APS was launched in 1996, as the result of collaboration between some of the world's biggest camera and film manufacturers.

Advanced Photo System, to give its full name, offers a range of benefits to photographers, all helping to make picture taking more... advanced.

These benefits fall into four key areas:

• Film Handling. APS films are simply dropped in to the camera, and load automatically - so there's no more fiddling around when changing a film. Sensors detect whether a film has already been used, to prevent double exposure, and also detect the film speed to ensure the correct setting is used.
  Not only that, but once a film has been used and developed, the negatives go back into the original film cartridge to protect them from dust and fingerprints. Some APS cameras even allow you to change film half way through, and put the part-used film back in the camera later on.
• Index Print. The processing of an APS film creates an index print, so you can view an entire film at one glance. It also eliminates the need to handle precious negatives when ordering reprints and enlargements.
• Picture Format. APS cameras allow you to choose one of three formats every time you take a picture, all without changing film. Select the Classic 6"x4" print size, the one inch wider 7"x4" HDTV size, or the widest 10" x 4" Panoramic size. Furthermore if you don't like the format which you originally selected, you can order reprints in any of the other formats. With some cameras you can even specify the number of prints you require for each individual picture, at the time you take it.
• Picture Information. A magnetic strip exists on APS films which allows certain APS cameras to record information along with the image. This feature is referred to as IX (information exchange) and offers various levels of sophistication according to the camera. This can range from the simple recording of date/time, right through to logging details about exposure conditions, which can then be used by processing equipment to deliver the highest quality results.

To help identify which film your camera needs we've shown a typical APS film, below: