Advanced Photo System

The Advanced Photo System was a technology for photographic film and cameras. People started using it in the year 1996.

This is what it did:

It had a new way of changing film in cameras, so that the film could be "dropped in", just like people changed batteries.
It allowed for people to change a film, even if the entire film had not been used yet.
When the film was developed, it had an "index print" which showed small copies of every picture.
For each photo taken, special information was saved onto the film, called "metadata"
There were three different kinds of images, which were made by cropping (cutting) the negative. The camera always started with the largest kind, but the finished picture could change depending on what the owner wanted.
- Panoramic
- Classic
- HDTV (16:9).

The system also had problems:

Film size is smaller (30x16 compared to 24x36 for older cameras).
The final print is not as good
Photography companies needed to buy new equipment, since their old equipment would not work with APS.

A cartridge of APS (IX240) film. They were available in sizes of 15, 25 and 40 exposures.
Indicators at the bottom of the cartridge told about the film. 1- unexposed, 2- partly exposed, 3- exposed, but not developed, 4- developed.
A negative strip (usually not visible) of an IX240 (APS) film.

The system never became popular, and was stopped in 2004. Since then, most cameras have switched to digital (electronic) systems anyway.

One famous type of camera that used this system was the Canon IXUS, which then later changed and became a digital one.

Advanced Photo System Media