APS Processing, Does any lab do it right?

[george_thomas12]

I bought my first APS camera recently and took a roll to see how it

worked.

 

I brought the film to Wal-Mart 1 hour and when I got the pictures

discovered they printed them on textured surface mat paper, yuck. I

also noticed the date the pictures were taken printed on the front.

When I was returning the unsatisfactory prints for not being glossy

I asked if the front printed date could be suppressed -- it's

magnetic, not optical -- right?

 

They said no, it's on the negative.

 

I brought the film to CVS and had a few reprints made. They assured

me the date absolutely must print if I turned on the date in the

camera. You're ahead of me -- no dates on the prints! Neither front

nor back. And all the prints were 4 x 7 even though there were a

couple C (4 x 6) format shots in the roll.

 

Off to Ritz. "Yes, the date is on the negative so must print, and

we're APS certified" So no dates, no different formats. Are dates

and formats only available when the film is initially processed? Or

have I found 3 places to not bring my pictures?

[r.t. dowling]

There are so many reasons not to use APS, and you've just discovered several of them. :-)

[jbq]

I believe that the date is magnetic indeed. As for print formats, some shops will require that you specify the formats of the reprints yourself and will default for H if you don't.

 

I've shot a few APS rolls, only in P, and I've been disappointed that many labs print those in 4x10 instead of 4x12 (the 2 extra inches make quite a difference when using precise framing).

[ahaohio]

When I last ordered reprints from an APS roll the Walgreens guys printed the images in reverse!

 

Actually on the first attempt they completely screwed up the colors also (does anybody like a brown sky instead of blue?).

[n m]

Silly Kodak trying to corner a market with proprietary technology. I guess it must be on the way down like disc film and 110 because some second hand chains are not accepting trades on APS now.

[richard_roggow]

On APS film the date is magnetic. Many 1-hour labs have the date turned on by default. You may ask the lab if they can turn off the date (front printing) for your film. The machine may or may not print the date on the back and the date range on the index print. The formats are also magnetic info, reprints should be original size unless another size is asked for. During initial printing and any further printing the operator has the ability to override any of the size settings. Also I am informed that all Wal-Marts use the "Lustre" or matte paper only and (almost) no glossy available.

[nate_ross]

Wal Mart labs, to the best of my knowledge, only use "semi-matte" paper in-house. This is the textured crap paper that you mentioned. Don't even bother trying to get a decent scan from a print on this paper if you can take it to another lab and get a gloss print. However, if you send your rolls out with the wal-mart send out service, you can request gloss prints.

Also, there is a setting on the fuji frontiers, I believe, that will turn off front date printing on APS films (But for rather obvious reasons, ONLY on APS, which is magnetically stored.)

[canon_eos_rules]

I didn't experience what you just mentioned, but I used (read: I was suckered into)

APS cameras (a Kodak 3200ix & later, a Kodak C700) for 6 years before switching to

35mm & digital. I recently went through a couple of APS albums, and man, were the

pictures grainy. The moral of the story: APS died young due to the limits of film

technology at the time.