Re: APS CAMERAS

[P3D Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997
>From: P3D Brian Reynolds writes:
>
>>Jim Crowell wrote:
>> ............................
>> Not to mention that with some of them you can choose from a number of
>> formats & mix formats on a roll.  I've always been partial to panoramic
>> format, myself...I figure if I ever get enough money for a second camera, a
>> twin APS zoom rig would complement the Realist nicely...
>> 
>
>Actually this bit of APS marketing is somewhat misleading (as is most
>of the rest of APS marketing, and probably all marketing). (Have I
>made enough unsubstantiated generalities yet? :)
>
>APS cameras achieve different formats by cropping the frame.  The
>landscape, portrait and normal formats all use the same size frame of
>film and simply mark cropping instructinos on the magnetic strip.  You
>can do similar cropping with 35mm film (or any other film format).

*****  I'm aware of how the formats are derived. I think the system they use
is a good one from the point of view of the average user. It's a method that
causes the user to think about composition. True the results are just
smaller areas of existing film, but if you compose your image for one format
or another, you've learned something despite your best efforts to avoid
learning. The user now has three different viewfinder window shapes to use
and become familiar with. The objections raised seem to be concerned with
the idea that there is already too small a total on-film image area,
(compared to full frame 35mm) therefore it's sacreligious to crop any of it
away further. The plus side is that with APS there is an easy built-in way
to ask for and get cropping services. The down side is the higher cost and
the smaller total image area.

Larry Berlin

Email: lberlin@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.sonic.net/~lberlin/
http://3dzine.simplenet.com/


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