I remember having a conversation back in 1984 with a friend of mine. I was just a young photo pup working in a new fangled photo lab fresh out of college. We were discussing the future of photo finishing and where it would be going in the next 20 years. Back then the hot cameras of the day were the Nikon F3 or the Canon AE-1, 35mm film cameras, and people still had hobby darkrooms in their homes.
My friend and I were discussing how everything in the photo world was changing. See the lab we were working in was a "satellite" lab set up by a much larger photo laboratory. It was set up for the sole purpose of expanding the big photo labs reach into a new market. The "new fangled" equipment we were working on was made by a photo industry new comer Noritsu. You could process your c-41 rolls of film in 30 minutes then manually print it on a machine that would take just about 15 minutes to produce a dry print using EP-2 chemistry. These machines of course gave birth to the one hour lab industry, the basis of our discussion.
As we talked we speculated on where it was all going. We discussed how these one hour labs were going to be everywhere. Little did we know just how right we were. As you know one hour labs became a staple in every mall in the country, you couldn't walk into an x-mart store and even some grocery stores without seeing one. By the late 80's early 90's these one hour marvels were making pictures at a rate that was actually hurting the larger labs. They were convenient, & quick two terms the American public can not ignore when they are shopping.
It seems today that we are on the brink of yet another movement in the photo industry. Just 6 years ago the photofinishing industry processed more rolls of film than at any time in history. It seemed the turn of the century marked the last big push for film based cameras. The year 2000 was a banner year for the major manufacturers like Kodak, Fuji and Agfa. Today, as film has taken a back seat to digital, we once again see a shift in the photofinishing industry. I believe this shift will equal or exceed the successes of the one hour lab in the mid 80s.
In the coming years you will see better and better printers and materials from the surviving companies of the one hour explosion. Additionally new kids on the block that had nothing to do with photofinishing will take the forefront. Don't think so? Well it's already happening.
In 2000 when film was still king, Kodak, Fuji and Agfa were the big players. Today you see companies like Epson, HP, Mistubishi and Canon creating plug and play 4x6, thermal, and even professional grade printers you can use at home. Heck anyone with a little computer savvy and a digital camera, can do their own printing. What's more they are creating high quality, long lasting prints when they do it. This is only the beginning though. See there will always be a need for professional finishers as well as consumer and one hour labs. People are just too busy in most cases to deal with printing their own work at home. However, with the introduction of better more stable inks, high quality substrates, and high speed printers, these new kids are quickly becoming the revolution in photofinishing.
So where is all this leading? We believe to a more environmentally friendly form of high speed, high quality, inkjet based printing. Between digital cameras, the internet,high speed inkjet printers, and the EPA, the writing is on the wall for the chemical and film based photo manufacturers of the 20th century.
In next months article we will explore how the inventor of one hour photo Noritsu, is producing new products that will once again usher in a change in how you print your pictures. We will also discuss the demise of the one hour lab as we know it, and the rise of technology based printing for personal and professional use. - Aloha
