geeky

it’s all coming back to me now… via APS film

During my college days (‘98-‘02), I had a Canon ELPH. It was little, tiny and fit in my pocket for easy transport everywhere I wanted to go. But there was a problem: it used APS film. Now, back in the day it was awesome, because it could take panoramic photos with ease, and storing the negatives was simple in their little housed cartridge. But then that whole “digital camera” revolution took place and APS film lost out big time.

What this has left me with are piles of film cartridges and photos. I looked around to see if there was an easy way to scan my film, but it turns out that APS scanning is quite pricey for no good reason, and costs about $25/roll. I really wanted to make a printed book of my European summer school adventures… as it’s only been 9 years since I was there… but the cost of scanning 15 rolls of film just seemed silly.

So that’s why I started looking for this  on eBay:

The CanoScan FS4000US! It’s a film scanner that can scan 35mm film, slides and APS film cartridges! Now, I can’t believe I’m getting excited about technology from the year 2000, but this thing is seriously great! All I have to do is pop in the film, run the VueScan program, and it goes to town scanning my film at 4000 dpi. Now, with the USB connection, it really is slow as molasses, but it’s not like I have to sit and watch the computer do it’s work.

But now my memories of floating down the canals of Amsterdam at dusk in a tiny private boat are as clear as day… and I want to rush back there instantly!  Thanks APS scanner for being so darn awesome!

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