TEST DRIVE
Going digital

By Simson L. Garfinkel, 09/23/99

odak has introduced three new ways to get digital photos without a digital camera. The next time you develop film at your local drug store, just check the box on the envelope that says ''Kodak Picture CD.'' The cost is $9.99.

Selecting this option delays your order by two days. But when you get it back, inside the envelope you'll find both your prints and a compact disc containing digitized copies. Just pop the disc into your computer and you're ready to print more copies on a color printer, create digital montages, put images on your Web site, or e-mail pictures to your friends.

Each image on the Picture CD comes as a high-resolution JPEG file, roughly 400 kilobytes in size. You can read the file with almost any program that can handle images, including standbys such as Microsoft Works and Word, as well as advanced software such as Adobe Photoshop. The scans are 1536 pixels across and 1024 pixels high, good enough to print an 8 1/2- by 11-inch glossy on a high-quality ink-jet printer.

If you aren't interested in printing images or doing high-resolution image manipulation, you might try Kodak's Picture Disk instead. For $4.99 extra, Kodak sends you a floppy disk including scans of your prints at screen resolution - a few hundred pixels across. That's good enough for a Web page or an e-mail, but not quite good enough for most printing. Picture Disk adds two days if you are scanning 35mm film, and seven days if you are using APS film.

Overall, I found Kodak's scans better than those made with a $200 flat-bed scanner, but not nearly as good as you might get with a $1,200 film scanner. Because the scans are only 24 bits deep (professionals frequently use 36 bits), shadows tend to be dark and bright spots somewhat washed out. Another problem is dust: several of my scans have little white dots made by dust specks on the negatives when the scans were made.

The Kodak products also come with software that lets you give a caption to each image and build a catalog of your scans. You can then touch up an image's color or lighting, or apply special effects such as ''posterize'' or ''emboss.'' This software may be useful for beginners, but I think it gets in the way for people with some digital photography experience.

It's far easier to open a digital image with a program such as Microsoft Photo Edit than to painstakingly step through the Kodak software. Kodak's programmers complicated things by creating an application program that has hidden menus, nonstandard push-buttons, and obscure features.

Another concern I have with Picture CD is the cost. When you add the price of the film, standard photo finishing, and the scans, Kodak's digitized pictures cost between $1 and $2 per frame. Shoot more than a few rolls and you'll soon spend more than the $250 price of a digital camera that offers both the same resolution and instant gratification.

If you have a special roll of film you want scanned, Picture CD is a great way to get some decent digital images. But for the serious enthusiast, I recommend buying a digital camera instead.

SIMSON L. GARFINKEL

This story ran on page F04 of the Boston Globe on 09/23/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.