F.A.Q. Q1. Recently I have heard a lot of commercial messages regarding a new film. Will all present films be replaced by the Advanced Photo Systems film? A1. No, it won't. After all, APS film was very late to be on the market. In other words, the progress of digital camera has been significant and it has lost the original role as an intermediary for the upcoming digital camera age. (Timewise, digital camera surpassed APS.) What are the advantages and disadvantages of both APS film and camera? [Advantages] (1) Camera size has become smaller. (2) It is easy to load the film and you will hardly fail the film loading. [Disadvantages] (1) The film is rather expensive. (2) Cost of developing is rather higher. (3) When the film stops and doesn't move, it is impossible to take out the film from the camera, without s ending the camera company. (4) You can't look at the negative with taking your hand. (5) Although they advertise its high resolution, the actual negative is smaller than conventional 35 mm's. (6) Once you lost the index sheet, you can not identify what is on the film. For the above reasons we do not recommend APS camera. We suggest you should not buy it except for those who want a camera as small as possible. Each manufacture may not withdraw of APS camera market--though they want to do so-- because of their great deal of investment on it so far. Q2. I want to buy a camera. What is your recommendation which is easy to use? And which camera brand do you think best? A2. Most of the cameras domestically sold now require so-called "just pressing the shutter". No focusing is necessary and a flash lights on automatically. Pictures will usually come out well and make no big difference regardless the manufacturer and the camera. Judging from the repair of cameras our customers bring to us, however, there are some cameras which frequently have troubles. We cannot make further comment about this on the Internet, so please visit our shop and seek our advice. Q3. I see advertisement saying "Zero-yen Printing" or printing free which has been popular and available at drugstores and convenience stores in Japan. What is the difference between it and the regular printing of photo shops? A3. Please look at the photographs processed by "Zero-yen Printing". (1) You can often find dust on the print. It might be difficult to find it in a photo of landscape, but you can easily find it when you take a photo of a wall, for example. This is caused because they do not careful ly remove nore take care of static electricity of its negative. (2) The color of photo is often bluish or yellowish. This is because a specialist familiar with color revision did not print it nor reprinting was not done. Our shop has comprehensively made every effort to improve the color quality. Awards KATO PHOTO & COPY Has Received are as follows: * FUJI COLOR Excellent Quality Prize in 1997 * FUJI COLOR Excellent Quality Prize in 1998 Please do not hesitate to contact us when you have the following problems regarding cameras and pictures. "How can I take a good photograph?" "The photo I had taken came out like this. What was wrong?" " I want to buy this kind of camera. Can you tell me the exact name of it?" "When I want to take pictures of flowers, is there anything special I have to prepare?" "My budget is US$200. What kind of camera can I purchase?" Your question will be accepted only by E-mail.