Kodak - Kodak Picture Cd

...With the passage of time, Kodak has evolved several versions of this software, which incidentally does NOT have to be installed on your PC. The version I’m switching to between paragraphs as I write, boots up with a slide show of all the pictures in continuous rotation, but you can easily escape this to run the software proper with the Start Kodak CD button.

The main screen gives you the ability to browse the photos on the left, some ...
...on their side; whilst on the right there are several menu options, these being:

A)Picture Tools – this allows you to view a complete single shot and make “fun” alterations to it, such as mosaic or sepia effect. Don’t worry, you can play all you like, the picture themselves, are read-only being on a CD ROM.

B)Share - This allows you to e-mail pictures, with the option to make them smaller before sending – not everyone’s ... more

Despite being a keen photographer, I’m terrible with negatives. I’ve tried giving up time to file them properly, all in their own little slot in a purpose-built ring binder, but all to know avail. Any New Year’s resolution to be tidier soon disappears under a pile of paper eventually destined for the recycling bin!

Despite having written in glowing terms about a digital camera that I’m currently stuffing my piggy bank for, I still feel that it’ll be a long time before I really do hang up my 35mm spurs.

The solution to all this is to have my pictures put on CD-ROMs.

There are three ways you can tackle this, one of which is to buy a scanner that is designed to scan negatives (before they get jam on them) into your PC. There you can reverse the colour scheme and file them as photos on any form of disk storage. Secondly, you can scan the photos themselves (before they also get jam on them) on any old scanner, and save them to wherever you see fit. Favourite would be to CD-ROM via a CD-RW machine.

Thirdly, and this relates solely to photos you have yet to take or have processed, is to specify that you want a Picture CD of them as part of the processing. Bingo, no scanning needed, and since the CDs used are purported to have 100-year shelf life, something somewhat more durable than an A4 ring file full of bits of celluloid, which will no doubt be in the loft by now!

In the case of Picture CDs, all roads seem to lead to Kodak, in particular, Kodapost, their postal processing labs.

Of course, the film used does not have to be Kodak.

COSTS

The small print on the back of one of their envelopes is definitely a “reading glasses job”, as it’s not every option that allows you to specify the Picture CD.

For a start, the Standard processed charge for a 35mm film of “up to 39” exposures is £4.49, but this only get you a paper wallet to put them in.

There is also a Standard service including replacement film, costing £5.49. Neither of these qualifies you for a Picture CD.

To get a Picture CD you have to opt for “Photo Service Plus”, which also costs £5.49 without the replacement film, the extra cost being justified by the packaging. In the case of 35mm films, this is a hard plastic case roughly the same size as a DVD case, and for APS, this brings a case of a plastic/card combination, allowing for the possibility that some of your pictures are printed in Landscape length. APS processing, by the way costs £7.49 for a 40-exposure film, but then, it always was more expensive. Both of these options also get you a contact print clipped inside the lid, with thumbnail previews of all the pictures on the film. In the case of APS, they are serial numbered to match the film canister.

By the way, ALL of the above options get you a free extra set of prints in whatever packaging your main set have.

Having decided that you will splash out on one of the latter options, you are now qualified to have a Picture CD for just £2.99.

The Picture CD comes in a DVD-style hard case with its own contact sheet clipped inside, and so makes a very easily storable pair along with the 35mm pictures in their case. The APS equivalent is not so neat, since the photo case is about 12” long.

VIEWING YOUR PICTURES

If your PC is set to “auto run” an inserted CD, then you have little to do, except sit back and wait (and wait, in certain circumstances) for the viewing software to load. If it isn’t, look for a file called LAUNCH.EXE on the CD using Windows Explorer, and run that. There is also a file called STARTMAC, so it looks like Apple users are also catered for.

With the passage of time, Kodak has evolved several versions of this software, which incidentally does NOT have to be installed on your PC. The version I’m switching to between paragraphs as I write, boots up with a slide show of all the pictures in continuous rotation, but you can easily escape this to run the software proper with the Start Kodak CD button.

The main screen gives you the ability to browse the photos on the left, some of which (the prtrait shots) will appear to be laying on their side; whilst on the right there are several menu options, these being:

A)Picture Tools – this allows you to view a complete single shot and make “fun” alterations to it, such as mosaic or sepia effect. Don’t worry, you can play all you like, the picture themselves, are read-only being on a CD ROM.

B)Share - This allows you to e-mail pictures, with the option to make them smaller before sending – not everyone’s got broadband you know! You can also create a slideshow of them, or a screen saver OR wallpaper for your PC.

C)Print – Well I guess this speaks for itself.

Whilst this is all very useful, it doesn’t give as many facilities as, for example Paint Shop Pro, where you can level your “squiffy” horizons, or select a certain part of the frame for printing, so personally this is where I would head, saving any that I want to print to hard disk first, so that alterations can be made.

The photos are just standard JPEG files varying for 300KB to 1MB in size in a d:/pictures sub-directory on the CD, assuming “d:” is your CD drive-letter, so they are easy to find.

One word of advice I would give to APS users. Unless you actually WANT panorama format prints in your sweaty little mitt, don’t bother specifying anything other than the "HDTV" setting, since this represents the size of the whole negative, and this is what you’ll get on your CD willy-nilly. You can always make your own panoramas by cutting and pasting an oblong from the actual JPEGS anyway, and printing that instead.

My only slight niggle is that all the pictures on CD seem darker than when they were printed. This is easily corrected in Paint Shop Pro, but it’s a nuisance if they all need modifying.

I’ve made a few prints from Photo CDs at A4 size using a 1440 dpi printer and I’ve been very pleased with the results, which have been better than my own “hi-definition” scans from colour slides

CONCLUSION

If you’re not ready to junk in your film cameras just yet, but want to get into the digital age and print your own photos, how you want them, not how the lab thinks you want them, the Picture CDs could be for you.

If you can’t be arsed filing negatives, but occasionally wish you had, then Picture CDs also fit the bill.

Whether you like “the bill” is up to you – I’m just the messenger!
 

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