APS Film and the 1990s TV Photo slideshow

In 1996 you could see your photos as a slideshow on your TV with the Fujifilm AP-1 APS photo viewer. Trying to re-create this experience in 2018 has proved to be much more difficult.
DPReview have also recently make a video about APS Film - you can see this here. • DPReview TV: A look ba...
The quick & easy photo enhancing software I demonstrated in the video is PhotoLemur - available for Win & MacOS from photolemur.com (This is not an advert or an affiliated link - I bought this software after seeing it recommended on MacBreak weekly)
Other videos mentioned in this one:
The review of my new printer that prints 'photos for pennies' : • Epson ET 7700 Ecotank ...
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[@Techmoan]

A few people have asked if I could share the audio - so I've put it all into this video - enjoy (?) kzbin.info/www/bejne/nWTRl2CalJyildU

[@KiraSlith]

Techmoan Let it be said, some people on the internet are bloody nutters.

[@Techmoan]

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.

[@nickguy6820]

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.

[@teemofie]

Sure sounds like someone at Fujifilm got themselves a bontempi keyboard for xmas!

[@id104335409]

It reminds me of an old JRPG

[@OudioVisual]

Back in the day I used to work in a photo lab processing film. APS film taught me to have an immediate distrust of any technology that has 'advanced' in the name. The issues you had with the film jamming in the scanner was incredibly common even with the professional processing equipment.

[@irtbmtind89]

I worked in a photo lab when APS was launched. The film was a pain in the ass to process, the special machines to load and unload the cartridges were very unreliable and often failed. They haven't been made in years so I doubt there are very many working ones left. In your case they likely cracked the cartridge open in a dark bag to get the film out (we had to do this a lot, especially near the end of the format's life). The magstripe was very unreliable as well, and if it failed to read you couldn't make prints as the scanner couldn't read the metadata, we'd have to open the scanner up to clean the read heads. Everything in this video matches my experience of APS equipment being unreliable and annoying. Edit: Also, i'm guessing that either the magstripe on your expired film is bad, or the write heads in the camera need to be cleaned.

[@brokenscart7989]

irtbmtind89 developing APS was a pain in the arse. Way more steps, each with the potential for things to go wrong! Firstly, you put the APS cart into a Fuji machine, along with a dummy 35mm style canister. Shut the lid, press the go button. It would wind the film from canister to dummy cartridge, which you then treated like a 35mm film - minus any cutting! Of course you had to keep the cartridge paired to the film! The canister and film did however have matching codes, so this wasn't too difficult. You slammed this through the developer as a normal 35mm. Then, once developed, a fuji at100 would be used to wind the film back into the canister. This could be a pain and there was a special cutting tool you could use to re-cut the specific sized holes at the start of the APS film. You had a limited number of tries at this before you reached the photos! Scanning for prints required changing the carrier for the film scanner to accept aps carts, and often you'd have to change the paper cartridge in the printer to 4", as only that could print all APS sizes. You could print the C size on 6" paper but that's it. If someone asked me nicely, I was happy to print aps film to any size they wanted. They could print to 10 x 7 with reasonable results. 10x15 was possible and looked good enough to hang on wall, e.g. View at distance.

[@Neffers_UK]

I feel your pain guys, however, I actually enjoyed APS and the results were great for point and shoot stuff when they returned. The "panoramics" were decent too. It's a shame the mechanics and issues were not worked out properly. It was really handy to be able to swap out the carts at any time and have it wind on (and off) automatically.

[@irtbmtind89]

The exact same process where I worked. It was more than 15 years ago, but I don't think we offered 1 hour service for APS because it was so fiddly to work with. Ironically a lot of the R&D for APS (like better emulsions to compensate for the small film gauge) ended up going back into 135. If you strip away the proprietary crap it was just regular film. I think they even made E-6 and black and white for a bit. You could develop it at home in a tank if you really wanted to.

[@gunfighterzero]

APS was the answer to a question that nobody asked

[@jon-paulfilkins7820]

At the time it felt like that APS Film was supposed to be the 110 of the future (we got better quality photos, but mission creep specs like the device on review and the rapid advancement of DIgital photography did for it)

[@devttyUSB0]

Phil is a great guy. :) He deserves the AP-1 viewer! :P

[@Xezlec]

Love your name!

[@id104335409]

The persistence with which you investigate these old formats is I N S A N E !!!!!!!!! I would have given up on just reading about them. You go to inhuman lengths to acquire and view them. Also about the audio - it is so retro cute - like an old Japanese RPG - I love it!

[@gbshahaq]

^this. This is among the best of your videos

[@billschlafly4107]

I gotta go. I hear the ice cream truck outside.

[@robbruce2128]

This is exactly what I was thinking: "Why am I salivating, Dr. Pavlov?"

[@da5idnz]

Mr Whippy! Or as they call him in the U.S, the Good Humour Man.

[@RandomDude655]

Someone who was in charge of the machine to show APS on a television probably was racking his brain on how to make the slideshow more exciting then their kid ran up to them and asked for money for the ice cream truck.

[@DonnaDoveWinters]

I had to pause the video just to make sure there wasn't an ice cream truck outside. It's a nice summer day right now so it wouldn't be that out of place

[@kissingfrogs9302]

Traditional Ice Cream truck (Mr Whippy Van) music in Perth WA was Green Sleeves.

[@guyfawkes9951]

That background music should be called "Theme From The World's Saddest Electronic Circus".

[@nekomarulupin]

I would listen to that indie album.

[@ibwam3611]

For some reason it was very nostalgic for me

[@thecianinator]

@@ibwam3611 it reminds me of those "hauntingly familiar places with unsettling music" videos

[@kenhensch3996]

Good lord, top marks for putting this video together despite the difficulties! This video has really reminded me how much I appreciate your content. I am a photographer that collects old film camera's and processes film myself and I've never dabbled in the APS system just because it's such a hassle.

[@DiverCTH]

The biggest hassle with APS is getting a scanner that can read it. There should be templates on how to cut a plastic strip to eject the trailer from the cartridge on the 'net somewhere, and it'd be pretty easy to 3D print the hand tool to open the film gate and rewind the film into the cartridge.

[@qibble455]

Thanks Phil:D

[@fuelvolts]

Phil rocks!

[@Telamon8]

Three cheers for Phil! hip hip!

[@blower1]

Hooray!

[@raywt3237]

Sorry...Phil?!

[@ninjamaster3453]

Phil to the rescue!

[@Renzsu]

Such a Japanese machine with that background music. I love quirky stuff like that!

[@deejaydubla]

I say this as someone who worked in photo-chemical film processing for years as both a lab technician and later as an equipment repair technician: APS can rot in Hell right alongside 110 and disc film.

[@Jerbod2]

110 is a nightmare to get digital nowadays... we have tons of 110 strips still laying around but they're so small and fiddly, I hate it. The pictures I want digital are of so much importance to me but I can't be bothered to do that.

[@SnowyMetalNerdDudeDuffield]

My favourite bit for APS is getting the spools reattached after processing with the world's fiddliest tools

[@onnowesterman4825]

LOL yep it can and I know exactly what you mean, worked as printer operator with kodak 3510 2610 printers and later the Msp agfa printers and a Syntra semi auto and Selexa scanners for index prints and scanning the aps film before printing on the Selexa aps printer. I was the fastest operator on that machine, we had just 2 of them. I could not even scan the film and print it at printstation first had to be scanned and data on a floppy at first and later via data network.. wow what primitive time it was. Times have changed.. ! Nice to meat a lab college ..

[@PixelPipes]

Your dedication and stubbornness is admirable.

[@MrVolksbeetle]

That background music is nearly as good as the Awkward Silence from an earlier vid. Seriously though, it never ceases to amaze me the lengths you've gone to put a video together. Great job.

[@thecaveofthedead]

Couple of small points: One huge legacy of APS is a digital sensor to the same dimensions. For a long time most DSLRS used this format and many still do - despite increased popularity of 'full frame' sensors the same size as 35mm film. The other is that there's likely quite a bit more detail in those images than you're seeing there - barring camera shake. Analogue film was often let down by the quality of scans. Today careful tests can show that there's actually a tremendous amount of detail on the original film if carefully handled.

[@Darieee]

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

[@jpgpearson]

nice your giving it to phil

[@gsilva220]

I love these stop-gap media technologies of the 90's and early 2000's. Everyone was trying to make analog devices with computer-like features. Then, in the late 2000's, all media devices started converging into smartphones, and now, computers and smartphones concentrate all the media we produce and consume, and none of these types of stop-gap devices were made again. Something like that is now happening with cars (a bunch of hybrid layouts, etc.); and although the use of electric motors as primary propulsion is already decided, we've not yet decided which technology is going to power those motors. A day will come, though, when one of these technologies will be such a no brainer, that no one will make anything different, and the ones that do, will go under and be forgotten. I wonder what technological battle will come next.

[@i.m.evilhomer5084]

"At this point I'm pulling my hair out" 🤔

[@Jerbod2]

Nice one :)

[@WittyDroog]

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

[@theVHSvlog]

Phil always comes thru he a g

[@Millylerks]

I love phil.

[@buddyclem7328]

He's the O G.

[@michaelopnv634]

Alternate title: Techmoan vs the APS Film format.

[@catfish552]

(feat. Phil)

[@brettvv7475]

Accurate

[@TheRealBobHickman]

I bought an APS camera shortly after support for my Disc camera died. I'll never learn :(

[@Reddbeaver]

Lmao!

[@Ben_306]

I still use 35mm and 120. Still produced and supported.

[@eaglewi]

Bento 120 is awesome but 220 Sems to have disappeared.

[@CluelessDad]

Oh, totally forgot about that. Techmoan should do a Disc film video sometime...

[@Ben_306]

erik litchy I think the limited film market saw a bunch of camera's that could do 120, with some of them having the option to shoot 220. Oh and ilford has stated in the past that fixing their old 220 machine would not be economically viable.

[@alexrowland]

Thanks for the magnanimous contribution Phil! And I love that Techmoan hooked him up with the film scanner! It's nice to see the KZbin community successfully coming together like this.

[@hobbitilius]

As an analog photography buff, I absolutely love this video. Thanks to You and Phil!

[@unfa00]

Q: What are you doing, mate? A: Oh, I'm just composing some tunes for a slideshow machine.

[@danielpitterly]

Maaan, I can't believe you did a video about this, you're the coolest

[@gdutfulkbhh7537]

Thank you for persevering with this. I can’t say that APS ever appealed to me, but I remember it and it’s good to sift through its history after it’s been and gone.

[@transistortester]

That background music is oddly charming for some reason. The combination of being kind of crap yet cheery, with simple FM synthesis by the sound of it, just exudes carefree positivity. Edit: more crap than I thought, having heard it independently. I still stand by my statement, though. It's also definitely one of the yamaha FM synthesis sound chips.

[@Dombalurina]

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.

[@PeterBrockie]

APS is one of those techs which I kinda wish took off, but it never did. The advantages for the consumer were pretty cool, sadly they sold it at just too damn high a price (along with other issues like the smaller frame size). APS film is often sold as new rolls on eBay when really they're developed - as shown in the video just check the code in their photos to confirm. It's possible to home develop APS using a cut down Patterson tank reel. I've done a few rolls and they worked great using normal C-41 chemicals. There was slide film sold in Europe, but not the US. Even black and white film - although the black and white film was normal colour C-41 process film made to do a monochrome image. The Contax Tix is a great little APS camera. I feel bad that all the film is expired, otherwise I'd love to take it out more often. APS lives on as the standard for most SLR/mirrorless cameras' sensor size (specifically APS-C). Canon had a few cameras over the years which used a slightly larger APS-H size as well.

[@EvilAcri]

That is nice legacy, when two of APS frame sizes are still used in digital era, or at least one of them

[@jonhlennon312]

Lovely gift for the chap that shared with you his old APS films!

[@MrMikey1273]

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.

[@canozdemir7876]

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

[@scruffsbycartoonfish2301]

That JVC video camera still looks cool!

[@duffman18]

scruffs they were fun back in the day. For some reason I always found it fun to do the snapshot thing, where it froze one frame of the picture for a few seconds. I'm surprised my dad let me use it, it wasn't cheap, and I was only a kid. I wonder if he's still got the tapes anywhere of all our holidays.

[@no_handle_required]

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.

[@stilcrazychris]

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

[@ZeedijkMike]

A very nice gesture to send back the photo rolls _and_ the "sideshow thingie". And of course yet another great video from you.

[@TechBuilder]

This was my first time finishing a +21 minute video. Very entertaining! Props to you Phil!!!

[@nccrawford]

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!

[@videogameobsession]

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.

[@nataliekate2176]

Another great video as always ☺️ I love the nostalgic feel of the photos you took on holiday! 👍🏼

[@moonglow8677]

Techmoan could honestly make a 30 minute video about a fake ‘retro’ product, once he runs out of products to review, and I’d still love it, even if he was outright lying

[@Jah_Rastafari_ORIG]

StupidPichu99 Yeah, Matt-- that'd be _brilliant_ ! Take it under consideration...

[@Techmoan]

Perhaps it's already happened, but no-one spotted it.

[@1L6E6VHF]

StupidPichu99 Should have asked BEFORE 1 April. He has done AFD videos in the past, though with real products.

[@Jah_Rastafari_ORIG]

Touché...

[@1L6E6VHF]

Pocket Fluff Productions The DuMont HD Sovereign (featuring the 48AP4 picture tube)

[@MagnaRyuuDesigns]

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.

[@succuvamp_anna]

That's a great tradeoff, you get a video, he gets a way to display his pictures. Love when you showcase old tech.

[@jwflame]

Found a reference to the price of the AP-1. US $600 in early 1997. As that was the same year that 1+ megapixel digital cameras like the Olympus C-1400L were released, can't see why anyone would buy such a device.

[@martinsmarkss4632]

Someone gifted me APS, didn't knew that it was called APS, i think 2x used that weird film roll and forgot about that camera entirely till now :D

[@stevenclark2188]

That's actually a lot cheaper than my guess. Given the zoom features It's easily possible the film scanner this shared hardware with could pull 4, 5, or even 6 megapixels off APS film which is more than enough to start ditching optical enlargers. Given that it would have just been developing the embedded system to keep a frame in RAM and show it on screen. Film scanners were practical many years in advance of digital cameras and took over minilab systems decades ago.

[@dunebasher1971]

Digital cameras of that era were notorious for costing a lot of money for indifferent picture quality - they were also bulkier than point-and-shoots. It took several years more before the price/performance gap narrowed enough for them to go truly mainstream. Sure, $600 would have been too much money for most ordinary people using point-and-shoots, but there *was* a certain kind of logic to the existence of the APS-1, since digital cameras were still a long way from becoming mainstream in 1996.

[@VideoArchiveGuy]

Digital then was just some weird experimental thing, like the fact that many digital camcorders of the era could also take stills. I could see a lot of these being sold to new parents and the like who wanted to be able to send VHS slide shows of their photos to family members without the expense of having extra prints made.

[@NOWThatsRichy]

This is like the photographic equivalent of minidisc and DCC, a sort of crossover between analogue & digital technology that was good in its day but soon got superseded, although I still use minidisc occasionally! Also as tech moan said, there is a nice feeling of actually holding physical photos, rather than just a memory card! I'm the same with music, i Iike to actually like to have the CD rather than just having it stored on a phone or whatever.

[@markplott4820]

the Phillips DCC-777 was a good car radio, it did Shortwave and Medium wave very well. the only thing better was the Kenwood RZ-1.

[@caseyholford]

Never thought about how the Elph was the link between film and digital point and shoot - really brought me back. Thanks!

[@thesteelrodent1796]

When I filled in at a Walmart Photo in 2009, the machine to unspool the APS negatives never worked, so we had to manually unwind them in a dark bag to get them onto a dummy 35 mm cartridge in order to run it through the developer. One of the benefits to APS was that it used the same C41 process as 35 mm, so the developing of the film shouldn't damage it. Developing took an hour on the Noritsu machines we had, and then we had to manually wind it back into the cartridge before it could go into the printer and of course had to punch out the "done" marker. We had two regular customers who brought in a roll or two of APS every few weeks, but that was all we ever saw of it. Most of what we did then was printing from digital, and even had days where the developer wasn't used at all.

[@samglaim4274]

A big thumbs up for all your hard work and persistence to get this video to us.... Many thanks :-)

[@michaeldob9526]

Growing up in the 90s and watching this video, I sometimes wonder if I could ever go back to the old tech after experiencing the iPhone age.

[@CaptTerrific]

If you could properly get a full 90s experience, where film was plentiful everywhere and processing was cheap, fast, and easy to find, I bet youd have no problem going back. The only real issue (if that was available) is not getting instant feedback - but unless youre an avid instagrammer or selfie-taker, it really doesn't matter that much. Of course, since those things AREN'T as available or cheap anymore, shooting film today is a major hassle.

[@eustacequinlank7418]

It isn't a hassle at all. Perhaps where you live, but everything can be done by mail easily. I can get negatives back in two days and have them scanned either by the lab or with my own Nikon Coolscan in an hour or so. I don't understand where people are coming from when they say they can't buy film, go on ebay, if you buy a pack of 5 sometimes you're not even paying more that £5-6 for Kodak and Fuji films, those are still early noughties prices. If you hunt you can buy Portra for about £7 a roll if it's a broken up pack. 7dayshop is a good place to start. What is a hassle is finding a darkroom these days. I have access to the university one currently because a friend has a residence there, but communal darkrooms can be expensive by the hour and you have to travel I find. There aren't the quaint photography clubs where you pay a small fee and get hours and hours of access when you want near me any longer. I love both digital and film, but throwing film under the bus is a big no no for me.

[@ohnoitschris]

Where I grew up, there were at least four places I could get photos developed within about five miles from home. Every department store and many supermarkets had photo development labs. Target, Walgreens, and I think Kroger even had photo labs. And then there were independent shops here and there. Walgreens even still advertises one-hour photos on the front of some stores, they've just had those signs for ages and I guess nobody's noticed how campy they look today

[@ohnoitschris]

If anything, there are some drawbacks to the modern era that just weren't thought of back in the 90's, like how today we all back up photos and old stuff on giant external hard drives, which is a real putting-your-eggs-in-one-basket situation. It's certainly tidier than giant photo albums and piles of VHS tapes, but I do wish recordable blu-rays had caught on.

[@fordtechchris]

And here I was experiencing the Android Age. ;-)

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

FWIW: I never used APS, but my daughter had an APS camera. {I used either 110 or 35mm, then _permanently_ switched to digital in 2003.} A couple of years ago I watched a video on another YT channel about ALL the DISADVANTAGES to this film format, which seemed to OUTWEIGH the advantages -- if there ever were any. Since at least some of the folks at KODAK must have seen _the writing was on the wall_ for digital photography, the person or persons who approved the creation of this FILM FORMAT when they did in the mid-1990s seems to prove the old adage... Definition of an INTELLECTUAL: _A person that has been educated_ BEYOND _his or her intelligence._ *EDIT:* All that said, GREAT VIDEO _Techmoan...👍👍_

[@wrthrash]

AWESOME that you gave the player to Phil, good karma as well. Nicely done!

[@LightTheUnicorn]

Is that background music, or is my old flip phone ringing? Absolutely loved this, such a fantastic blend of late 90's analog-digital-weirdness. The amount of effort you put in to make this was phenomenal. Wonderful stuff!

[@g.e.o.r.g.e...]

Enhance 34 to 46... stop. Centre and pull back... stop. Enhance 15 to 39. Pan right and stop. Get me a printout.

[@neriozulberti1492]

Great !!Blade runner

[@Sultan-of-Visjaya]

Blade runner!

[@KapiteinKrentebol]

@Robert Baker kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZrUnJaieK-mkNU

[@lvhdmya4807]

When you were unspooling the film I could almost smell it. Aaahh, good old film!

[@TheKitsuneCavalier]

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.

[@joelchristensen1226]

That background music is so awful it's good

[@mihitm]

Joel Christensen idk why but it reminds me of Nintendo games, specifically Pokemon

[@Jah_Rastafari_ORIG]

Reminds _me_ of the ice cream truck in summer...

[@datboi7707]

Fiery_Eagle it reminded me of Pokemon crystal :(

[@grandinosour]

It is the 8 bit computer generated sound from the comador 64 days.

[@DiverCTH]

5:18 - As a former 1-hour photo shop worker, this segment is just painful to watch.

[@CoffeeFurret]

DiverCTH Kmart?

[@DiverCTH]

OfficialTetraPoxy Ritz Photo

[@FrazerSmithsChannel]

I love the fact that you clearly stick with it, no matter how long it ends up taking you. Dedication's what you need (cue trumpet). I always enjoy your videos, keep going forever please.

[@alangriffin8146]

This is such a charming piece of goofy crossover tech. I love it. It perfectly encapsulates the early to mid nineties.

[@ricarleite]

Wow... so much effort to put out this video. Thank you!

[@lnro4494]

The BGM made me emotional for some reason.

[@zh84]

I honestly think it could be used for psychological torture.

[@rpkr5543]

Same :(

[@user2C47]

It uses the same sound chip the ice cream truck uses to annoy everybody.

[@rpkr5543]

Jesus Crist

[@gabotron94]

For me it's just so nostalgic

[@G-Confalonieri]

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!

[@MichaelGerrard]

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.

[@SuperCookieGaming_]

So your pictures are analog the. scanned digitally converted to analog video then displayed on a digital displayed or recored into a digital file. PERFECT!

[@mygreenfroggy]

Must say, I truly prefer digital and being able to print out what ever picture I want, especially with grandkids! I would have given an arm and a leg to have that technology when my kids were little. I guess today's generation doesn't realize how nice it is to point and shoot with their phones instead of waiting for photos to be developed! And we thought Polaroids were something. I remember when my grandad got one and had to do the messy developer bits with the little squeegee thing. And my first camera was a little Kodak Brownie.

[@thischannelwillselfdestruc4977]

What a guy, I'm sure he was happy just to see his pics on your show, and you gave him the photoplayer. awesome.

[@mikeprice2311]

That's a lot more digital than I expected from the title. I was thinking along the lines of a box with a lamp, some film loading mechanisms and a composite camera directly feeding the output jack. Great video as always :)

[@Yakeru35]

My first camera was a Kodak Advantix :-) I still have it. I had no idea the APS system was so ... advanced ! I saw it as a film camera for noobs and nothing more. Maybe because my father was using a reflex with standard 35 mm film. One thing I find strange in your review, and maybe it's related to the difficulty it represents to develop these films today, but at the time, I didn't have to specify how which picture should be printed, it was automatically printed in the format I chose on the camera, so I would receive an envelope with an assortment of wide and narrow prints.

[@1L6E6VHF]

Yak Eru A few companies made feature-packed autofocus SLR cameras for the APS format. Talk about a loss on investment!

[@RossMitchellsProfile]

1L6E6VHF sadly it's a bit silly as the people who buy expensive SLRs usually want quality so wouldn't buy APS with its smaller film size and lower quality as well as difficulty developing (can't even be done at home). Also it's not like people had that much difficulty putting 135 film into their camera. 120 film on the other hand, putting that into a camera is a skill in it's self.

[@NLind]

Sounds like it’s using some kind of Yamaha FM synthesizer chip to play the music, especially evident during the direct capture.

[@HardwareLust]

What a fantastic machine. I had two APS cameras back in the day, but I don't recall every hearing about this device. I wish I had.

[@mikeswatches2480]

Another Great Retro Tech Video - Really nice touch that you're sending back the photo viewer to the bloke who sent you the developed APS films . .

[@jklcvb5894]

The sadly thing about APS Is that it came too late to the market

[@MarshallBananar]

And it brings nothing good It was just to squeeze as much money as possible from the film market before it expired

[@skakdosmer]

Precisely.

[@sendark001]

The minidisc of film media

[@CaptTerrific]

The prints looked HORRIBLE from APS, even at 4x6 - no thanks

[@scottlarson1548]

There was lots of inexpensive consumer 35mm cameras with built-in zoom lenses at the time that were only slightly larger than the APS cameras. You could drop any kind of 35mm film into them and they would automatically load and rewind the film and set the sensitivity. Even 4x6 35mm prints would look better than APS prints. So APS really offered nothing.

[@Kzoowallace]

Thank You Phill!!!!!!

[@jwvandegronden]

Phil is going to be delighted! (well, in July 2018 that is... ;-) What a generous gesture! That actually moved me. Thanks mate. Great episode, again.

[@ErwinsRTLFormule1herinneringen]

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!

[@jasonosborne3637]

Thought of Bladerunner straight away with the zooming bits.

[@MonotoneTim]

The background music is making me depressed.

[@czonczike630]

Same here mate. It's annoying too

[@PrometheusSansei]

This is one of those videos in which one can really feel the effort put into the production. Thanks!

[@brokenscart7989]

There is a machine that respools the film into the canister. It's a Fuji AT100. Clicks he canister in, latch the film in the right position, spin the lever to thread the film into the canister than hit the green key to have the motor wind it in.

[@elcasho]

Thought your photos looked like the Caribbean. Carib beer confirmed it :)

[@telocho]

I think I recognize Marigot, Saint Martin?

[@Mainyehc]

One of them was actually taken in Lisbon (nice view of the Cathedral and an iconic façade ensemble on Campo das Cebolas, by the way) xD

[@CoolDudeClem]

What I've never understood about film, is why the developed negatives always have that brown colour to them. Anybody know why that is? Must take a hell of a lot of colour correction when the positive prints are made.

[@RoseIllo]

CoolDudeClem that's just how the film works. It's not able t to take a true negative, so it always needs to be color corrected, but since it's always off by the same amount, correction is easy.

[@camwow13]

Google why negatives are orange. Basically two of the three layers of dyes that make up the image are less than perfect in their color reproduction so the film has two built in dye masks. The two masks make it orange. Oddly enough it makes it easier to get good color when printing. It's relatively simple to correct when scanning now as well though it depends on the scanner and software

[@Elesario]

I suspect that's just the negative colour space. If you think of how in black and white negatives, lighter turns darker and dark to light, what do you get in colour? Of course, could be totally wrong there.

[@JHMBB2]

There's also colour slide film, which funny enough, is a lot tougher to get right. Trust me, I shoot with it all the time for some reason.

[@mfbfreak]

Colour slides have such a huge dynamic range after developing, that almost all scanners have a hard time capturing the whole brightness range. The range of a developed negative is a lot smaller. But nothing beats a slide projection viewed on a big screen. We're only just approaching digital beamer technology that is as good as slides... Of course, then we can go to 6x6cm frame format. Funny, IMAX image quality in your living room.

[@fena0701]

Hey techmoan. I appreciate all the work your doing and I'm glad to know there is people crazy about weird gadgets like me. I hope you keep doing such a nice job

[@donthuis]

I've still got lots of APS cartridges in these special boxes and their included print overview cards inside. Went through a Nikon P&S APS camera first, before switching to the Canon IXUS (even contemplated buying their fine APS Bridge camera instead). The panorama printout feature was used by me from time to time, but I did not find the system interesting enough to say goodbye to 35mm film in the end. In those years Canon produced a specially shaped Epoca bridge camera that I liked much more as focal range and aperture were concerned, so this camera, bought secondhand brought me to the digital era from 1986 onwards. With our family digital Minolta Dimage 31 & Fuji F10/F30 choices. Never knew that so much more could've been doen with this APS system, thanks a lot for posting. PS By now my wife fully switched over to smartphone photography and I may follow her example soon, probably saying goodbye to using my Canon G7X MKI . Photography surely changed a lot over these years and its business lost much of its attractiveness and financial stability once taken for granted for more than over a 100 years.

[@qqq1701]

I remember a commercial for a film camera that had a digital display. It still worked on film, obviously, but it would show you the picture you just took so you could see if it was good or not.

[@eustacequinlank7418]

I'm trying to think how that would work, do you remember the make of the camera?

[@qqq1701]

No. I only remember the people kept trying to get a picture and they would check the screen, see it wasn't good, and try to take another. It didn't store the digital pictures at all, it only showed the shot you just took. I guess it was a digital camera with no storage and a regular film camera in one.

[@Jerbod2]

Exactly, it'd just be an analog camera with sort of a short term viewfinder that'd store the approximate picture on ram memory of sorts... it's basically the same thing the camera's have been doing ever since they came out from about the 1900's, just that it'd be short term saved on the screen. That's the great thing about things like my Kodak No1a Model D camera, they have a viewfinder that's hilarious. Basically a small prism on a hinge that allows you to see approximately what the camera'd see, even allowing you to turn it 90 degrees for panorama pictures. It's awesome.

[@jozefik1259]

Post this background music please

[@herbiehusker1889]

Józefik 12 it is so epic

[@jozefik1259]

Yeah

[@Techmoan]

No problem, I've uploaded it separately now - see the top pinned comment for the link.

[@tomokokuroki2506]

I could imagine this music in an old video game. I dunno what what copyright, if any, exists on the music but someone might want to use it.

[@jozefik1259]

Yay!! Thank You!!!

[@aeonjoey3d]

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

[@jong2359]

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.

[@cjlhessing]

Perhaps you can take a look at another format: Disc film!!! Now that was way ahead of its time atleast in principal.

[@cjlhessing]

TC Fenstermaker I think they carried on making it for 18years or so! From 82 onwards. Hard to believe but I saw an interview with the then CEO and he said as much. It was typical 80s - big idea poor execution style over substance. I think the biggest issue that while convenient the disc film was minuscule per photo compare to standard film hence the poor quality plus developers needed special machines that were designed to process this all but instead many would rip them open and do it as per standard film and hence it was even worse by the end. But, it’s amazing to look at and the idea is novel. Certainly worth a texhmoan episode.

[@markplott4820]

I bought a Half Frame camera in Japan, it was innovative as you got 72 shots on a 36 shot 35mm Film. and the camera was very compact and was Vertically oriented much like Tecmoan's DV camera. but, the Resolution on the film was poor, due to Halving and the Lenses did not gather light well. but, I used B+w chromogenic film as well as PROsumer grade High Res film, it helped a Little.

[@cjlhessing]

Mark Plott texhmoan could make a whole series on cameras and film I think :)

[@harvestjet]

I had a Kodak disc camera,absolutely awfully print quality regardless of make of film or where the film was processed.

[@markplott4820]

James - agree, they never made HQ Pro films for the Kodak disc , like what they did for APS.

[@theJellyjoker]

I miss film, not the darkroom but loading a can and winding the camera.

[@duncanbennett2898]

This has taken me right back. My first real interactions with cameras were with a couple of APS ones during the late 90's/early 2000's (my mum was a very proud recipient of the exact same Ixus digital camera on Christmas day 2000 you showed, and passed on her APS camera to me). I still have strong memories of using the system on holidays and school trips - how easy it was for a clumsy early teen to use and get the films developed, and having the index card made it really simple to find the right packet of photos for when you inevitably went through all your old prints. And the cameras would allow you to take photos in landscape format which would then be marked on the film to be printed as 'long' photos rather than the standard size. Great for landscapes etc. It may have been hell for the developers but for the user it was great.

[@SocieteRoyale]

I'm just glad to see that we got to see your Liverpool pictures finally

[@blunderingfool]

Wow, 326 views seconds after upload!

[@numanuma20]

BlunderingFool And eighty likes.

[@springbay1]

Not uploaded, published. Patreons get early access while the video is unlisted.

[@brokenscart7989]

Reminds me of my time in a photoshop. I had some old woman once who wasn't sure if there was a film in her camera. She asked if she should open it to check. Before I could say no, she opened the back and snapped it shut again immediately. She asked, "That was too fast for any light to get in, right?"

[@brokenscart7989]

589nm haha

[@EzraKnickelbine]

I love the aesthetics of this thing. I'm sure the music would get old after a while, but there's something so pleasant and relaxing about it. Classy. Mmm.

[@marcyeahright5170]

Mr Techmoan, for sending the player to Phil you are an absolute gentleman.

[@goast_cuard]

15:16 Sounds a bit like you were holding the remote upside-down. Could still be dumb programming though.

[@Jah_Rastafari_ORIG]

Waldeo Just turn the TV upside-down...or, much more easier, mount all your furniture (save the TV) on the ceiling.

[@Techmoan]

Oh, now I realise I was operating it while looking in a mirror, doh!

[@AzureLazuline]

Sounds like the arrow keys "move the photo" rather than moving the viewport.

[@goast_cuard]

Techmoan Hey, it's not my fault that describing how it works makes it sound like user error. You'd probably think similarly if someone was describing it over the phone.

[@ml.2770]

Why would you ever turn off those sweet tunes? Are you completely mad?

[@CemetryGator]

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.

[@jrf84]

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.