Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/09/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]BD posted this to the MUG a few days ago. I found it most interesting. I'm anxious to hear what the LUGites think of this concept. In my mind it is not for the serious film-based crowd, but has great appeal for the great unwashed masses of point and shooters and single-use snappers. Cheers! - - marc From BD (cross-posted with permission BTW): Yesterday one of my students from last semester told me that a local chain drug store branch in Boston has installed the following: A machine that "dry develops" C-41 film and spits out a CD of 5 mg scans of the images. He said that you insert the exposed cassette in one end - doesn't matter what brand or asa - the film is "developed" using a dry process that develops but does not fix the image. Each image is then someone "flash" scanned using a burst of light, and the images are written to disc. The film, which was ruined in the scanning process, is then eaten by the machine. And the whole thing costs $4.99 for a 36 exposure roll. He noted that while the results aren't the world's best, they are perfectly acceptable for newspaper use, or for generating small prints. I would guess, without even seeing this monster, that it dooms the vast majority of traditional 60 minute labs because it doesn't require the use of any liquid chemicals, or water hookups or drains. And if the first generation of this technology is 'okay,' imagine the second, third or fourth generations - 18 months from now. ;-) B. D. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html