Re: APS support.

[P3D Ronald J Beck 840196 <rbeck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> ... Thinking long term, I would not 
> invest in an APS camera except as a throw-away with no more that a 
> five-year life-span, for APS will probably be gone by then.  But 
> there are more cheapo cameras available in 35-mm format, so why 
> bother? 

Why bother?  Well, I bought an APS camera for my wife.  I did it because 
1) I like new toys, 2) I heard you could swap film cartridges in the 
middle of the film, 3) it gives you an index print of all your photos, 4) 
it labels each photo (on the back) with the cartridge serial number and 
print number, 5) all the cartridges have unique serial numbers, 6) it's 
easy to load (you can't screw it up), 7) it has a nice storage place for 
the negatives (in the cartridge), 8) the exposed film is in the cartridge 
rather than on the takeup spool preventing accidental exposure to light 
after the picture is taken and 9) it's easy to load (okay, I said this 
twice).

In reality, I bought it mainly for reason's 1 & 9.  The rest are just 
bonuses.  However, you have to make sure that the camera you buy is 
capable of using all the new and special features that are advertised.  
The one I bought is not :-(.

I like the automatic indexing of each print.  It saves me from going back 
and numbering them myself.  I like having the negatives in the cassette so 
I don't have a lot of loose negatives lying around.

And, most important, my wife can now confidently load the camera and have 
it ready to photograph our 3 month old without worrying if she got the 
leader fed in properly or not.

I don't think I'd use it to do "serious" photographic work but it's good 
to have around the house for snapshots.  I've even used it with the 
"weight shift" method of 3D photography and produced some nice View Magic 
prints.  And the ability to select between the three picture formats is 
nice too.  And, I have yet to see an SLR camera with the APS format.

Regards,
Ron




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