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About Minilabsin Miscellaneous |
By sharq/Haje Jan (221) 
on July 14, 2002 8:49:14 AM CDT
How a modern minilab works How a modern minilab worksI know most about the Fuji Frontier machine, so here comes a description of how it works :)The Fuji Frontier is one of the best minilabs (small photography labs, almost exclusively used in stores) currently in production. It comes in different flavours (see the end of this w/u about the differences), depending on capacity. The guts of the machine are always the same, however. What the Fuji Frontier does From film The Fuji Frontier machines really consist of two sections; Developing and output. The developing section of the machine is where the undeveloped 35mm (135 film) or APS films are fed in. The films are attached to a special plastic piece that the machine can take a hold of. The films are then pulled out of the roll and into the machine. When the film offers resistance (i.e. is fully extended) the machine cuts the film off at the base of the film roll. Different films need different developing times - The speed of which the film rolls are pulled through the different developing baths (see film developing if you are curious about this) is determined by the film roll's DX marking. When the film is finished, it is hanging in a (normally enclosed) casing to dry for a while. Now that we have the negatives, comes the real fun part of the Frontier machine - after the negatives are ready, the negatives are fed through a film scanner (Several film scanners can be connected to the same Frontier printer machine - useful if one of the faster models is used). The scanner automatically determines if the negatives are correctly exposed. If they are not, the computer automatically recalculates the appropriate correction values, corretcs, and then rescans the negatives if necessary. After being scanned (in 3000 DPI, using a proprietary Fujifilm scanner developed especially for minilab use - although rumours have it that the scanner is based on the Polaroid Sprintscan film scanner). This means that a 35mm negative gets scanned in 2048x3072 pixels (about 6.2 megapixels for a 35mm negative). This scanned material goes to the server built into the Fujifilm machine, and is entered into the queue. From other sources Have you noticed how many photo stores have a photo booth, where you can have pictures printed from CD-ROM, Smartmedia, Memorystick, Compact Flash, Floppy Disk, ZIP disk or other media? (Including, some times, a separate scanner where you can scan your paper pictures for reprints)? This works the same way as above. When you pay, the Frontier operators will add your order to the queue, and they get printed. Have you ever tried an internet developing service - the type where you upload your scanned / digital camera pictures and have them printed? Again, the same thing. The operator makes sure that the order seems okay, then adds it to the queue. The nifty thing about the newer versions of the Fuji software is that it reads the headers on the Jpeg files, and then looks up your digital camera in a database. Knowing that most Olympus cameras tend to have a cyan tint, it compensates the images accordingly. Fab! The printing This is where the real fun begins, and what makes the Frontier machines so good. For the insides of the Frontier printing unit, Fujifilm holds numerous patents. The most safely guarded one, however, is the one for the laser technology. The printing unit works very much like a regular printer - as a matter of fact, it uses a Windows 2000 printer driver to communicate with the main unit. Never mind that - in any caes, the images are spooled to the internal memory of the printer unit, and paper starts moving off a large roll of paper inside the Frontier unit. These rolls of paper are kept in lightproof containers, so if you would want a different paper width, you would just change the paper cartridge (beasts of cartridges, but cartridges nonetheless) between prints. The server controlling the prints makes sure that the printouts are sorted so you don't have to keep changing cartridge all the time. At least in the UK and in Norway (I assume everywhere else too) the first image of a different size is more expensive, then the price drops. This is because the changing of the cartridge requires both manual labour (changing the cartridge) and stops the entire production until it has been done. Often - in high capacity photo labs, at least, they will have several Frontier machines, each one loaded with different paper sizes, to avoid this. When the paper moves through the machine, it is exposed with three solid-state lasers. The green and blue lasers are unique to Fujifilm, and ridiculously expensive (the pure-red laser is "old" technology). Mind you, it is important that the lasers are exactly RGB 0/255/0 and RGB 0/0/255, or else the pictures will have their colours distorted. The paper moving through the paper cut into the right size. Then it is exposed with the laser, capable of performing at 300 dpi. This does not sound like a lot, but when used in these types of printers, you need a trained eye to see the difference to "real" developed photos, and photos coming from the Frontier. The paper then moves through the developer baths, (see the node on colour developing for more about this) and goes through a dryer. It the pictures are sorted by batch (or roll) into trays on the side of the machine - waiting for the operator to pick them up and pack them. I believe that this whole process (from developing the film to finished prints) can take as little as 16 minutes if there is no waiting between the steps.
Advantages and disadvantagesAdvantages of minilabs:
Disadvantages of minilabs:
1) In minilabs, the pictures are scanned and then printed. Both of those processes have limitations, leading to degrading of picture quality. This degrading is hardly noticeable on small prints, and most consumers are more than happy with their prints. Professional photographers, on the other hand, usually shun minilabs because of this.
Real labsReal labs In a "real" photography lab, the developing and actual printing process is identical to the minilab process. However, the pictures are never digitised. In full-size labs, the paper is exposed by letting light shine through the negative onto the paper, just like you would do in the darkroom. If you have never been in a darkroom, think slide projector :) . This different process does not necessarily mean that you get better pictures per sé, but at least the final picture is an exact representation of what is caught on the negative, without intervening steps, and without cropping the image by 1mm in every direction. So how can I get stuff developed at a real lab? Wherever you develop your pictures usually has a one-week or three-day developing option. This means that they send the pictures off to somewhere else. This somewhere else is usually a full-size lab. Ask, just to make sure. Not only is the quality better, but it is also cheaper, and definitely a better option if you have the time to wait.
Who makes the best labs?b>Who makes minilabs? Everybody who has a name in photography make minilabs. Sadly enough, not everybody makes good minilabs. The most used labs are from the following, in approximate order of how much used they are in Europe. I dont know about the US or anywhere else.
What minilabs are best? I ran a website on digital photography for a while www.digitalkamera.no, and tested a lot of minilabs. It turned out that all labs have minor problems, but in general the Fuji labs came out best, then Agfa and Kodak on a shared second place, and Konica on the bottom. YMMV, however, and you might want to test different labs to find out which one you are most happy with. If you are doing any serious photography, and you use film (as opposed to digital), stick to fullsize labs.
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