DPReview TV: A look back at APS film
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- čas přidán 9. 06. 2018
- Every photographer knows about APS-C sensors, but what about APS film? This week, Chris and Jordan take a stroll down memory lane and try out the original APS format, short for 'Advanced Photo System', a technology that promised to streamline the film workflow, but which ultimately lost out to digital technology. Tune in to see what made APS so interesting, and whether 15-year-old expired film is still up to the task.
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Damn it Chris and Jordan, now all the hipsters know what APS is!!
I used to sell cameras and develop film.. Your video really tells exactly like the APS film was. Great presentation!
I always had a dislike of the APS films, because the quality was worse than normal 35mm film. And people often forgot to change back from panorama settings, so all their images they got back were in 4×11 inch (10x28cm) - and it was a surprise to them.
It also took 2x as long print the images, because the films came in 25 or 40 shots (AFAIR).. So if I was unlucky, it would be 40 shots in 10x28cm, it would take such a long time to run through the machine, compared to the other films :)
Cool throwback video, nice work! I still have my IXUS APS with a half-used film in it from the late Nineties. I daren't develop it.
APS film that I've developed (in like 2015 at a Walgreens lab) that was very old actually came out OK. You should get it done asap because its just going to get worse.
I sure had the pinnacle of APS system cameras; the Minolta Vectis S-1. Why the pinnacle, well for a fact, Minolta took the APS system to heart, they were the driving force convincing the other camera manufacturers to develop cameras and go in for the APS system. The Vectis S-1 and S-100 used specially developed lenses, not the standard Minolta A mount lenses and the fact that the cameras were water or splash proof made it possible to go out in adverse weather.
But the downside to the story is; if you ask former Minolta management, the Vectis killed Minolta. They had a few costly litigations but what really pushed them over the edge and made them sell the camera business to Sony was the costly development of the APS system and subsystems.
I also confess to using the same Canon Ixus, but in silver, not the fancy gold special edition as a carry around camera always in the side pocket in my uniform.
PS: I still have the Vectis S-1 and S-100 and all the lenses; the 17mm, 22-80mm zoom, 25-150mm zoom, 28-56mm zoom, 50mm Macro, 56-170mm zoom, 80-240mm zoom, 400mm reflex and a few other accessories.
I still have my S-1 and a few lenses and flash. I also have an RD-3000 which had surprising IQ for 2.7MP; I used and enjoyed it until it hit the pavement and broke the shutter button. I preferred the S-1 system for it's size and weight.
I backpacked around the world for a year or so back in 2000ish with my Canon Ixus APS compact. I loved that little thing. Still have all the prints and the exposed cans, of course. The single-sheet index print of thumbnails was quite an innovation at the time. Thanks for bringing back the memories!
Recently at the London Drugs I work at a customer came in with a roll of Polachrome film for processing. How many of you have even heard of that brief blip of photographic history? I am soooooooo old 😥
no way, that's awesome haha, did they know what they had?
Yes I remember Polachrome. If memory served correct it came as a complete home development system.
Cool-knew a photographer who would shoot some at the wedding-process-and show it at the reception! Remember it being crazy grainy.
My dad bought me the Minolta Vectis S1 in high school. I had fun learning photography using it.
Got that camera myself 2 years ago, really fun to use, still works great today!
Thank you. I have been on a personal crusade forever to educate people every time someone complains "Crop of what?" when they talk about crop sensors.
Man watching this put a smile on my face, the cool faded colours are awesome too. Right! The excitment of seeing your developed photos, not knowing for sure how your photos would really come out - definitely different than instant confirmation on digital cameras today
The Nikon Pronea 600i was my first SLR camera, I liked it a lot. Great to talk about it and APS cameras in 2018, good history lesson!
As a Pentax user for many, many, mannny years, I love these videos as it makes me feel I truly own a modern camera.
But seriously at 44 and been into photography for well over 30 years these are the videos I most appreciate, keep up the great work lads.
Chris your making me feel old, I remember this format though I never shot with but stuck to the 35mm film I'd always used. This episode was a nice trip down memory lane, thankyou.
Hi Chris & Jordan. Brings back memories, i was into 35mm slrs, but remember getting a Canon Ixus APS for my young cousin, way back then. Even confess to using it myself, as it was so compact. Shows how far we have come in 20 years, and how spoilt we are these days, with digital cameras, and yes, mobile phones.
just bought a camera that I didn't realise was APS - ordered some film off of eBay and am now excited to have a go with it after this video haha
I remember this distinctly since it started out when I was just getting into photography as an elementary student. The idea that you could change Isos mid shoot was mind blowing.
Chris + Jordon,
It's good to see the return of your analogue coverage, indeed I purchased a mint Nikon F4 after seeing your excellent review of it (thanks)..
I liked this particularly, because of the film affects the out of date film achieved, oh of course: underlined by your excellent photos skills, and Jordon's skill behind (and) in front of the lens - I for one would like to see your 'retro' slot return more often (if possible)?!
Congratulations to you both for some excellent subjects, where the camera / process is centre stage and not solely on the individual.
Keep the quality work flowing, I (like a lot of Brits in the UK) look forward to your next presentation. . .
I remember a friend of mine from school had an APS camera. Man I was so jealous but she used it once on a school trip and I never saw it again. It went the way of the MiniDisc...I hope they're keeping each other company in discarded tech heaven.
I loved this history lesson!
Me too. Good job. Even the badly expired film images have their charm.
I had one of these ELPHs back in 2000. Thank goodness that they offered to digitize the film at processing.
I'm from Portugal and I had a Canon Ixus. The last time I used my camera was when I went to vacation to Brazil back in 1999. Loved the APS format. Thanks for the video.
I have a Canon Ixus APS. Just found an old roll not used. It was a great point & shoot camera. So easy to use; loading film especially. My Wife found it really nice. Went on to buy numerous Digital Ixus cameras. Thanks for the memories:-)
I got into photography in 1997 and learned a lot from my brother, who had been shooting since ~1983. He mentioned that some pros were concerned that, after spending nearly $3,000 on a Nikon F5 body a new format was being heavily promoted.
Fuji did produce APS slide film for a short while, by the way. Ken Rockwell did an article about APS a few years ago and I emailed him about the Fuji slide film. I never got a reply but he altered his article a few days later to include mention of it.
My 1st and 2nd ever cameras were Hanimex and Canon APS film types; felt very nostalgic after watching this video. Thanks for uploading :-)
Thanks for a trip down memory lane, I had a Minolta Vectis GX-4 waterproof camera (can go underwater 15 ft). Took a lot of pics with it in Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest
9:12 even that guy walking down the street felt that camera shake 🤣
I work in a photolab that still does film development (in very small quantities) and we still get quite a few people showing up with APS film. About 90% of those come in with film that is already developed. People just didn't get the developed-film-in-the-same-container concept I think 😁. Plus, try getting your hands on non-expired APS film nowadays, I dare you😁
If the hipsters catch on to this, film makers may roll out fresh ones. Think Lomography 110 film. :D
Ivan Rivera for the love of god no! 😂
I was skeptical at first how good your content would be @DPR, but I'm glad to proven wrong, I truly enjoyed this video!
haha be still my beating heart!
Every photo store had APSC film, the only person i knew who had an apsc camera was my friend emma, and she hated it, i was still shooting 35mm on my canon av-1 at the time and had no desire to use apsc, and neither did other photographers, and consumers already knew how to load film into their camera, and if they didnt know, there was always someone nearby who could. Who can load 35mm film now? Probably not many folk.
Great trip down memory lane, thanks Chris and Jordan xoxox
Very interesting retro review. I do remember APS barely, I never had an APS camera, I just knew to make sure I got the right film. When I took up photography again in the digital era, I never connected the dots to APS-C. Interesting, I never consider what it stood for, or the history of it. Thanks for the history lesson.
Lol that grain in the middle of the day. Loved this segment. I'd like to collect one of those limited edition elphs!
So this video just ended up being so much more artsy than intended.
Great video! I've still got my Canon Elph Jr. in my closet that I bought in 1998. I did take some APS photos with it and have some cartridges (negatives) in the garage, but I went fully digital in 1999 when the Nikon Coolpix 950 came out (still have that in my closet too).
This was an awesome look back guys. More like this for sure!
What a great walk down memory lane!
I loved my Advantix camera. Always used Panorama mode.
I loved APS film, and was a godsend when I no longer had to advance my film manually AND the tiny LCD screen on my Kodak Advantix camera told me how many exposures I had left.
This brings back memories of my Minolta Vectis.
I always thought where did the APS-C name came from. Now I know why I didn't knew :) That was fun history lesson!
I had an Elph in addition to several Canon and Minolta 35mm film SLRs. I enjoyed the 16:9 and 3:1 wide formats for shooting groups of people and scenics.
Loved my little Kodak APS camera from back in 99-2000!
I had a minolta vectis APS film and the reason I brought it was because of mid film roll exchange. I go to gigs, motor sports, plus the normal holiday photos and the APS system was the best option for my use.
Hi guys, I live in Scotland and remember taking a month long holiday to Canada in 2000, I arranged to visit all my relatives in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria, White Rock and Abbotsford. I also visited Banff Natioan Park with my cousin, my camera of choice for the whole trip was the Minolta Vitis S1 with a load of lens and the Canon APS ixus which I still own, I loved the compact size of the whole outfit especially while travelling and brought back lots of fantastic photographs I was sorry to see the system die off.
As you said Chris the system was the grounding for the digital APS system to grow, great vlog going down memory lane....
Contax TiX is a very nice one
I both a Canon IX and an IX Lite. Told them both toward the end the active APS-C era including a couple lenses. The IX SLR was a nice solid camera that served me well. I probably still have some film laying around in one of those book like cases that held 16 or 24 cartridges.
fellow Canadian here -- I had an APS camera (I think it was named an Advantix camera). It was my first camera growing up.
When Techmoan revealed there were SLR versions of the APS cameras, I had to get one. I ended up with two plus a tiny PAS because it came packaged with film for $5! Should be picking up my first developed roll tomorrow!
Still got 2 APS cameras neither have been used in several years however. I might need to grab myself some rolls and take a trip down memory lane 😊
Cool video - my first two cameras when I was about 8 years old were actually APS; I think I drove my parents crazy with all the panoramic prints that cost like 3x as much as a normal 4x6! Also, nice point about the R&D legacy - it was really APS-C that made digital tenable given that full frame sensors were so ludicrously expensive at the beginning.
A Minolta Vectis was my first SLR camera. Thanks for this!
What really killed the APS film system in the USA was the reluctance on the part of independent labs to buy the necessary equipment to properly process APS film. The lab equipment was expensive because it had to read the film codes necessary to print either 4x6, or 4x7, or 4x10.7. There was also a back-printing option that was rarely employed, except by the Kodak/Qualex labs. When we sent our APS film for processing to Eastman Kodak's lab in Fairlawn, NJ, the results were excellent....three different sized prints with backprinting would come back in two days. Not so with independent labs, who fought against APS and helped to kill the system. There were many players in the APS ballgame: Kodak (the inventor), Fuji, Nikon, Canon, Konica, Minolta, Agfa, etc. They all jumped ship into digital and nailed the coffin of APS.
The only time I've ever said "Oh no he dint!" when I saw Saneal. Too funny.
I used to shoot APS film side by side with 35mm film. :D APS had cool features like visual indicators on the cartridge, easy mid-roll changes, saved exposure date/time, saved shutter and aperture settings, saved text captions and different aspect ratios. It was quite innovative then.
Oh I love that video - thanks for reminding me at my old Canon Ixus elph (or so). Well I had my experience with it around 2001 ...lol... as a backup camera for a Canon EOS 50E on my USA/Canada trip during that time. Greetings from Germany and keep on doing what you're doing - it's always a pleasure watching your reviews!!!
The portrait of Jordan at 9:25 is handsome and has a pleasant aesthetic. Absolute IG #nofilter magic!
This is why you watch youtube. Excellent guys!!
I had a Canon Elph IXUS APS. Great backup camera. Great pictures!
Really enjoyed this - I am so glad I stuck to 35mm film as it is so much easier to get scanned etc these days while a few rolls of APS that I shot are just a pain to archive. Great concept in theory but overall not a good idea in practice. It's amazing how well the Fuji film held up after a decade - normally expired film requires 1-stop over-exposure so that may account for the Fuji scans looking slightly under-cooked but the great Fuji colours were all there. More of these please :)
Had the Canon. Loved it. Still around somewhere.
Although the films were expired, the photos look quite good! Love it.
I had completely forgotten about APS film until watching this! I remember having an APS camera now but I don't remember anything about it other than the format of the film canisters
Enjoyed this video a lot. Informative and entertaining. In the true sense of them each. Only knew one person who had an aps film camera. That was in Calgary Alberta back in 1998.
I shoot 16:9 all the time on the D-Lux Typ 107. Never been a fan of 4:3, but I use 1:1, 3:2, and 16:9. It was really a feature I never thought I’d use on the camera, but the crop really adds to the composition.
Another great video. Thanks guys.
I had a little Kodak Advantix F310 or F300 when I was really young. It was one of my first automatic film cameras. Before that I was shooting on a K1000. I loved that camera and film system. It was really cool! But, shortly after that I found Casio and the D40.
Just found this, back in 1992 I was in the Gretag plant in Regensdorf Switzerland and saw some APS film in a room where I was told they were working on new products. Gretag was working with Kodak on APS processing and a lowly camera store owner such as myself wasn't supposed to see it. The hope was that it would only be processed by central labs, not in store one hour labs.
I love it when it came out! I was so cool and easy for the average person to use. Even my mother couldnt screw this stuff up! I recently found my Kodak Advantix camera that uses the APS films and it still had a roll in it with two frames left to shoot!
Really enjoyed this, thank you
I loved my tiny Canon ELPH APS film Camera. I was into it big time! I thought it was the wave of the future and I jumped right into it. :) You could make three different size pictures with it too.
Yippie yes, 3 different sizes, like he showed in the video.
I had a canon Elph that went everywhere with me. You had the choice when developing to get the pictures on cd rom. My oldest pictures in my digital library are those apps shots. Thanks for the memories.
Dude I shot a wedding with a canon eos 1x great lens 24-85 3.5 -4.5.... Very sharp
It was a new camera at the time and prints were remarkably sharp and brite with Kodak Royal film if I remember correctly...
We had the original Kodak cam for these. They were expensive but awesome. Loved the options.
After using only compact 35mm cameras for many years my return to SLR was the Pronea S
mated to a Sigma f/4-5.6 70-300. The native IX 30-60mm
lens was serviceable too.
Loved the mid-roll rewind feature and the ratio options.
Always carried both color and B&W rolls in the plastic 24mm film cans taped to the camera strap.
Had a strong preference for Fuji films, faster options and was way more vibrant.
Local Wolf Camera film processor was always amazed at the shots I coaxed out of it, as was I.
The B&W film was "instant" processing capable (C-41?) but the resulting prints always had a very bluish cast.
Great history lesson! More of it please!
We just called this system Advantix because all the film in my area was Kodak Advantix and all the cameras at the local drug stores were Kodak branded Advantix too.
Great video guys! Would be keen for more like these
3:52 is actually a great look in my opinion!
The last non-digital camera I bought was an APS. I bought it because it was advertised as the 'next advance' in cameras. As I recall, you could choose the size of each photo (panorama, normal) and when I got the prints back, the panorama ones would be quite wide and inconvenient! But the camera was easier to load than 35mm cameras, and the presentation of the printed photos was good (came in a box, with a thumbnail sheet). I bought the camera in 96. Got my first digital camera in 2000.
Great video thanks :-)
Still got a Pronea with two lenses, still shooting it when I can get hold of expired film. Process it myself and put it back into the canister for scanning with an APS adapter for my Canoscan FS4000. Quality of pictures is not that high, but for artistic purposes it's more than enough - it fits perfectly along with my half frame cameras and my sprocket rocket.
I still have a Canon ELPH APS camera tucked away in my gear cabinet.
What I learned today is that the APS format actually has many sub-sizes, and I agree with Chris that it's just a format that is smaller than full-frame and bigger than Micro Four-Thirds.
I still have my old Canon Elph and EOS IX stored away.
As much as I thought I’d use the SLR more, the Elph was super tiny & handy to slip into a pocket. Plus the optics were quite alright.
Working at a 1-Hour Photo lab back then, I preferred processing Advantix film vs 35mm. No negs to cut, everything went back in the case easily, and reprints were super easy.
Fun stuff for sure :)
Fascinating stuff. Thanks guys.
Nice Instagram filter colours...
Well done Chris and Jordon!
Yep I had the Pronea 6i. It was a fun camera.
I took roughly 10 APS film cartridges to my local lab and got it scanned. It cost quite a bit, but the images were well worth it to me.
So, when are you covering the DISC camera system?
lol or the 110
Disc was innovative *LOL*
I found a Kodak Disc 4000 at work a while back. 30 years old and the non removable battery was still working. Ordered two discs from ebay to test it out, but it didn't work. Maybe the battery isn't strong enough anymore or something inside is gunged up. Need to take it a part some time and see if there's anything I could do to it.
Image quality should be horrible, so I'm all in trying it out :D
110 lives!
I had an APS camera! haha I loved those film cartridges!
It's those two crazy Canucks! Subscribed!
Extremely fun for what it's worth :) Great creative focus!
One feature of APS film was a magnetic backing on the negative, onto which exposure data could be recorded.
Joe Van Cleave yep APS film was of a similar material to DAT tape
I had a Kodak APS point and shoot back in the late nineties. Loved it. Loved a nice panorama. Although the panoramas were lower resolution due to the crop the prints came back larger than the other sizes (same height different widths). No idea whether they were the same price or if my parents were paying for development and I didn't care.
We used an APS camera on our honeymoon. My father in-law was one of the first people I know to get a digital camera (they were really expensive back then) so he didn't need his top of the line APS camera. The APS camera was the best camera we had access to so that is what we took. Within a couple of years digital got cheap enough that we could afford it too. If you can find a really cheap APS DSLR it might be worth picking up just for the lens. It is possible that the lens might still work on a newer DSLR.
Very interesting "history" video, never knew about APS film (writing from Italy, EU). Here it never really became popular, 35mm ruled until digital. But now I know where APS comes from !
Yesssss! Someone needs to bring this back. If you like the Contax T3 and can't sell any organs, try the Contax Tix.. such a great performer and has all the settings you need (lots of exposure control).
Yeah, but can you get the range of film in APS that the T3 has available to it in 35mm? A huge joy of shooting the T3 comes from using pro level film like Portra or Pro400H. I'm not sure if you can get that in APS.
I remember APS! Never bought one though - instead I opted for an Olympus Mju for my compact camera. That was the best film compact I've ever used. And I could shoot "full frame" 35mm film with it. I wanted all the film area that I could get, for those enlargements that I hardly ever printed. :)
Good call to show the funky colours.
Interesting video. I still have an Elph, as well as processed negative rolls! Got to find a scanner to digitize them!
Most informative guys - you do great videos.
OMG! The gold IXUS! The Gold One!
Might not prevent the sticky flash issue. But it's GOLD!
That expired Kodak film created some funky colors. Kind of a cool effect, although you'll never know what you're going to get with it.