the focal "plane" (the surface of best focus in the standard is curved to relax lens design constraints and allow higher quality with simple lenses, and the exposure surface is cylindrical) in the cartridge but they used the same substrates as 35 mm film of the same times.
Please forgive my lack of references. It would be easy to find them on the old Kodak web site but they purged everything film, current and legacy, several years ago when they tried to reposition themselves as a printer company, and as a hobbyist/dabbler I never developed a new set of sources.
APS was quickly adopted by most SLR marques. The standard defined [P]anorama, [H]igh resolution, and [C]lassic formats, all of which were supported by the standard APS film cartridge. That APS-C format was particularly attractive to both manufacturers and photographers because of its similar aspect ratio with 35 mm and other common formats, but with smaller size that still allowed good quality while decreasing the size and cost of cameras and lenses. With a smaller focal plane area, lens design allows the packing of the same resolution into the smaller area with less glass, and for the same performance relaxes the trade space, or tradeoffs of cost, f/stop, zoom range, size, etc. so that high performance lenses were designed that made higher performance in a smaller package available as compared to similar performing full-frame cameras and lenses. In addition, all other things being equal, depth-of-field is higher with APS-C than with larger formats [1]. This is why most digital SLRs use the APS-C format, and did from their origins.
APS cameras and film are STILL BEING MADE, as a web search will show. I turned up a long list on Amazon today (July 18, 2015).-motorfingers- (talk) 16:04, 18 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]