APS Film and the 1990s TV Photo slideshow
In. This video I'm going to be taking a look at ApS. Film but really more in the context. Of it being used in this device, this photo player, should enable the developed ApS film to be displayed on a television screen, or at least that's their idea I bought, this about a year or so ago and I thought it would be a nice fun simple, video to put together but he's turned out to be anything but. ApS. Arrived on the scene in 1996. When a number of film and camera manufacturers, got together in an attempt to update the format as well as to get everyone to buy new equipment it. Met with the most success in the point-and-shoot. Market, where the compact, and easy to handle drop, in cartridges, resulted, in slightly, more compact, cameras, in, addition a magnetic, layer on the film could be written to buy more advanced, cameras, which, would provide additional information, to the photo developing, lab, although, the pro photographers, had little interest in the format due to its 24, millimeter, film size resulting, in reduced, quality when compared to the existing 35, millimeter, films, ApS. Was killed off by the rise of digital cameras, in the early 2000s. Now, back in the 90s when ApS turned up in the stores I was aware of its existence but I wasn't interested in it because I didn't take photos, back then when I went on holiday I used to take a camcorder, along, with me in fact when this particular model came out I just, bought the first mini, DV, camera there JVC, grd. VJ, 70s, it was known in the UK however. I did eventually get. A camera, but it was only when digital came, out and became a little bit more affordable this. Is the canon exes from 2000. It was known as the digital elph in the US and Canada this is 2.1. Megapixels. So ironically. The APS camera would have taken better photos, than this but then but, it's very hard to compete, with the idea that once you bought the equipment all the rest of the photos you take after that are pretty much effectively, free now. Getting back to the point of this particular video I wanted to demonstrate this, device but because I don't have any developed, ApS films, I've had to go and buy myself a new ApS, camera, well I think it's secondhand but I got it off eBay and it's in very good condition so. First thing you have to do set the date and time notice, it starts off in 1996. Because that's the it could possibly be for this particular camera, and I'm changing it to the 8th of August 2017. Because that's the date I was shooting this segment. Now. Back when ApS came out I remember them making a particularly, big, deal about the introduction, of the index, card this was something that was introduced, with ApS although it was subsequently, adopted by, 35-millimeter, developers. They showed a thumb-sized. Picture, of all your images that you'd had develop, so for example you look at your index card you, like the picture that busts you, say I'll have some more of those done so, that's three more number 12s, and you go into your photo developers, take, back your film cartridge which they gave you back when you had it developed which has got your negatives. Rolled up inside and they'd print those out now getting. That cartridge, back with the negatives in it means that you can store it in a nice little box along with those index cards because they've got a number on the side which matches up with each one but also you can tear that cartridge and put it into, a film, scanner, connect it up to your computer and it's a relatively, easy way to get your photos onto, a computer for, 1996. But, they also did this version which is the one I want to demonstrate which. Instead of scanning them into a computer shows. Them on your television, in the form of a slideshow, on. The bottom of the box I found this sticker which dates it to the 12th of July 96. Inside, the box everything that should be in here is and, that includes, the wire to attach it up to a television the, power lead and, the remote control and, of course the instructions, on the front various, controls, for manipulating. The images, that are being displayed and. Around the back as well as a composite, and s-video, output there's, an audio, out so I'm intrigued to find out what kind of sounds, this thing is going to make after all there's no audio, recorded, on an ApS film but the first thing I need to do is to find out whether or not it's actually functional.
So Put the power in the. Light comes out on the front so just a matter of pressing the eject button after, a bit of whirring that door pops down I'm ready to accept its first film so I might as well go and get some there's. Just one problem though and that's that they don't make a PS film anymore the packet that I bought here expired. In February, 2011. In, fact they kept making it up until, 2011. I've, got an idea what date those expired, but that will have passed by now. As well so there's no telling. What kind of results I've got to get out to this film well there is a way to tell and that's to take, some photos with it and see what happens one. Of the features, of aps, cameras, was this ability to choose between three different aspect, ratio, C was a narrower, type image H was the full-frame, 16:9. Aspect ratio and P was for panoramic, images, the only problem was they all use the exact same film, frame and the full frame was developed. As well it was just that when you got it printed you specified, which, version. You wanted of that print so if you asked for a P image, which is what you'd selected on that dial you just got the sensor part of the image printer which was a lower quality than if you'd have got the full one done but you could go back later and get, reprints, of the other versions, but anyway I've got my photos, done eagerly, stood outside the shop opened up the container, and thought hold on a minute where's the flipping cartridge. That was the whole point in getting this thing done so I thought well maybe they're not mine have a look inside yeah, these were definitely, my, photo, so. Perhaps, the the cartridges falling out in the shop or something so I went back in I said oh hold on the APS, film cartridges missing out here and the shop, assistant, there look something goes no may the rear sticks a grubby finger inside the container. And pulls out the negative. There it is mate there's you there's, your film umm I know but this was an ApS, film it's, supposed to be developed inside the cartridge you get the cartridge back it looks like this and. She looks me with this blank expression this, kind of I don't know what you're talking about you old not oh and she wouldn't do either the last person had got one of these develop probably did it 15 years ago in that shop, apparently. They said it didn't go through their machines, that they'd had to send it off to their head office to get done and this is what they done with it so pretty clueless operation, all the way through but they had ripped it off the inside of the cartridge as you can see there I thought, well nothing, I could do about that now what I'll do I'll take apart one of my other film, cartridges, the ones with unused. Film in it of course I'll be destroying that film but hopefully, I'll, be able to spool. This film onto that roll and then I'll be able to put it into my machine and finally. Watch, it on a TV screen so, that's exactly what I did going, back to that photo developing, place, for a moment there it's a high street retail, chain, and I was surprised when they said they could develop ApS, films but I mentioned it on their website and when the missus went into town one day she took the film along with her and took it in and said do you do these I said oh yeah that'll be no problem it'll be ready in a couple of hours anyway, a couple of hours later they ring me up and say oh they're, having problems is. Going to be another week and then a week later that's, when I got back but hopefully, now I've been able to resolve the issue and I'll be able to have a look at these so let's pop it in the Machine and see what happens.
Unfortunately. The machine identified. The cartridge as being an unprocessed. Film and refused to play it now how could it do this well on the side of an ApS film there are some markers, that indicate, the current status of, that film, it's a white dot which moves around in a clockwise direction, at. The moment it's in the number one position that means this is a new unused, film to would be partially, exposed three, will be fully exposed and four, would be developed. And as a key to these on the side of the film itself, there. Is however a further indicator, and as you can see the difference between these two cartridges, is there's a hole punched out on the right hand side of one that's a properly developed, cartridge, when, it gets developed that hole gets punched out a little bit like the write-protect, notch on a cassette and there's a corresponding switch. Here a pin that pushes into that hole and if it can go into the hole it knows you've put in a develop, film if it can't go in it thinks it's unprocessed. And therefore, won't take the film out of the cartridge because of course if it could, take the film out to read it it would expose, her undeveloped. Film so just a matter of me punching out the hole on this one I put together putting, it back in the machine and hoping, for the best No. Just. It like it's all the way I'd wound it up or something it just made a horrible screech, I've tried multiple times to put the film back into the cartridge different ways he just did a lot to load it so I, ended up putting this project on hold over winter but during which time I did contact a local photo, developing lab, and asked them if they developed aps films and put them back in the role just like they used to do back in the day and they said yes they did so the next time I went on holiday I took the camera along with me with a different, role of aps film took, some photos sent, them off to this chap he sent them back and sure enough this, time he did send me back the aps film inside the cartridge. Unfortunately. At some point light, has either got into the camera or perhaps ball, into the film cartridge so the first nine images are no use but from there onwards I can use those in fact if you look at number 10 you can see I must have accidentally slid that switch up to the C position and then, that shows you a frame around that part of the image so that's what gets printed however, you could go back to the developers, and say where I want the full image and then you get the full frame, of it but. Yeah some of these photos didn't, come out bad at all so I'm, looking forward to putting this cartridge into the machine and having, a look at these finally, after all this time on the TV screen now when. You turn it on it tells you to wait for a few minutes that's while it gets the light inside, up to the full strength, and while it's doing that you can hear it's playing some background, music that's the audio that comes out of the back of the machine so now we've found out is just background. Music, really but, now we, finally getting to the point where it's going to read the film so it starts pulling the film out of the cartridge and then it says is, it a cleaning cartridge, Wow, what's, this now, so. I select no, and. From. That it then goes alright then I'm just chokes, the cartridge out of the front of the machine so oh. So. I put it in a few more times kept going, through the same process say, no so I thought right well this time I'll say yes yes it's a cleaning cartridge go on there so what it does it takes the film all the way out of the roll and.
Then, Puts it all the way back in again presumably that's what it would do if it was a cleaning cartridge that would be a process of cleaning the, optical, path inside, the machine but it's not much use to me it means that I've got a second, film developed, now that I'm unable, to display. Using, this particular machine so at this point I'm pulling my hair out okay. Now here's what I think has caused the problem if you shoot an ApS film with a compact, point-and-shoot camera. It puts this optical. Data next to each frame which includes, simple information such as what the frame number is however, if you use a more elaborate, camera like an SLR for example some of them have the ability to write to a magnetic, data, layer on the, same film, and that could include information that was more akin to what we'd know now as exif. Data stuff, which would be used by the developing, labs so, my theory, is that the machine that this guy used to develop this ApS film isn't writing the information that this machine is expecting, to be on that magnetic, data, so it tries to read it finds there's nothing there and it assumes that what you've inserted in the front must be a cleaning, cartridge, so. I've got no doubt that that first film I got develop would also be missing this necessary, magnetic, data and therefore even if or having able to get the machine to unspool, it from the roll it would have refused to read it anyway so with very little else I could do I thought well I'll take the lid off this week and at least have a look inside and see how it all fits together but, then when you look in here there's not much to see there'll be a big circuit board below that metal panel at the bottom, at the backs of power supply and at the front is the scanner, mechanism. And, it's all contained, in this small area it's the kind of thing that I couldn't really take apart without completely, destroying it but, yeah you put the film in on the right hand side it pulls it across on the left-hand side there's a bright light in there that scans it and. Displays. It on your TV screen, there's really not much else I can say come and see the film coming in heir to the role where of course it doesn't want to get dust on it but there you go that's, the insides of it so that's really all I can show you as far as that goes but. I didn't want to give up just yet, I had one final idea I asked the people who support, me on patreon. If anyone, had any developed, ApS films they wouldn't mind me showing in a video unfortunately a, few people got back to me the first one was Phil who said he had quite a few and, he sent me three in the post and thanks, to Phil we can now finally, see, this machine working as, it's supposed to do so just a matter of putting one of his films in here which will have been developed, properly, back in 2000. 2001, by a lab which will have out all the right equipment they'll have written the data to the film, all the rest of it so you put it in here you can see it starts getting further than it's got Boothroyd shows, the film coming out on the bottom and then start generating thumbnails. For each of the images of it scanned as the film was going by. So. Once all the thumbnails that appeared on the screen I decided to start a slideshow now to do this you just pick the first image, that you want it to start and, then it works its way through the rest of the film sequentially. Now it doesn't store all the images, at the beginning, what it does is it scans each one and then displays it on your screen what at a time now, in between each image it displays, some kind of wipe or zoom or a crossfade. Type effect, randomly. And of course as this music playing in the background but I think this is really. Quite effective to me this is a very interesting and slightly awkward meeting, of two very distinct, areas of photography, for years people have done slideshows. But they've done it with slides. And the projector. And then after, this product came out just a few years later people were doing slideshows. With digital, photos. Using some kind of software this. Is right in the middle we've got analog, photos, then scanned, digitally, and displayed on a TV, screen.
You'll. Be glad to know there is the ability to switch off that background. Music, but there are some other options in here you can display, the photos, in different orders rather than just have them as, a slideshow you can just show one image, or you can page through them, one at a time and you can even program, the order in which you want them to display you'll, notice you could also choose your print, options here, now this isn't for you to do at home this is to specify what, you want your developer, to do with your photo so you choose which photo you're interested, in how many of that photo you want to print you, can then choose what aspect. Ratio you want it to prints in and, also whether you want data on it like the date and whether you want that on the front or the back of, the photo and. You can even add a title here using this on-screen, keyboard, and once you have sets. What you want you, then write that data to that magnetic layer that's on the film and then, take the film into your developers, and they'll, print out whatever you've requested, now, when the slideshows playing it can't identify pictures. Taken, in the vertical, orientation and. It just puts those on the screen sideways. But you can view those if you look at them individually you, can rotate them using the button on the remote control, and then, you can also zoom in on them if you want you've. Also got four, arrow keys which enable you to look around the image once you've zoomed in on it although they do take, a little bit of getting used to because pressing down moves, the image up pressing up moves it down pressing right lose, it you guessed it left but, yes you can zoom. In have a look around the photos, now. I thought you might be interested in seeing a video capture from this device so I've hooked up the s-video output which is the highest quality to the capture card and that's what you're looking at on screen, now, now, this zoom, function. Of course what he does it scans, the image and then you zooming in on the, scam, any. Other goes to a certain distance, but there is another button on the remote control which, is labeled x2 now what happens when you press that it.
Seems Like it puts an extra lens in front of the scanning circuitry, and then it reese cans the image but only the central, part of it but, then that enables you to look at that area in even more detail, it feels a little bit like the old Blade Runner zoom, and enhance although, there isn't that much detail in an aps photo when. You're looking at an image if you press the information, button you get the frame number press it a second time you get the date the photo was taken, press it a third time it, brings up the data about that particular image in this case we've just got the aspect, ratio but, on some cameras those other fields would have been filled in a fort. You might want to get a full photo slideshow. Experience. So what i'm doing here I'll start it off on a particular photo just let it run through a few after, that and you can watch it happen in real time and just, as a treat I've left you that beautiful background. Music on as well. Now. Just going back to some of those photos I took with my ApS camera, I'm quite happy with some of them it's just the colors are a little bit washed out which of course is no doubt down to the fact the film, was expired, so what I did I've scanned, those photos, into my computer, and put them into a piece of software called photo, lemur which. Will automatically. Enhance, them and it does a particularly good job in areas like this where the image, is all bleached, out it brings back some of the colors and the detail, now, I've got no intention of giving up digital, photography, and just, using film but it's nice to know that the photos, that I took while I was putting this video together, weren't. A complete waste of time and I've got something to show for it at the end I think. The biggest legacy of ApS cameras, is compact. Point-and-shoot cameras. That look like this you, see at the time ApS, came out this is what the rivals, to that model look like these are very much, 1990s. Cameras, cameras just don't look like this anymore, but, the exes, or the elf pretty. Much changed, all that at. Nineteen ninety-six digital, camera, looked like this but by 2000. They, look like this and that, design of camera really doesn't look out of place nowadays, and there's. One thing I'm taking away from this whole experience and. It's that I like traditional, photos, and I'm not talking, about taking them with a film camera sending, them off getting them developed getting them back with stickers on and blurry ones ones with light, in the lens or your thumb in front of the image though it's about holding, physical. Photos. It's something I feel I've been missing out on with all these digital photos, are being taking it all stored on a hard drive somewhere so that's why I got that photo, printer that I did a video about the other week and I'm very happy with the results from that and I just think there's something a little bit special about, holding a printed photo but, taken, with a modern, digital camera. I've got no intention of going, back to film I'm afraid this camera is gonna go in a drawer now and that, means I've got no use whatsoever for this fuji, film ap1, anymore, I can't even take film that I can display with it so what am I going to do well I'll pack it up along with those films that Phil sent me send, the whole lot back to him and then he can watch his old, holiday snaps on, his television. Anyway. That's it for the moment as always thanks. For watching. You.
2018-06-24 03:48
There must be some technology involved in this music, it seems not a sample but generated via a relatively elaborate sound chip
thanks!
I didnt know you were vindictive. The frustration of getting this video made you take comfort in that torture real time slide session.
Is it possible that it didn't show up due to being unlisted? [I am assuming you're referring to the video linked in the comment]
Techmoan Due to Google's infinite "wisdom", Your vid didn't show up in my notifications, even though I ticked the bell. This seems to happen more and more now, but at least I saw your tweet (if that's not rude. lol), and the vid was on my YT home age. This usually happens on my Android media box, though, and I am subbed to over 1,000 channels, so that probably doesn't help.
I would almost believe this music came from an infant's toy, covered with cute rosy-cheeked smiling baby animals
Reminds me of that one Summer Pokémon red and blue was released and everybody had it. Most of my primary class met after school to play Gameboys and that did sound about the same as this Photo-Player device. I remember I have two or three Apple PowerCD devices in storage that was able to show Kodak PhotoCDs on a tv screen. Utter crap, but one lucky guy was the king of the hill for having it. Although I've never checked the option sign for a PhotoCD when developing pictures. They charged an extra 20.– Swiss francs for each film.
Thank phill for us in leading his photos!
That music is pretty amazing.
It would be "hilarious" if that music caused a copyright strike :-O
It reminds me of an old JRPG
Sure sounds like someone at Fujifilm got themselves a bontempi keyboard for xmas!
It has all the charm of a broken-down ice cream truck camped out in front of your window. I can't imagine why anyone would opt to subject themselves to that, but good on ya for giving the people what they want. I guess.
It's definitely not my favourite music - after a while I just had to stop it playing in the background while I unsuccessfully attempted to get the machine to load the film...over and over again.
Techmoan Let it be said, some people on the internet are bloody nutters.
It's been cut out and spooled on to a 35mm leader, the film stock is the same process as conventional 35mm colour negative film, I guess they've done a bit of fiddling in a changing bag and spooled it on to a 35mm empty cartridge. I do see why, essentially you've taken them a dead format to them and they have done what they can and recovered the images, as well as generating prints as requested so I wouldn't be so hard on them. The other thing to consider if the film was rewound on to the APS inner it would have been unrecoverable without destroying it for the user, loose film at least can be examined and archived. Honours-even I think here, I wouldn't be so hard on the first lab.
Thinking about redundant formats, what digital media is available today that could last as long as parietal art, certainly not CD's/DVD's or memory cards?
I have lots of APS films...
Your videos, are an oasis of sanity amongst a sea of america's trumpism, work stress, financial uncertainty and general depression. I whole heartedly thank you for all of your videos, the trips down memory lane they provide, and honestly a moment for me to nod in agreement, and in acknowledgement of mutual knowledge you share as we may have both experienced in years past - i never gave nostalgia much of a thought, but at 39 years old, seeing and discussing back at your video - though you can't hear me talking haha, is - quite ... centering. if that makes sense. mass consumer electronic products and obscure prosumer and sector specific electronics - they've always been my forte since i was a young child, and it's nice to get back to those interests. Thank You. -Joey Lopez
It is nice to have physical photos. I like making photo books (using an online service) from my digital photos.
That segment about film development gave me terrible flashbacks... I sent several rolls of film to Jessops and they not only completely RUINED the lot, they blamed my camera skills for it. It was clearly a development issue and they refused to take responsibility. Just be awfully careful about these chaps.
*ENHANCE* Man, I would buy that just for that x2 button lol.
Is this the longest time you've ever spent making a video???
There is famous and many stories about these things
My last analog camera was a very nice Olympus I bought in Japan in '98. I gave it to my mother when I got my first digital in early 2000 and she had it stolen when she was in Prague a few years later.
It seems like a lot of work into a format they knew was going out. At least, the film companies got their acts together to put energy into digital photography. I wish the energy companies in the United States embrace newer technologies as well, but instead they insist that the high tech future of coal is blindingly bright. Blindingly bright, Trump's ass! They even went as far as to try to ban wind and solar. Yeah, like that will prevent their special "Mana from God" from becoming ancient history. They are slowly getting crushed in their own stupidity. It doesn't really help when there are tons of jobs to be had and tons of money to be made off of next generation energy technologies. So much for entrepreneurship.
Great Video Mat. I do remember the APS format, and my little connection to your video today is... the Sicker on the box dated 12 July is my birthday... also I noted the eBay listing ended on July 12.... Intentional or just coincidence!
I worked at a photo lab company in the mid 90's to mid 2000's. only the new machines could handle the developing and printing of APS. I was kind of a pain in the ass to D&P APS. If a newbie put it through the non APS C-41 neg developer the machine had no idea and treated it like a typical roll of film. Which meant the film was cut off the canister when it was pulled through by the machine. We would then have to explain to the customer why the film wasn't in their APS cartridge like it should be.
Awesome, please do moreon Photo Cameras, like early digital, pleeeeaaase
So Phil gets the whole thing for coming through for the techmoan community! Love it!
Прикольная, но странная штука
Really appreciate all the effort you put into your videos. Seeing that Elf brings back some memories, I have a good friend who was really into that camera back in the day. I always prefered my tank-like 1960's nikon 35mm, but always was a bit jealous of how small and futuristic the elf was.
You did it again... I discover this or that new (to me) channel every now and then, but this is a reminder of where I really belong. Thanks!
My first job was working in a photo lab processing film, and in the early 2000s these were still pretty popular. What the lab you went to was missing this special device we would use to unload and reload the cartridge once the film was processed (it was pretty simple, just a motor and a guide), it would even move over those id tabs you mentioned that shows if it was processed or not (which was very helpful when customers weren't sure if they used the roll or not) Regular film canisters were still more popular but we had such a simpler time with these. Our scanners and print equipment didn't need anything fancy to print them either, just a plastic guide to help hold the smaller film strip. Man I had vivid memories while watching this
I had the exact same camera, still have it in fact. APS was appealing to me at the time because it seemingly offered a level of handling convenience that was provided by the old 110 and 126 Instamatic cameras but updated for the 90s. Plus the concept of the contact sheet and the negatives being conveniently rolled back into the cassette seemed logical and a step forward. The image quality however, certainly in my experience, left a lot to be desired. Fine for family snaps and closer images like portraits, they seemed to come out OK, but for landscapes and cityscapes, etc., the detail was just not there even slightly, very disappointing. My previous camera had been an Olympus XA-2 which was vastly better in image quality and was at least 10 years older than the IXUS. But yeah, I imagine a lot of people were like me - not that long after the IXUS came out, digital camera quality and design started to improve and come down in price and that was that.
I like that you sent the thing to Phil. This was a fairly harrowing watch with all the setbacks, I've seen you get 1960s recorded video media working with far less effort than this. With vastly more contemporary technology you would think it would be easier.
A+ for persistence!
Well another legacy of APS is the name and size became a reference for digital sensor sizes
Back in the 90s I bought a Sony Mavica, a digital camera with floppy disks. It was fun but very big and the photos were just VGA res. I didn't use it much and I couldn't find a good but small digital camera. I bought one of those little APS cameras, I used it a lot. In those days when I had the film developed I also had the shop scan the images to a CD for me as jpegs. I remember being often annoyed at the low quality scan and did it again with my flatbed scanner. Just as pointed out in the vid here, that time in history was a half way point to digital. The small size of camera was great and of course there were no phone cameras back then so it was the most compact way of having a camera with you at all times. Thanks for this video, it has brought back memories.
Very interesting tech! I had no idea these existed. I was a fan of Kodak Photo-CD in the 90's. I owned a Philips CD-i 910 machine in 1991 and we started getting out films processed to gold Kodak Photo-CD(r) disc in 1992. It was very exciting to see high quality photos on your TV at that time We owned a Sony Trinitron with svideo so they looked quite good for the time. I was also very impressed that they stored very high resolutions on the same disc. I can hardly believe they stored resolutions at 4096 × 6144 way back in 1992! My current 2018 computer sometimes struggles with resolutions this high.
I have that Ixus!
Thanks Phil!
Hey, Phil, thanks for the use of your photos! And thanks, Mat, for sending the machine to Phil as a reward, nice of you! And thanks, us, for watching Mat and Phil's cool video! Win-win-win!
I remember APS. It was an answer to a problem, 5 years too late. In 2001, I went shopping for a new compact camera, and while thinking this was such a cool idea, I got a 2.5mp digital camera instead... Why? Because at the time, the APS camera was pretty expensive, as was the viewer. The Samsung digital camera I got was less than $200 US, and that was all I needed. I had a PC and printer, so no need to buy anything else. It was a cool idea, that was too late to the dance...
Awesome video!
What’s the music in the closing with the credits?
I remember using APS film when I was younger. I abandoned it when I got my first digital camera in 1993.
Haha, cute music that machine has! It has a very Japanese "cutsie-wootsie" personality! Oh, it's _kawaii,_ just like Hello Kitty!
Just WOW! So much technology to give the digital experience on an analog format.
Oh, wow, you shot that segment you mentioned _almost_ a year before bringing it to life in our view here on the YouTube! But PHIL outdid you with _his_ segment by about a decade and a half!
Would I have thought this thing was amazing back in 1996 when I was 13? Most likely! It just seems awkward and quaint now. It was giving me anxiety!
All right, then, you showed us the optical metadata. But where is this supposed "magnetic layer" that we should probably be able to see as a little tape strip?
"However, I did eventually get a camera..." Actually, you already *had* a camera as soon as you bought the device to shoot video with! By the way, back then you should have bought a _still_ camera to record good memories (not just holiday/vacation ones) with too, because photos have such higher picture quality than video does, especially then. Before that, were you just with your parents most of the time and they took the photos?
No Copy write violation? I feel a bit violated... 8
Omg I was just thinking about that Blade Runner scene. Haha. Awesome.
It might be me but man that background music is creepy like something out of a 90s/mid2000s horror game
Weren't these APS cameras & film introduced about the time that they killed off the 110 film format?
The mother LOVED her Kodak APS cameras, she still has one somewhere (obviously defunct now), most of her 90s era photos are from APS cameras, in all the different shapes demonstrated here... :)
That music X
I remember seeing APS cameras and film when it came out. But I never owned any APS gear. So, I want to say thanks for putting this video together. I also would have sent the "projector" back with the film as well.
I remember the backlash against APS back when it came out. Even back then it was clear that the days of chemical photography were numbered. Even when you went out to get a passport photo, that would be done with a video camera and a thermosublimation printer.
That the bgm for aps use fm synthesis
Did anyone else think of the Blade Runner "enhance" scene when he started using the zoom function? EDIT: hah, already beaten to the punch in the video itself.
The quality of those photos is like a phone camera from 2004 or so.
Azriel Knight also made a video on the AP-1 too.
I have exactly the same camera in US and it's called Elph instead of Ixus. I used it very often and loved the APS convenience. Camera was super compact and fast to start up and shoot.
Phil is the man! Yea Phil.
Beautiful JRPG music!
i love hold the old paper pics i remember in 96 when iwant buy new camera the guy in south england want sale me digital camera itold him inever heard about it iwant normal one
18:38 But that's the ***whole point***!!!!!
Alas I've been shooting real film since I was almost 13. I"m almost 43 now and generally take both real film and digital at the same time. However Ever since 2001 I preferred b/w photography. So I''ve been messing around with that. However finding b/w APS film was nearly impossible for the right price. So the spot I'm finding film is https://filmphotographystore.com/collections/all and I really like how they are engaging possible photographers. And the expire APS film as well. Now I"m not sure if The Dark Room does does aps film right but I'd much rather them cut the bloody film rather than keep it inside the thing and oddly enough The APS film I do get back has been removed from the cartridge developed then taped back in smh um if they went thru all that trouble can't they just cut it? It's a dead format so I have had to cut it myself. I however have stuck with 35mm without fail and now messing around with 620 film (bw) which is 120 film just on a wider spool. This also goes for 127 film (in b/w seems to be making a comeback although I hadn't heard of it till I ran into Grandma's old film and one hadn't been developed yet. Because everyone is using 127 for b/w the chemicals are still available but not for color, the above has 126 now and then and b/w 110 film O_O brand new expires next year 110 film :O Some with red scale. Back to 35mm there seems to be a sprocket hole fad going on so they stick that in a Toy 120 film camera and shoot sprockets which I think is silly but oh well. The red negative film sounds more fun and speaking of expired they are selling film from 1972 All which brings me back to your latter point of having physical prints in your hand. Big ol problem with digital film is where are they? No organization usually,, and on media that might have rotted and is now useless so I've lost alot of photos over the years and zero from actual film. I've had film have problems but never lost the film. Having real photos one gets all the bad photos too and you remember these and know not to stick your thumb wherever alien head shows up.. I still prefer film over digital. And cheaper too.. but again mainly in b/w unless it's 110 film which was always fun to shoot in to begin with.. Even though photofinishers tended to rip people off. the aspect ration while smaller is very similar to 35mm in that it's a rectangle. You wouldn't know it from the tiny almost squarish prints Severe cropping for 110 prints
Nothing wrong nor really difficult about shooting film these days, you'll just need to choose a better format. :) I bought an Elph when they were current and was not too impressed. The camera was nice enough but the APS negatives were too small and I could consistently get much better results on 35mm film. I suspect the market for the APS cameras was primarily those people who had been using disc or 110 cameras. So this would have been a step up for them. There were at least three SLR systems for APS film, Canon, Nikon, and Minolta each made SLR cameras and interchangeable lenses. But, as much as I like and still use a bunch of film cameras, I very much prefer shooting film I can easily process at home. I appreciate your determination as evidenced by this video, well done, sir!
It would be cool to connect the viewer to a VCR and record the images onto a VHS tape. That way you wouldn't need to use the viewer every time you wanted to see the photos on a TV screen, plus you could fit tons of rolls onto a single VHS tape. You could even make copies of the tape and send them off to your friends and family. I think that would have been a pretty cool thing to do back in 1996.
I'd love to see Techmoan do a review on an old mechanical film camera
What is the name of the retailer that destroyed your APS cartridge. We need to tweet at them until they make it right. You honestly deserve at least a gift card for them destroying your cartridge.
That film was cool. But Very experience.
I have GOT to get one of those.
the directional buttons on the remote aren't backwards, you're thinking about it differently than designed :) It's impossible to know for sure, but I'm guessing you were expecting to be moving a mobile picture behind a stationary viewport. Doing this, pressing left on the keypad would move the image left. Instead, the device was designed with a stationary picture, and a mobile viewport. If you think about the arrow keys as moving a smaller box around on the larger image, they are in the correct direction. This is the same concept as natural scrolling vs. traditional scrolling. One moves the content, the other moves the viewport. On a computer where the on screen action is decoupled from the output, it doesn't really matter which method you use. However, on a mobile device where you are touching the content, it doesn't make sense to move the viewport over the content because it would seem backwards. Apple switched to natural scrolling on computers to match the behavior on mobile devices.
Film scanners weren't the cheapest thing back in the day and this is a really weird niche product using one. It would not surprise me if these cost anywhere from $700 to over a grand new. And that's assuming it's a consumer product. I suspect these were meant for some sort of kiosk install. Also, washed out color on Fuji negative film might just be the film formulation and how it's being printed: if it's anything like Superia Reala it may not have much contrast (color contrast is saturation) but you just about can't over expose it and the grain's very fine.
My goodness what a horrible mess of tech this beastie is. I feel like your puppet man would have bought one of these in 1997 and would be complaining about how he can never find APS film to scan into his Windows 98 machine to add to his GeoCities website.
Is there a way to copy aps film to a computer?
As mentioned in the video there were specific film scanners for it. AIUI there were also tools that could be used to take the film in and out of the cartridge which would let you scan it using conventional tools.
I had a Kodak APS camera back around the time they came out. I think I got all of one good roll out of it before it started rewinding the film rolls after three exposures and basically became a paperweight.
My family owned a lab for more than 60 years. When Advantix (that’s what we called APS) came out we never got the proper equipment for developing it. And we rarely had a customer bringing one. When a customer would finally bring one, we would send to a huge lab in the capital (because no one in 200km had the technology). So yeah, it never really happened here.
Thanks for the magnanimous contribution Phil! And I love that Techmoan hooked him up with the film scanner! It's nice to see the YouTube community successfully coming together like this.
Impressive efforts. You are the best.
Zoom? ENHANCE!
Truly an odd contraption - one to be found in future curiosity shops, me thinks. God, what were they thinking when they decided to use that infernal chiming musak? Thanks heavens for the invention of the MP3 format! Jolly decent of Phil to offer up his APS films for our entertainment and jolly decent of you to send him your Fujifilm APS Photo Viewer (as seen on YouTube)!
I used to develop film back in 2006 when I started working in a Wal Mart photo Lab. there was a little machine that would spool the aps film back in to the cartridge.
"At this point I'm pulling my hair out"
Techmoan - I worked with APS in a photolab for 16 years, it had its issues, but that aside, the format was quite innovative for the times, it was Higher resolution than the Digital cameras of the time, and they even made PROsumer models with Interchangable lenses and Mid roll change, with MRC you could , unload your Unfinished color film roll, and load a B+W or Slide film roll, then reload your color roll and finish that one, Both Kodak and Fuji made PRO grade films as well. as, you correctly pointed out, the APS cameras were used to create Shells for Digital cameras.
I love the aesthetic you get from taking photos on old 35mm film or any old film really. Even if the colors are a little washed out it just looks cool to me.
That background music is just magical! - Glad you managed to put this video together despite APS being a pain in the bottom for you. It definitely was ahead of it's time yet also distinctly released too late. If this came out a few years earlier, it probably would have wiped the floor in the market. It was a lot easier for the end user. I do know that APS films and cameras were initially a lot more expensive though and as always, cost wins out.
Someone turn that slide show into some vaporwave.
I recall me and my mom had one of these (the cameras, not the player)!
I've never heard of this type of system. My Dad usually was up to date on all electronics. R.I.P. Dad.... So thank you for sharing this different type of system. It was also nice of you to send that guy your system. What a joy he must of felt. Chris from Missouri
It sounds like a old nes game
I had a canon aps ixus!! It took great photos many of which I still treasure. I bought it from a shop called tecno in sheffield, England for £189.99. I loved it.
My ears are bleeding. What horrible background music.
Ice Cream Man Playing NES at a Carnival
sounds like a hidden message at the very end of the video
This sure takes me back to my days working at Ritz Camera. I remember one customer that was very interested in buying an APS camera, except that she needed to be able to present slide shows. Unfortunately, I didn't learn about this device (the AP-1) until later on (and, tonight, I got to see one in operation). Still, if she was looking to give a single slide presentation from more than one roll of film, then she would have had to have gone with 35mm anyway. What was also unfortunate was that our in house equipment was too out of date to handle APS. I learn now to develop APS film until I was working at Walgreens Pharmacy (pardon my American). The small bit of knowledge that I gained at such a quantity over quality photo lab, was enough for me to say, "Ah ha!" When I realized why the AP-1 assumed that a roll of film was blank and ejected it. As always, thanks for sharing. And my thanks to Phil for making this episode possible.
I remember when APS launched. I was in my 20s and it was the first non handed down camera I had. I took a good number of rolls with it and often took photos at family events, trips or to have fun and be artistic. I had one of KODAK'S top of the line point and shoot cameras with a zoom lens. I used it from 1996 to 2002 when I got a Cannon PowerShot 2 mega pixel with zoom. I do like printed photos too a thing from film days. However here in the states we have drug stores and department stores that still do film around and also print digital photos on real photo paper. You can even upload the photos you want to several of them from home and go pick them up at a local store in a few hours. That's what I do now.
You go to such great lengths for us! Its always appreciated!
Wow what 90s garbage. The photo/film companies knew very well what was happening/coming. Total cash grab, at the end of a format. Thanks, consumer!!
Is it me, or is there something off about the audio in this episode? And I don't mean the background tune the machine made. It sounds really blown out.
This was my first time finishing a +21 minute video. Very entertaining! Props to you Phil!!!
Your dedication and stubbornness is admirable.
Gg Phil.
Dude, I’ve like 20 rolls I would have sent you.
Once again great video.
Here in Switzerland shops had APS cameras but I didn't know anyone with an APS camera. I think it was dead / had never lived when digital cameras started to become popular.
Thanks very much to Phill for having the confidence to know that he hadn't got drunk in 1996 and taken a photo of his Willy. I genuinely couldn't have that level of confidence. I just ended up with loads of macro shots of my wife's hand when I had tried to happily snap her getting undressed, having a shower or sitting on the bog. I'm now divorced but still have those magical -mammaries- memmories in print.
sounds like the same sound chip used in the snes
YensR Fujifilm might be delighted with it finding a new audience!
Techmoan Just to let you know, I used this music on a "slide show" today! - I "had" to: The photos were taken with a Fujifilm camera!
Techmoan Airport security X-rayed your film and this has started to damage the outer layers of the film roll
When Mario Paint meets APS...
T y. Great video
What we (and I am surely speaking for everyone), need you to do going forward, is to play that zoom sound every time you zoom into something from now on
the background music sounds like an old console game like micky mouse's land of illusion or something. if using the machine for a good length of time its gonna get annoying though, i do wonder what people thought of it back in the days it was brand new.
Slideshow reminds me of blade runner movie
This would be the same APS that is the namesake for the APS-C digital camera sensor yes? If so that'd surely be its most lasting legacy...
Ken Rockwell is NOT a pro photographer; he's an engineer. Completely different things.
LMFAO that sound at the end of the video. My computers build in Audio Codec chip does the same thing when my surround av receiver is connected.
By the time APS came out, I’d had it with terrible development labs that would consistently improperly develop my film. I had countless wildlife and landscape shots ruined by minimum wage slaves feeding my film into an automated system designed for just about anything except color reproduction. Your experience with idiots at the developing labs shows I’m not alone.
There is something pretty retro futuristic about this machine. The analogue winding mechanism and TV display reminds me of the photo system from Bladerunner. Oh and as I am typing this you actually mention the zoom and enhance from Bladerunner
This APS is quite cool thing. I think that for 1996 that was not to bad in terms of quality.
I would love to see videos on Kodak's disk film format and Kodak's instant film format disaster and even Poloroid's rise and fall and the small resurgence of "Polaroid" film and cameras. As always, your videos are both informative and entertaining.
That 80 music is like torture. Complicated machine like that is just plain silly and let down before digital film revolution.
Now, Phil needs to create a 20 minute video documenting his turmoil in connecting the AP-1 viewer to a modern television with no S-Video or composite inputs.
OMG, hearing that music each time you loaded that film had me LMAO.
Lovely gift for the chap that shared with you his old APS films!
All the things that are Techmoan including history, detail, affection for technology, and more persistence than you'll find in the rest of us.
That was the one format of film I hated to process back in my photolab days.
It seems a shame to put the ixus in a drawer. It should be in a display case as a thing of beauty, a piece of art itself.
Good work! I love a failed format Techmoan. Even better when you pretty much fail to revive it! Its the journey that's important. I wouldn't mind seeing videos from you from projects that have completely failed too! No need to hide them away from public gaze. :-)
Back in 2000 I went to london witth the aps my brother give ( canon gave it to him because he bouhgt a copier machine for his business) . I exposed two rolls with several panoramic pics. it costed near 90 euro to process and print them. It was bloody expensive! at least here in spain. te camera was like a pack of cigarretes with magnesium body... it was pretty nice tough
How far in advance do you record for uploads?
Animals!!! From 1996-1998 I worked in a photoshop (not the Adobe product, but a workshop for photography :-) ). APS was a new technology, so we didn't have an APS processing system at first but as the film used the same C41 process as 35mm we could crack open the cartridge in a dark box and develop in the same way as any other non-35mm format like 110. Once APS film processors and printers became more commonplace (£100k was a typical ex-VAT price for the latter in 1998) we could do it in-cartridge. Appalled that they didn't warn you about ripping your cartridges open though. If anyone has old developed APS cartridges, there are people with scanners to rip these now. I had a chap with pro-kit do all my old cartridges and was very happy with the outcome.
you are well thorough.
This is amazing tech. What a magnificent bastard of a machine!
Thank you so much for the interesting video. I never knew this machine existed. I still have an undeveloped of APS film cartridge from the early 2000s.
Got some dinner party guests who don't seem to want to leave? Just threaten to put on a slide show from your last vacation, problem solved.
When I worked at a lab we had like a separate thingy we had to wind the APS film into before we could develop it and it would get stuck in the developer a lot.
One of the other major legacies of APS, other than the style of camera design as mentioned, was the transition of the APS film size format into the APS-C (and near equivalents) sensor size with the advent of SLR digital cameras for the mass market. With the production of a 35mm (full frame) equivalent sensor prohibitively expensive for the mass market back in the day, but the need to have a sensor large enough to satisfy enthusiast and some professional demands – APS-C, with some smaller lighter lenses having been already developed for the smaller image circle required by the APS film, was the natural compromise size chosen for the new format and pretty much dictated the popular adoption of a standard(ish) size of sensor for most DSLRs and a lot of upper range mirrorless cameras. Only over a decade on are 35mm full frame sensors gradually filtering down from the professional end of the market (such market as is left as phone cameras gradually supplant the amateur market entirely).
7.02 what model is that tv
Hated that bloody music on that device! Reminded me of those early greetings cards that played music.
I have some aps films might invest in in a aps scanner
APS would have been awesome had it been introduced in the 80's. Unfortunately digital came along to quickly. I had an Elph, I loved it! PS: I "love" the snobbery of "pro" photographers: "Ameture Photo System" - Ha Ha to all of those Hassy users: 120 "medium format" film was designed by Eastman Kodak for the "kid friendly" Brownie #2!
Analog picture, digital scan, analog signal and digital display. Quite a ride...
I was always under the impression that „index prints“ were a thing for 35mm way before APS. They were called „contact sheets“.
I used to have an APS camera :D still got the film cartridges and photos, I guess there is nowhere that will develop a print from it any more lol. I loved the panoramic ability of it.
This is a nice piece of tech , to bad it came out @ a wrong time :/
Having worked in a photo lab for 5 years I hated developing APS film
Funny enough, last time I went on a cruise, I took a Canon EOS-1N, 50 1.2 and a few rolls of Ektar 100 :)
Still less of a pain than having real slides made up.
My best friend had an APS point and shoot camera that he took with him on our school trip to Paris back in 1999.I remember he did use the panoramic mode for some photos.Seeing the photos of Paris that Phil sent you reminded me of my trip.Shame that I never got a copy of my best friend's photo prints though.
Techmoan have you ever seen a compact camera that used a 3 1/2 inch floppy drive, be interested to find out more about it, I've only seen one once, no idea what make or model it was
APS was just too late. Interesting video. Thanks.
Thank God for Techmoan, makes me glad I never wasted money on these gadgets that would now be consined to the loft lol great video though, shame there's no Muppets at the end
I actually really like the music with the slideshow. It's like you're watching it with a Super Nintendo.
Bladerunner!
Wow, Ken Burns in a box!
APS - absolutely pathetic system!
The eject mechanism reminded me of Robocop 2s Nuke recepticle, lol :D
great video
I still have a Kodak Advantix C400 camera and during the 2000's when I used it, I never got the film back from developing in it's cartridge, I always got like you did or even cut into segments, and I always took it to a Kodak Photo Shop.
Thanks Techmoan and Phil!
I absolutely love your videos! This one is especially interesting. I love the way you give a great presentation of the old tech. Give me a bit of nostalgia. You are AWESOME!!!
Among my collection of old camera, I have a Canon EOS IX APS SLR, which was Canon's high-end entry into the APS market. I haven't used it in about 8 years but it took very decent photos back in the day, and it's a great looking camera even from the perspective of 20 years after it was manufactured.
I love your videos
I wouldn't mind finding one that makes a jpeg out of them. I had the most basic Kodak Advantex camera available. I used it for a few High School trips, and for my Tech College parts of my life, and there are a few photos I'd like to experience again.
APS always reminds me of QVC and Dixons ( windows full of it) both pushed APS hard in the sales department.
Sorry to be totally OT, but Techmoan has 664k subscribers. Now just imagine if he was a hot girl with sex appeal. The channel would be world famous ;D Although I suppose the education aspect would then be limited by the reduced blood flow to the brain :/
I like your videos. Because you don't give up to quick or to soon.
Millennium bug
Three Cheers for Phil!
That's a great tradeoff, you get a video, he gets a way to display his pictures. Love when you showcase old tech.
That background music is torture
There's one thing that survived the APS format: Its name lives on in the APS-C image sensor size of entry level DSLRs and many mirrorless cameras due to nearly the same dimensions. When APS entered the market I worked as a host for QVC in Germany. As I loved my 35 mm cameras it was quite hard to find selling points for a new system that was inferior in all ways but the size of the camera body. Auto-loading 35 mm cameras were already available at that time. I had a Yashica T4.
Thanks for bringing back the terrible memories of this film format. I used to work the one-hour film counter back in 2005 for a few years, and I hated dealing with this film format. It required a bunch of different tools than the standard 35 mm film canisters, and everything about was so much harder because the equipment was generally finicky and fussy. So, with 35 mm film, getting it out of the cartridge was easy. You would just wound the film around a little bit, and then you slip in a piece of tape, and that would grab it, and you would start to pull, and some film would hopefully come out. If a cartridge was difficult, it was annoying, but pretty easy. You just take the cartridge into a tent, rip the cartridge open, and then stuff the film into a temporary cartridge and it took maybe 2 minutes. APS, on the other hand, was a massive pain. So, first you had to extract it from the cartridge. So you put the cartridge into one side of this machine that sort of resembles a cassette deck, and then you take this cartridge that you would use only to develop APS, and put it into the end of the machine. You then close the machine, and it would kick in. Except 9 times out of 10, it would error out. You could usually force a rewind, then you reseat everything, and try it again. Eventually it would work. Except the times when it didn't. Now, if you could get it to rewind, and it just wasn't going to work, it was basically as easy as working with 35 mm in the tent. But if it didn't rewind, that meant you now had to take the machine and put it into the tent, as well as your other tools, and now try to fix the machine in the dark only by touch. There's no difference between developing and not. The leader cards were more painful than 35 mm, but that's because with 35 mm, I didn't have to hook teeth into it properly, I just threw a ton of tape onto it. Printing it could be a joy, as well. So first off, it used 5 inch paper, as opposed to the normal 6 inch paper that 35 mm and digital used. So, to print these, you had to switch the paper cartridges out. Not a big deal if things were quiet, but if you were slammed, it slowed you down because you had to wait until the machine was done printing (because the paper is light sensitive), and then you switched out cartridges. And since it was less common to use 5 inch paper, we would only have one cartridge for it. For example, with 6 inch paper, we had two cartridges. So one went out, you just switch it with the other and then refill that one at your convenience, and you'd always have at least one ready to go. But with 5 inch, if that went out, that meant you had to switch it right then and there. Secondly, it used a completely different block than the 35 mm film. These things were heavy, and they were delicate, and yeah, switching them out took time. Another annoyance with printing these things was the variable picture size. Most notably, there was the panoramic mode. Well, usually this would be set by mistake, and the customer would want us to correct it because they didn't want these long print that looked pretty terrible. Overriding the APS printing settings was challenging, because the old... I think it was a Gretag machine, but I could be wrong (it was German, that much I remember), was very much a manual process. So imagine prom weekend. We're slammed because everybody has their photos, and back in 2006, there were still a ton of people using 35 mm film. I'm working the counter, and helping customers and also running the machine and keeping everything running smoothly. APS did nothing but just slowed everything down. I never understood why we supported APS film. The amount of equipment it required and the headaches it gave wasn't really worth it. Even on a busy day, if we got more than 3 people with APS film, it would be a surprise. Thank God for digital. Although I did enjoy handling 35 mm film. It was really cool. And it is kind of cool to know how to operate and maintain a machine nobody uses anymore.
Sending the unit to the fan who sent you the film is SUPER nice of you! Good job being a great content creator!
Fun fact: Modern digital SLR cameras are still modelled after the APS format. This is where the APS-C, and APS-H sensor sizes come from. So even after all these years, APS lives on, albeit in a different incarnation.
Can we make Phil a mod.
I've been in the photofinishing business for over 20 years. This film really peaked in popularity in the late 90's, early 2000's. It was tedious and complex to process and print this film. Many things could go wrong. You had a device that would take the APS film and transfer it to a intermediary cartridge. Depending on the film processor, you either had to tape it or punch holes in it for the leader card. Once the film is processed, you had to use a device to roll it back into the original APS cartridge. These steps of transferring the film back and forth would increase the chances of film getting exposed or damaged.
Hey Phil, is it possible that you work as a voice actor? I could swear i heard your voice in my final exam in germany. ( topic had been Hawaii) looking forward hearing from you. greetings, Tim
What a bunch of hassle! Techmoan you're a hero.
is there a way to watcj old 35 mm picture film like this? i mean is there the same kind of device?
LGR needs this
You have the makings for an arty novel with this one!
Is that young Trump second from the left on @17:26 ? :P
I still have my Canon IX SLR camera that uses APS film that lasted me until 1999 when I bought my first digital camera the Fujifilm MX-1200 (which cost be £200 then!).
Let no-one ever say you don't go the extra mile for your viewers!
I'd of thought that you'd be able to just pop the APS cart straight in to your viewer without getting it processed?
Bloody hell. I mean, Flipping Heck!
Funny, i was thinking about the Bladerunner scene just as you mentioned it. I always wanted a device like that ever since i saw it.
Haha I owned (probably still do in the loft) an APS camera and rather liked it. I have loads of developed APS cartridges kicking about, I would have been happy to send a developed one over so you could try it out. Presumably one developed twenty years ago will have the correct data layer.
Wow! This brought some long lost memories back!
Thumbs up for the effort. I wonder how that background music is generated... sounds a little like Tracker Module, but could be generated digitally.
I've still got a Fuji 4000SL, and it took the best photos I've seen from APS. The compacts usually had horrendous colour shifts which I haven't even been able to properly sort in photoshop.
The background music almost sounds like Pokemon Red or Blue for the Game boy Color.
Jesus. I absolutely loved my aps camera at the time. I have loads of these films left Over to this day. A trip down the developers may be in order.
It's been cut out and spooled on to a 35mm leader, the film stock is the same process as conventional 35mm colour negative film, I guess they've done a bit of fiddling in a changing bag and spooled it on to a 35mm empty cartridge. I do see why, essentially you've taken them a dead format to them and they have done what they can and recovered the images, as well as generating prints as requested so I wouldn't be so hard on them. It's akin to fiddling around with tape reels to play back a tape on a machine it strictly wasn't designed for. The other thing to consider if the film was rewound on to the APS inner it would have been unrecoverable without destroying it for the user, loose film at least can be examined and archived. Honours-even I think here, I wouldn't be so hard on the first lab. Interesting video though Mat and well done on the tenacity about getting the whole thing done.
Mat I think you'd quite enjoy taking photographs with old cameras actually... I've gotten into analog photography in the past year or so, I'm not even from that era so to speak, I remember being sent off into the store to deposit my mother's film rolls or those throw-away cameras that were popular for kids back then, but nothing like medium format box-cameras and the sort. I've bought myself a Kodak No 1A model D online and taken pictures with it. It used sort of medium format but the type that's just a tad bigger and longer, which no longer is made, so I've made some spacers to fit smaller and still common medium format in it and went out and made pictures. Important to make sure the bellows (which are red and thus look epic) are light-tight but oh man the results are awesome. The camera was made before the titanic sank in the first place but the pictures it takes really don't look out of place, just the shutter speed is what limits your ability to take decent pictures, but adds to the charm either way. After that (or before I don't quite remember) I asked my grandfather if he still had a box-camera and he did, the same exact one my grandmother used to take pictures with which I've got digital copies of, sure enough after taking pictures I noticed it had the same lens-flaws like blurry edges as the ones made in the 50's when she bought the thing. One hilarious thing was that I happened to take a picture from the exact same spot as the one she made in the 50's, even the flaws matched up. It's the whole process which put a big smile on my face, I've gotten that stuff developed in a shop but I'm nearing the self-developing stage which is a whole new adventure on its own. All in all it's great stuff, recently I've gotten hold of 2 professional large format cameras and some large format lenses which in many ways beat any modern camera you throw at it, let alone for that price. You'd definitely enjoy something like that, I'm sure of it.
Techmoan You might consider a medium format range finder camera and slide projector.
I do think I'd enjoy it more with some other cameras. APS with it's expired films and problematic processing isn't the way to go. I have got some more analog - (is that the right word?) film stuff planned. I bought a couple of old cameras recently.
Will you ever review the original PSP 1000-3000? Mini UMD disk, tons of component add ons, basic wifi connectivity, ability to stream to and from a PS3, ect. Btw Love your videos!
Hi Techmoan, love your work keep going, I just wanna let you know that theres currently a Sony CV-2000 on ebay right, heres the link https://m.ebay.com/itm/Sony-Model-CV-2000-Solid-State-Videocorder-Vintage-Video-Recorder-TCV-2010/163106265562?hash=item25f9e419da:g:SHkAAOSw3tBbKVK0
Thanks for this time warps to the APS days! In about 2001 I took a few snaps with my Ixus in Brazil and friends asked me if they could see the pics. So I tried to get the film processes in the South of Brazil. In the photo shop they said processing was going to take one week most of which was going to be shipping to São Paul for processing and back - by which time I already meant to be back in Europe. So I switched to a Digital Ixus as my first camera. Boy, did the pictures back then fill up hard drives :) What's left from those days is a small pile of APS film collected during the short time I was using APS. Unfortunately any decent scanner only seems to accept 35mm films or negatives. So I'm wondering what the best option to get all film scanned, preferably with the date and time information on the film are?
Man, I feel old. I used to develop this film. Alongside 35mm. 8X10, 5X7, all that.
I didn't know these or the scanners existed. I have films that would play, plus unused films and some cameras. I can't believe they did that to one film. Could you do a video on Kodak Photo CD?
definitely reminds Bladerunner :-)
Ahh fujifilm. Even today my fave general film is Fuju superia. Shame Fuji are discontinuing most of their films and going the all digital route. Oh well guess I will have to stock up on Superia and then find an alternative from Kodak which are doing the opposite to Fuji
Sadly, I can't give you 2 thumbs up as Google wo - Google ??? "YouTube" won't let me... AKA Google. Loved the happy ending after all that strife ! At least we know why you're bald now ;)
You are right about the importance of printing out our digital images. Thx for the reminder.
July 12 is my b-day
The Canon was my first digital camera as well.
Could you please talk about the Digitnow BR612A turntable? It’s like the sound burger but without a lid.
I had an APS camera. It was great for its time. I never got the box like yours. Every time I got film developed they would provide a photo disk.
This reminds me of the 1968 Motorola EVR Video Film Player , http://www.labguysworld.com/Motorola_EVR.htm
Aw, people of the past were so quaint, bless em.
I still do often print out photos myself and the family have taken, even though it's only maybe 0.001% of the total photos taken I still like to keep an album of the photos I really like.
I still have one of this machine. And as a kid it was sooo great to "play" with it :D I think it still works and the APS cartridges should also still be fine ^^
Yes! Bladerunner! "Give me a hard copy right there"
Yes! Love it that you are sending it back to Phil!!!
Can you review the Jensen SCR-68C Portable Stereo Cassette Player? I'd like to see your opinion on it!
In my opinion the film grain makes these photos look much nicer than digital photos. So nostalgic!
Wow, you score 11 out of 10 for determination. I really enjoyed the video report.
I work at a photo lab that STILL processes APS film, and we do still return the negatives in the APS cartridge. We really dislike the format, honestly. All the machines and equipment most labs had and still have are designed around 35mm or medium format film. APS is just a bunch of extra steps for a less quality photograph. Fuji, Konica, Kodak, Agfa etc etc wasted a TON of money on a film format to "bridge" film and digital and it was a mess. Hindsight is 20/20, I suppose.
You old nutter
While the film no longer exists, plenty of digital cameras are still made with an APS-C sensor, which is probably so named because it's the same ratio to a full-frame sensor as the APS film was to 35mm film.
...so the thing has an audio chip and audio out literally just to play annoying background music and cheesy SFX? Lolwhy?
03:20 could actually also be the 7th of December 1996. Stupid mankind invented multiple ways to say dates with no standard worldwide ;)
So were the APS-C sensors of today's cameras were named because of this film format?
Those sound effects!
I used to have a Kodak APS camera, got it as an Xmas present in 2001, i still have it but not used it for about 10 years. It was a cracking little camera. I used to get the card with all the photos on it but the cartridges are all long gone. I still have all the photos though. Stopped using it as i got a mobile with a camera on it.
It boggles the mind that Techmoan doesn't have more subscribers. The time and energy that went into producing just this one video are remarkable. Many thanks!
Seems like its more trouble than its worth...
The puppets! Where are the bloody puppets! (Whats for tea mama)...
Thanks for that fascinating glimpse into the collision between film and digital photography. :)
APS - wow that was a blast from the past. As always great review!
Next can you make a review on the QFX J-7 cassette player
It was nice to work with in the lab as well, there was a standalone device that retrieved the leader automatically.
dude. are you rich or something?
I remember when that system was new and when we updated the processing lab to a new, smaller hi-tech machine that could develop the film and scan and print it too (Gretg/San Marco Master 10). The film scanner was the most impressive part of it as it could scan 135, 110 and aps film, with the latter automatically detecting the photographer's choses aspect ratio. Then aps died and later we updated to a new system, a dry lab, and all the aps gubbins was thrown out. Of course, we still get the occasional aps film in to develop which is straightforward enough, however, the scanning has to be done on a flatbed scanner because, while tedious it's still cheaper than sending it out to be dev'd and scanned.
kool
VERY interesting! Thanks for all your efforts. Lucky Phil)))
Aww yeah that really rings my bell.
Moved home in October 2017, and found my APS camera in a box. With a full film in there too. Absolutely nobody wanted it, so it went in the bin, sadly. I really liked my APS camera
This is interesting as ive been taking aps photos since 2015. I found a camera back in 2012 and found film at a private photo lab that they restock somehow. Luckily im in United States so they still have all the equip to develop these with all the data at dwaynes photo. Its a pretty good film format despite it being only 24mm
What was cool about APS is that if you were shooting 200ASA and wanted to switch to 1000ASA you could do that mid-roll (on at least some camera models)! Putting the half used cartridge back in the camera it would be fast forwarded to the correct spot on the roll to starting shooting again!
16:30 Copyright strike incoming from Fujifilm for the music track....
What a headache. Few people are broken enough to subject themselves to this nightmare. This is why Teachmoan rules.
I'd love to see Dave from EEVBlog take this one apaaaht. I'm curious what kind of graphics processing hardware it's running.
I don't think the problem was the magstripe data, which was completely optional for both exposure and developments. If I had to take a guess I'd say the light leak on your film was the actual problem - it would have darkened the leader, and I bet it tells the difference between normal negatives and a cleaning cartridge, which would of course be opaque. Those cassettes were pretty leakproof though, and as a former cowboy minilab operator myself I'm willing to bet the guy who did it was using one of those old cheap manual film extractors and didn't seat the cartridge properly when extracting the leader (had the cassette itself leaked you'd have seen a completely different pattern).
super nintendo BGM machine it would be nice if this was in 35mm
I actually really like this; it probably would have been the coolest thing ever at the time. In fact, it almost makes APS seem like a good idea...!
Like a dog with a bone, never give up, never surrender! Great video as usual. Thanks.
I still have my slide projector and all of my slides from the seventies.
Great video. When are you going to do a Sony trinitron crt video. A Sony bvm monitor :) And the Sony lbt range hifis from the early 00s late 90s
You should check out GD-ROMs.
Now, Phil's friends can watch all of the slideshows, unable to escape. Unable to run. My god.... what have you done. ;)
The music sounds like an RPG game from the Game Boy era!
Hey Mat, did you know there's this game called Firewatch where in the middle of the game you got a fun saver camera thing that you can use in game to capture the game scenery, and later when you finish the game you can ask the game developer to develop the image you took in-game for $15 and send it to your address. I thought I'd share this since we both loved physical photo, I adore it more than just looking at my display.
Oh yes, APS. I always had this habit of picking every piece of advertisement and free publications, and back then when I was a kid I used to pick some free magazines that were outside a photo studio and they talked about this new system called APS. I was instantly captivated by it and its then-advanced capabilities. I really loved those magazines (I read them times and times) and I craved for an APS camera, although I never got one.
Some position here :(. I just special ordered a bunch from B and H after I heard about it. It's all I've ever shot besides some expired film. I'm glad I started shooting it before it will become hard to find. What do you suppose will fill the Walmarts and other superstores that carry film as Fuji seems to be all they carry? Do you think the convenience will be lost of going to the store to buy some film or they will start ordering Kodak? By the way I mean packs of film, not the single rolls that have prices through the roof.
Techmoan can you do some kitchen items once more ?
I would also like it if you shared the tactile experience of it.
I've got a dozen of those APS cartridges. I never knew there was a slideshow machine. Good idea.
I think this device could have been more popular back then if it also allowed you to use it as a film scanner for the computer. Since it digitally scans the film anyway, It shouldn't have been too difficult to add a digital interface (probably SCSI) for the computer..
This is one of those videos in which one can really feel the effort put into the production. Thanks!
I did a few trips with an APS camera in 2002. Cant believe I completely forgot about this tech. I remember paying $120 to develop a number of rolls.
Kodak was always trying some different format. 126, 110, disc (remember those?) and this APSOne thing in common was that after a while they stopped supporting their products. At least 35mm is still around, digital hasn't completely wiped it out.
I'm just waiting till that background jingle gets remixed into Vaporwave music.
Ah this brings back memories! I had an APS SLR for some reason. I must have the negatives somewhere. There is something very stuck in the middle pre-digital about this tech, like VHS machines with indexing systems just before hard disk DVRs came out.
you should've gone for the canon IX or minolta vectis dslr camera 'svway back when I was actually contemplating to buy one, lucky I never did... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minolta_Vectis_S_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_EOS_IX
Video Suggestion: Magneplanar speakers. I just saw some online and thought of your channel. Would also love to see some more guides like you did way back when for reel to reel. Grounding is one of those things that baffles me and I can't find a good video on. Also, just buying receivers and turntables would be great.
Omg, this was painful to watch hahah. Good job I guess :P Keep em coming mate
I never understood how camera designers/manufacturers could have ever thought that making the film frame size smaller was ever a good thing. I made the mistake of buying one of those "disc-film" cameras when they first came out, and the frame size was so tiny(8mm x 10mm!) that any images taken were super-grainy and poor.
one of the most annoying machines ever created.
That hoekey background music lol
APS would have been HUGE in 1985!
I still have my old cheap APS camera, a Fujifilm Fotonex 20 Auto. Hasn't been used since 2002, and there is a partly used film still in it - this video has made me want to get the film developed now, if only to see what is on the 5 photos from 16 years ago!
That's kinda cool. I have a bunch of APS film around here somewhere from the mid 90s to mid 2000s. I'd be afraid that the machine would damage the negatives taking the film in and out of the cartridge though.
PLEASE MUTE THE MUSIC MATE
I think APS was a fairly good format, it just came out too late. Digital cameras came out only a couple of years later. Ironically in this video, the APS Canon ixus looks more modern than its digital relation!
APS was doomed from the start. Back in the mists of time, I worked in a Kodak processing factory, and compared to the volumes of 35mm film that used to come in, APS was barely there. This was in the late 90s, before digital was even on the average consumer/holiday snapper's radar. It was basically 110 film in a fancy new cartridge with some extra bells and whistles. The sophistication of the format contributed to its failure, as demonstrated in the video above, a bunch of extra equipment was needed, not just for the consumer, but also the processing facilities, who had to spend a small fortune on the machines used to splice the films together for processing and then load them back into the cartridges afterwards. It is possible, however, to get good photos out of such a small format if a half-decent camera is used. Pentax made a high-quality SLR for 110 film. Most serious shooters would have just opted to continue using their 35mm SLRs and not move over to APS. Most of the APS cameras were basic point n' shoot jobs with low quality lenses. 125 and 120 film survived because the infrastructure was already there, and was simple to use, develop and store. Back in the 90s when I worked there, Kodak used to offer a free Photo CD with every developed film. When the format first arrived, most people had nothing to play them on, as their home PC (if they had on) usually didn't have a CD drive, and they didn't want to pay money for a Photo CD player.
Wouldn’t that be December 7 1996 ???
I remember hearing about this and the ludicrous way they handled doing landscape by throwing away visual information -- against it from day one.
Back in 1999 I got a Minolta APS camera as a gift. After developing the film I got the cardridge back. I had no clue why until I saw this video. Thnx Techmoan!
When analogue met digital.
APS, lol......I’d forgotten about that format!
Wow, that’s just like my Instagram.
I hated my aps camera so much I slammed it on my sidewalk
You might enjoy instant film. I really enjoyed shooting Fujifilm Instax wide film on a lomography wide camera. I mean again it's not going to be exactly as the quality you get with digital but it's not bad and also there are some printers that will print onto the Instax film but not the big film.
Another ace video!
Fantastic episode! Classic Techmoan!
So, so satisfying that finally you got the thing to work! Thank goodness for that signature Techmoan persistence!
That's the machine I least expect to see a Yamaha YM2413 FM synthesizer being used in. But it totally makes sense and I love it.
I had a Canon APS SLR camera then...... I loved the format especially the way you could change the aspect framing, but I was also disappointed by the grainy image quality. It wasn’t a patch on a roll of traditional 35mm slide film so I ended up going back to slide transparencies or a few years till 2002 when I bit the digital bullet and bought myself a Canon 60D DSLR of a (then) massive 6.4mp sensor! The memory cards were extremely expensive though being CF cards, I had to save a bit more up for an IBM 1GB Microdrive to put inside it. Oh how cameras and their memory cards have evolved since then! Can also remember my very first digital camera I bought from Maplins Electronics. Some odd Far Eastern brand which I unfortunately can’t remember now, but it was simply marked as VGA resolution...... (off the top of my head I’d say that’s about half a mb or there abouts. It literally ate four AA batteries.... they only lasted an hour or so if you kept previewing the image but the funniest thing I can remember was taking it up Snowdon one morning. This guy at the top said “Here, let me take your photo for you” which I thanked him for and passed it to him. “It’s all ready, just press the button I replied” He duly pressed it n the camera just beeped..... “Is that it? “ he looked at us in disbelief... “Yup. It’s digital I smiled” “What? No click, no motor wind.... Digital? Are you taking the P***?” looking at me gone out. So, I took his photo with it and showed him the screen on the back..... he just waked away is utter disbelief swearing and muttering under his breath whilst we were literally rolling about the top of the mountain.... And now we take them for granted like using our mobiles as cameras now and not even having to edit them- just a few taps and it’s out for the world to see on social media. I wonder what the next twenty years will bring us all technology wise :)
Audio Out - LOL
I work at Walmart and yes we still do film developing but we send it to a processing facility in South Carolina where they send it back over the Internet and just throw the negatives in the trash.
I remember aps. Also remember losing interest immediately because of smaller film size.
Absolutely fascinating to see this. As a Canon using professional photographer at the time the APS system first came out, I bought an EOS iX body, which took all my existing EOS lenses. I actually used it professionally to take sample images for a photo finishing client, and the quality was really rather good. Film had a maximum speed of 200ASA, so subjects had to be correctly lit for the best results. The Kodak avantix filmstock had quite a wide exposure latitude, so you could still get reasonably good results from negatives underexposed by a stop or so.
I was avid adopter of the APS format when I lived in the UK and the main advantages then were that you could swap out the film part way through if you wanted to switch to a different type (black and white or different speed). The other benefit at that time was that if you were part way through a film you could remove it prior to passing the camera through an X-ray scanner at the airport. We did a fair bit of travelling back then and some of the airports had old scanners that would destroy film. So there were some real benefits to the format, at least I thought so at the time.
Still using APS film a lot (just for fun). I've got Kodak FD300 film drive (scanner which looks like ext HDD), Minolta Vectis S-1 pro SLR and various lens for it, AP-1 player like in video - all what would make a high-end APS setup back then, just for ~40 EUR in total. The film is easy to find for cheap on ebay - expired but works pretty well. S-1 SLR make a very good job - sharp pics, high contrast, you would not really see so much difference over 35mm. Here in Austria it is still easy to develop it - just like 35mm, in any cheap chain store which have photo lab, and they do it properly with all magnetic info etc + optionally scan it for you. I've made 5 rolls 40 pic each so far and still have another 10 rolls in the freezer - which are waiting for some sun and my free time.....
Back in the days when photos actually meant something.
This is brilliant. You have such a knack of making fascinating videos out of subjects that I'd not usually be drawn to. Also, that was a lovely gesture giving the unit to Phil.
Yeah Phil is The Guy
Whew finally after all that effort and you managed to get some outside help! Nicely done! RIP APS!
You have so many interesting devices that I never realized existed, though I was around when they were being used.
This is most enjoyable. Really, I'm ecstatic at the moment.
Q: What are you doing, mate? A: Oh, I'm just composing some tunes for a slideshow machine.
13:08 - the aspect ratio of the TV looks wrong (check out the 'round' signs)
who on earth would buy such a crap at their time of releasing? only somebody who takes pictures every week and shows it to people every week. probably a lector to students etc. but on the average joe has no need for such a thing.
I had a basic APS camera, but when I had the film developed, Wal-Mart would never crop the film that I took in widescreen.
This makes me want to murder people. Oh well, here I go, killing again!
I love the nostalgia this channel brings. I also love the pioneering tech that was truly innovative years ago, in contrast to today where it's mostly expansion or improvement.
We must be similar ages, I have the hardest time explaining to people the concept of "better". Nowadays kids are into "retro" and they really can’t understand why I’d want a 20MP photo printed in a piece of paper. To them, digital belongs with digital, analog belongs with analog. I tell them they’re playing the same old "this vs.that game". Find the best versions and go with that. Sure there's all the fun and novelty of old things if you’ve never seen them before, but as you’ve shown again and again, it usually wears thin very quickly. Appreciation is one thing, day to day use is another.
Ah, yes, APS. I used to have an Ixus just like the one in the video and have a few rolls which have proven to be a royal pain to get into my scanner (which does 135 and 120 film just fine). Not only because it's too narrow for my film holders but also because the film has lived in its cartridge for 15+ years and keeps curling up so badly that it's almost impossible to get sharp scans.
Get a old Zeiss super ikonta a Weston master and your own darkroom
Feeling nostalogic
2.1 Mega Pixel. How time flies.
@12:23 It is perhaps good that Phil provided some travel photos instead of the series with the wife swap.
diagnose essentially independence video entire mixture think personnel massive cry.
Please do a video on the Kodak's photo CDs. They were a similar concept to this slide show for TVs but they came on CD. You mailed in your 35mm film to Kodak and got back your negatives and a CD. But the CD's could ONLY be played on Kodak's special player for your TV. Yes the player also played music CDs as well.
Glad this format died a death. Every camera I had kept on breaking.
Fantastic episode. Thanks!
Fun fact - a lot of DSLRs today are still using the APS size for their sensors
Pretty funny. That Nikon Nuvis 75i at 18:16 is the one i had. Not a bad camera, but i stopped using it after a couple of years, because it all of a sudden cost almost twice the the price of what it used to cost for developing a APS film.
@12:23 It is good that Phil provided a roll of travel photos instead of a roll from the wife swap series.
I used to have one I bought in NY in the middle 90s
Great Video!!! I'd have LOVED this 20 years ago!!!
Actually, there where developed software as well for both MAC, PC and Linux, which made you able to watch these photo CD's using your computer. One such software is IrfanView, which is a free image viewer for PC's and still being developed, which means you can get a 32 and 64-bit version of it.
off topic: I was first complaining about how there was an ad first.. until I noticed it was an ad for a place I used to work at ^^
I have one of those aps film cameras and my local Walgreens a drug and photo store in the us dosent develop aps any more but they do 35mm
Due to my age, I used film cameras for a really short time, however, I always like exploring fairly old electronics and the Fujifilm AP-1 is no exception. Thanks Techmoan for another awesome episode
Some 7 years ago I remember buying a few APS cartridges that were being sold out (expired) just to know how it feels to shoot it - a bit previously had bought a cheap pns camera for the in fleamarket. Weird format. At that time it was still easy to get it developed, and there were new film too that could have been bought. I don't think they're still made any more... Though still I think local labs would accept the film to developed, as chemistry is same C-41 and they most likely still use old minilabs from 90s that accept the format.
to me the biggest aps legacy is the sensor format on most entry dslr :D Compact camera for general public would have appeared anyway since there's a demand for it since the beginning of popular photography... but then... smartphone ;)
“Gimme a hardcopy, right there.” (Play this while viewing the photos: k3fz6CC45ok?t=58m14s)
I am watching this one day short of 22 years lol. I like printed photos as well
10 years ago i bought a CanoScan 9000. It served very well to scan slides and films. It came with many film holders. Of course the AP-1 is an old dinosaur compared to that, but it is interesting to see how this has evolded.
The only good thing the APS format did was force film producers to improve the quality of the film. So 35mm film got a boost in picture quality where for example an 800iso film had the same grain quality as an older pre aps 400 iso film. Alas digital took over and I lost interest in photography mainly because it was dot bomb and I had priorities looking for work. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I bought my first digital camera having rediscovered photography as a hobby with smart phone cameras. It was around 2014 when I thought the technology to taken excellent quality photos was cheap enough to dive into.
I had an APS camera... best camera I had until digital came along. In the beginning (1995,) there was only one store in Brighton that would develop them. One of the things you have missed is that they were the first photo format that allowed you get your pics on CD, normal photos did this a few years later. In the video you problems developing the film.... I had some reprints done by a local Brighton shop for an exhibition and no issues.
Thank you MATT. Thank you Phil, too! Excellent par usual, Matt. I was hoping to see a childish clip featuring certain puppets though. Bonjour du Canada and have a great day! I wonder what you' find at fleamarkets, garage sales and thrift shops.. Yeeah yeah, car boot sales, charity shops and Yee Olde Shoppe for you. Lol Maybe make a presentation or video of ressurections for us 'Moanies'. Lol
I had to look closer at picture number 15. Seemed a bit weird from a distance.
wow this seems like quite finicky tech
My inner hipster loves the look of the expired film.
Very bladerunner. Thought I could see a snakeskin in there somewhere.
A future where all your devices play MIDI jingles!
I have to agree about holding a physical picture, but I'm definitely going to use 35mm film
What a stupid machine that tries to be clever! Reminds me of people of a similar ilk. Thanks Techmoan for the heroic effort making this video and keeping your cool throughout.
16:21 aren't those dashes supposed to symbolize 7 and 5 values? Thanks for uploading this Grandiose fiasco.
Wait a minute, August 2017? you telling me the production of this video took almost a year? Holy shit.
Who would have thought we'd already be talking about 90's tech as "vintage" great episode!
I can get enough of these videos! Thanks for another great video!
Aren't you good sending Phil that machine
I had one roll of this film from the very early noughties...I took in to the drug store about a year ago and had it "re-developed" so they could scan it at the same time and make a picture CD for me...totally don't miss conventional film at all! LOL
It seems like only yesterday that I bought my Mum one of these cameras. She told me that its not possible to get the film anymore. Quite ridiculous.
I recently printed out my digital America pictures at Jessops, but too late I found out they were darker than intended, and what's more, it seems to be a common problem. Does that photo printer solve the problem, Tech?
The Canon Ixus was my first digital camera
Another rare piece of technology is a 126 cartridge SLR camera. Kodak's was compatible with all their Retina Reflex SLR lenses, but didn't support all the features of all the lenses like a 35mm Retina camera would. A few other companies made 126 SLRs. There's a reusable 126 cartridge specifically made to hold 135 film. It's called FAKMATIC. Load it up in a proper darkroom (or light tight room and work by feel) then shoot pics.
That was really cool of Phil to bring this video to life. He even had some decent scenery on there for us to see, so he gets double bonus points.
You certainly do go the extra mile for your videos. I would probably have given up after the first film was returned sans cartridge. Nice job. You've got a new subscriber.
You should use this for somebody's funeral lol.
A lot of work to get this video done! We appreciate it!
It would have been interesting to see what the developer did.
I used these years ago, i remember the development markings on the sides, thought very advanced at the time.
Were you on holidays in Guadeloupe or Martinique ?
I now hate photos.
I worked in a Boots photo lab until 2010 when it was closed down and I would get around only 1 or 2 APS films per month even then when they were still in production. We had all of the correct equipment for dealing with them though and would return the processed cartridge to the customer.
This type of device would have been great for displaying 8mm cinefilm on the tv.
I think my mum had an el cheapo APS camera fifteen-twenty years ago
Don't take your film to the local pharmacy or grocery, they're all stooges and monkeys. Send it out somewhere good, like Dwaynes, or they'll do it wrong and scratch your negatives
I love that outro song.
Wow, actually impressed with the photo quality looked very high res after the digital conversion, actually kind of impressive
Thanks for covering this, I was wondering if you would cover APS. It came out when I was in my early teens and my friends and I thought it was amazing at the time - the conventional film cameras your parents owned were too expensive to be lent to you and we lacked confidence threading film, but with APS you could just buy a cartridge and satisfyingly click it into place. However, judging by your video, it looks as though the complexity was just transferred from the customer to the developer! I went through a ridiculous number of the things on holidays between 1999 and 2001, but then digital cameras came along and killed them as you say. The panorama shots were mind-blowing at the time - we didn't realise they were cut down from a larger image and just knew we had never seen anything like this before. I've been scanning in a lot of my photos from this era and, much as you say, the quality is decent though they often need the colours enhancing with scanner software (so it wasn't just your films being expired). I had a couple of cases of light getting in as happened to your photos, and once when spray from Niagara Falls had...interesting effects on that cartridge.
Dixon’s Sheffield
My favourite thing about this hardware is the sound it makes when you zoom in to the photos; I'm surprised the music got mention, but nothing about the background noises
I've recently gone through old physical photos to hand them to my lawer. Holding them made me aware of how detached from reality I am, as well as a great sense of loss. Kind regards from Buenos Aires!
AWESOME that you gave the player to Phil, good karma as well. Nicely done!
The first time I got a roll developed from me Kodak Advantix camera, I was in for a shock. I had taken many photos on the Panoramic mode, and so the developer processed them as such, charging me for panoramic prints. That was pretty expensive!....but I did enjoy the large prints. :) I still have a couple of developed rolls in the storage box with the index prints.
19:02 Valencia!
Poor old Phil. He tries to help someone out but ends up being treated as a WEEE disposal company. Maybe Techmoan could publish Phil's address, I have an old VCR and a shed load of batteries I need to get rid of. Thanks Phil!
A note on developing the film, I work for the printing company in question and all APS films need to be sent off to be done unless the particular store has a minilab in (which isn't many of them). However you're correct on the developing that you would've received the roll back so you may have just got unlucky with the shop assistant. I did also previously work at another printing company and printed APS films occasionally and the developing process does require the film to be removed from the spool for the chemical process and reattached afterwards before printing. Clearly the worker at the head office branch at my current company made a bit of an error.
Aggggh that muzac
Kind of a useless machine... You get your photos developed, you put them in your album and you can look at them anytime you want for free. This requires you to buy the machine, hook it up and put the film in it. And I'm pretty sure the reliability of these things wasn't big... And the awful 8-bit background music just takes the cake. If I had one of those, first thing I would have done is cut off the audio cable. Still an interesting thing. I love this channel. I love quirky and weird gadgets and electronics from the past.
used to work in a photo lab developing aps and 35mm etc.. aps where a total nightmare because of the return feature,the catridge had to be kept in a storage cylinder during the film extraction,something would always go worng every 20 - 30 films and youd have a catridge out of sequence and throw everything out,the tech was over complicated and poorly though out too they used to take an age and a day to print the photos! the index cards were printed seperatly too and theyd be a problem as well, but the worst was the prints if anyone remebers they had info printed on the back, the ink used in the back printer used to get you high as f@ck and not in a good way
Aps is not developed in the cartdrige but outside the cartridge on a roll with many aps films spliced together. After printing a desplicer cuts the film from the roll and put it back into the original film box. I worked 15 years till 2004 at kodak photolab in Holland and worked on printing the aps among 135 film various printsizes .
Ho wait a miniute . that is not a aps cartdridge but a 35 mm one.you should have gotten the aps box with film in it. Probably they developed it themselves and the splicer and desplicers are not there anymore ?
that background music aged pretty fast for me
Very nice and interesting to see this video.... I'm from 1957 so, I grew up with all those gadgets!
Pleased that you sent Phil the player, that's a really nice thing to do. :D
So glad you finally found some working film rolls. Halfway thru the video I was about to head to the basement and get you a binder with a bunch of them in it ;)
Uuugh! What a painful experience :-(
Hahahaha funny video :p
I shoot with an APS-C dslr!!
Phil is definitely Jesus
I was born on May 27, 2001!
Finally a piece of ancient technology I can totally relate to
Eek! You've made me realise that I still have my original (and very early Ixus) APS camera in a box... With a small collection of equally old film carts.
I'm tempted to get one of the Fuji AP-1 players as I have a lot of developed rolls of APS film from back in the day. Also still hot a couple of APS cameras and lots of unexposed APS films which I've kept in cold storage in lead shielding bags. So, thanks for the warning about the limitations of today's processing labs with APS film.
Nice shots around Liverpool on the index sheet.
Question for all you tech savvy ones, as I am slightly less so: I have a modern TV that I use in my bedroom. I have it for my Xbox 360, but also play some older PS1 and 2 games as well (I'm getting a PS4 soon). That said, it's only a 22" TV, made by a company called Walker - therefore, it's cheap and somewhat lower quality. The settings only enable me to increase the sharpness to 15, which, on this TV, leaves the image a little bit blurry, and not as crisp and sharp as I'd like it to be, especially for movies. Any way I could override the settings? Is there a secret menu, or some random shit like that? I know it sounds very stupid, but I know some TVs have optional features that can be accessed outside of the basic menu. I was just wondering. Should I just get a HDMI cable? Thanks, and apologies for the lack of television knowledge - I'm more computer and console savvy than anything else.
Where are my fellow 90's brothers and sisters these millennials will never understand the 90's and how everything that was made for us was gold! From movies like terminator 2 , pulp fiction, and snatch, to the very best best of nickalodeon, we had playstation 1, which started the greatest era in gaming, we didn't play online with strangers, we played the first mortal kombat with our friends, we subscribed to underground magazine which gave us a demo of upcoming ps1 games, inside of the magazine! While u millenials play games on ur cell phones during lunch break we played golden eye on Nintendo 64, we had the very first computers, and our ears would ring to the sound of our 56k modems connecting through our america online instant messenger praying to hear "youve got mail" we had arguably next to the 80's the greatest era.of music in all freaking genres! That u millenials have still never heard, we didn't have a buncha of our friends hugging trees to gather around and save the ocean' we gathered around at discovery zone and hugged our moms , then went home to watch total request live , u guys got 3 bad Jurassic park movies, we had the first and greatest one, we didn't have call of duty we had Sega channel, we didn't have high speed internet we had speeds that kept us glued to our computers all nite patiently watching our songs get downloaded , we 90's kids didn't have cell phones.with 1000s of songs on the go, we were pirating music through napster, ,We had the first and only saddamm Hussain axis of evil collectible gulf war deck of cards , we didn't have laptops, we had Texas instrument calculators, , everything from Tommy Hilfiger, to fubu, to the rise of Steve madden shoes,, to the fall of john gotti , we got to wait in line for 2pac albums, we didn't have viral videos, the very first viral video we saw. was the rodney king beating ,,we witnessed a white rapper named eminem and his hilarious rise to fame, black men wernt getting murdered every day either,, they were getting acquitted of double homocide of white victims which brought us the greatest most entertaining murder trial Ever of oj Simpson and getting found not guilty , we saw the greatest basketball player to ever play the sport Micheal Jordan...live! And the greatest era of the wwe where we would wait patiently every Monday night for stone cold to woop some ass on Monday night raw we didn't go home and binge watch Netflix we went home at exactly the exact time our favorite shows started, we had it all in the 90,'s Saturday morning xmen, darkwing duck, beavis n butthead , ren and stimpy, are you afraid of the dark, the very first teen shows like 90210 to the greatest show about nothing SEINFELD we started web forums of the very first truthers movment with shows like the xfiles, we 90's kids didn't have mp3 players we had cd players we would take to school with a stack of our favorite music. Not to mention the fact that when we went to nirvana or limp biscuit concerts or even Micheal Jackson concerts we had our eyes glued to the performers, we wernt watching the concert through our non existent cell phones, ahhhhhh the 90's what a time Best of all things Disney from lion king to toy story, to Aladdin , then 2001 came ,brought war, shitty music, and more war, terrorism, more problems in the world, ..sucks 4 u millenials the 90's was a time of innocence for us we were to excited for what we had at the time to care about anything serious ......did I mention Mike Tyson ppv's?...u guys wouldn't understand lol
17:00 Iceland?
Looks like Martinique. The cast iron church tower.
to buy a whole freakin scanner just to watch your pics on tv!!!! and it is not aimed a pro market
wow. so complicated and so useless. couldn't they foresee it would go obsolete in a snap?
I like the sounds it makes when you are zooming. Sounds like maybe 2 OP FM?
That reminds me I have an APS film scanner that you plug in though your printer port I bought for $5 at a swap meet. I need to see if that thing works hah.
This-story-really-made-me-smile!
APS is a picture mode setting on my TV works great for all content where as some settings were horrible for movies total soap opera effect
I got a lot of mileage out of a 1998 Kodak point and shoot Advantix. Man I loved this thing. Convenient and easy to use. I don’t recall the cost since I had several friends who worked in processing shops. Think I finally retired it in 2005.
Brought back memories this one did. I still actually have that exact camera in a box in the loft. Think I still have the box and everything for it. I bought it back in 1998 I think.
I had that Digi Ixus @ https://youtu.be/iTV99DzuJp0?t=100... I really wanted that DV cam corder back in the day too!
Argh, no, not that horrible JVC camcorder!
Those shots of Paris are quite neat all on their own. Quite different now.
2:40 -Thumbnail preview the analogue way :D but you got some real decent shoots off this APS point&shoot camera. APS still lives on C for "Classic" (25.1 × 16.7 mm; aspect ratio 3:2; 4×6" print) - it was the base factor for creating the APS-C digital format. Techmoan should check this out, the advantix preview has an lcd screen on it you can watch your images without this extra filmreader device https://www.ebay.com/itm/Kodak-Advantix-Preview-APS-Camera/142992305467?epid=54951683&hash=item214b016d3b:g:akMAAOSwa6Zbuitl:rk:4:pf:0
Ken Rockwell? Evil. EVIL. A stain on the photo community.
That Ixus logo looks a LOT like the Google Nexus logo
It sounds like pokemon music.
Am I the one who thinks the background music sounds like merry-go-round music
I still have my Canon ixus
But what if you plug the APS TV viewer from Fujifilm to a VCR and record it to VHS tape?
thank you for this humorous video mate :-) I especially love the music :-D
I bought my sister 3 of those mini Canon APS cameras, exactly as seen at 1:08 in the video. I tried to get her to learn how to thread a simple roll of 35 mm film into a regular camera and despite 12 attempts to try to teach her how to do it, she could never get it right. With the APS camera she had no problems popping in a new film roll. Unfortunately the camera would last 9 months and then just die. New batteries did not help, it was something mechanically that broke in each of those 3 cameras. So I got for her a new Canon SD 1100 IS digital camera back in 2007 and that's what she's been using ever since, going on 11 years now.
I had both Cameras at 1:34 , I moved from the APX to the Digital, 2.1, wasn't happy with the pictures, but it was convenient. then it died so I went back to the APX and got the film scanner .that helped to bridge the gap until digital caught up.
They should of had that music coming out of a internal pc speaker with no way of turning it off. That would of been a real treat lol
Thanks for your contribution. I have been searching about APS film for few weeks now. I have a question regarding this if you don't mind. How can take the images of APS films to PC?
I had an APS camera in the 90's! That thing was amazing to me after many years of dealing with 35 mm where you had to turn knobs for the film and worry about over exposure having something you just dropped in was pretty amazing to me!
I’m still using APS from time to time. When Kodak and later Fujifilm announced to discontinue APS film I purchased a bunch of fresh APS films and put them into my freezer at minus 28°C. Even imported some from the last production in Japan. My current stock in the freezer is most Fujifilm. Fujifilm ISO 200, 400 and 800 and also Kodak ISO200 and the B&W ISO 400 C41 processing. Somehow Fujifilm preserves better compared to Kodak. All went well just to the end of 2017. Now the Cewe lab does not develop APS anymore. It always took at least 2 weeks and I got the prints, the cartridge and a CD with digital files. I found a lab in Germany but also one in the UK. I’ve used the UK two times (3 rolls) and I get the cartridge back with prints only in the “C” format and also a CD with digital files (the full frame). It’s by mail order and goes fast. Having a Minolta Vectis 300, Contax T-iX and a funny Nexia Q1 Zoom (and some other too) I think the writing of the magnetic information on the cartridge not working is due to a fault with the camera. Just have put a cartridge that was handled in the UK lab and I can use the Minolta Vectis player without a problem. But when all the film in stock in the freezer is used it will be the end, or perhaps Lomography would start making film which I doubt, but you never know, they make now 110 pocket film in color negative, B&W, slide and red scale.
Your perseverance is amazing its a never give up attitude.
A few people have asked if I could share the audio - so I've put it all into this video - enjoy (?) https://youtu.be/g3nf-d_7o_s