APS to CD

External Since: Oct 26, 2004 Posts: 22

The processing lab from whom I obtain(via mail order)my aps photos,
offers a Digital Service which includes the transfer of negatives(or
slides)to CD.For a whole 35mm/aps film they charge £4(about
£6.40)+process charge for either a High Resolution CD(18mb per
image)or a Medium Resolution CD(8mb per image). For already processed
film the charge is £5.

It seems to me that (combined with using them for prints in the usual
way) the transfer of negatives to CD opens up some enormous
possibilities and that this can 'trump' digital photos,as in many ways
it offers the best of both worlds.

My impression is that even the best digital cameras still struggle to
produce images equal to film and that the photo CD images can - if
necessary - be edited just like digital before reprinting in an
improved form. They can also of course,just as easily be sent by email
to friends and relatives.

I realise that for transferring negatives on a large scale it would
probably be more cost effective to buy a scanner(but a good one is
expensive!) and do the work at home - but at this experimental stage I
will prefer to use the lab.

I will be interested to hear from subscribers who have already
followed this path and whether they agree that this is a very
effective answer to digital photography - apart from not offering
instant results.

Denis Boisclair

Cheshire, UK

External Since: Jul 01, 2003 Posts: 10

I work with both a digital camera and with scanned film. A full-frame
APS image, scanned at 2820 ppi with a Minolta Scan Dual II, results in
a 6.2 Mpixel image to work with where the Sony F717 full resolution
image is 4.7 Mpixels.

The differences are always immediately apparent. The scanned APS image
at full resolution has greater tonal depth (12bits per channel vs the
Sony's 8bits per channel), but the digital camera's image has less
noise (no grain) and appears sharper due to lack of aliasing losses,
all else being equal. I find I can make a larger print of equal quality
from the digital camera image because with the lack of grain and
aliasing I can print it at a lower resolution.

Both are viable paths to good prints. Use the APS camera for where it
has strengths (responsiveness and tonal qualities) and the digital
camera where it has strengths (sharpness, convenience, etc).

Godfrey

In article <630c0340.0307010221.79b45613.RemoveThis@posting.google.com>, Denis
Boisclair <denis.RemoveThis@boisclair.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:

> The processing lab from whom I obtain(via mail order)my aps photos,
> offers a Digital Service which includes the transfer of negatives(or
> slides)to CD.For a whole 35mm/aps film they charge £4(about
> £6.40)+process charge for either a High Resolution CD(18mb per
> image)or a Medium Resolution CD(8mb per image). For already processed
> film the charge is £5.
>
> It seems to me that (combined with using them for prints in the usual
> way) the transfer of negatives to CD opens up some enormous
> possibilities and that this can 'trump' digital photos,as in many ways
> it offers the best of both worlds.
>
> My impression is that even the best digital cameras still struggle to
> produce images equal to film and that the photo CD images can - if
> necessary - be edited just like digital before reprinting in an
> improved form. They can also of course,just as easily be sent by email
> to friends and relatives.
>
> I realise that for transferring negatives on a large scale it would
> probably be more cost effective to buy a scanner(but a good one is
> expensive!) and do the work at home - but at this experimental stage I
> will prefer to use the lab.
>
> I will be interested to hear from subscribers who have already
> followed this path and whether they agree that this is a very
> effective answer to digital photography - apart from not offering
> instant results.
>
> Denis Boisclair
>
> Cheshire, UK