APS Film

APS film, otherwise known as advanced photo system film, is a film format developed and sold by companies such as Kodak (as Advantix) for a time. It is 24mm wide and has three image formats available: High Definition (H) with a 16:9 aspect ratio that results in a 4”x7” print, Classic (C) that produces a standard 4”x6” print, and Panoramic (P) which doubles the width to a 12” print. While Kodak has announced the end of all reloadable cameras for it’s US and Canadian markets, meaning the end of the APS film format, other companies continue to produce such models.

In APS film processing, creation of both the C and P formats are created by cropping the original image size. This means that the standard for APS film is the 4”x7” High Definition size, and in order to achieve the 4”x6” Classic size, the lens and camera have to work out a cropping function to cut off the extra “inch” in width by proportioning the view differently. The same is true of the panoramic view, with the exception that this is going to crop a good deal off the height of the picture after zooming out for a wider angle, in order to include more in the shot.

The highest quality photos were achieved with APS 100 film, at a slow 100 speed; however, this ISO speed required a great deal of light to be present, as it was not as sensitive to light as faster speeds. It did provide the most clean, precise detail for general use in a high light environment without the graininess caused by the silver content in higher speed films.

Because of the versatility of the film size and use, people began to buy black and white APS film for several purposes. The advanced system brought greater clarity to an image, regardless of the size ratio chosen, meaning that the fancifulness of a black and white image did not negate the impeccable resolution that was compromised often in 35mm black and white film. Film processing of these images involved an APS film scanner to determine the aspect ratio chosen for each individual image captured, resulting in the right size print being developed and cut.

With the advancement of digital cameras, there is little use for APS film anymore, since many cameras allow the choice of digital image size for each snapshot and application. While it is still a top of the line product in some eastern nations, the western world is looking to digitize everything, making these older formats obsolete.