dyximan

I recently acquired some photos from a friend who was wondering about how when and where they may have been processed. the photos appear older and from a different country other than the US. Can anyone Identify from the markings on the backs when? where/? How? and or by whom they were processed/Developted?/

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twowindsbear

This looks a lot like the information that the Noritzu printer applied to the back of prints at the 1-hour photo lab that I ran from Aug '01 to Apr '02. Too many brain cells have died since then for me to translate this information, though. As I do recall, there was a date code, frame number from the film, color settings from the printer to use as a starting point to reprint the image later.

So, here's my WAG: a photo print machine of some sort, possibly a 1-hour lab, probably during the hey-day of 1-hour photo labs, that seemed to spring up every where, before digital photography killed them and film. As to where. . . well, Fuji is an international company. I do know that WalMart used a Fuji mini-lab at their store here in town.

Do the images give you any clue about when or where they were shot?

Good luck

radiojohn

I have a lot of US snapshots (1 hour lab) with very similar markings from the 1980's.

dyximan

Based on the content and from whom I received them somewhere in the fifties to sixties somewhere in the Middle East palestine Jerusalem etc

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

That's the usual back-printing from a film-based mini-lab. It usually contains a date code, paper emulsion, order number, frame number, plus brightness, red, green, and blue levels of print exposure, and so forth.

Noritsu and Fujifilm made nearly all of the better mini-lab equipment. Fujifilm paper was, and is still used throughout the world. So... This could have come from anywhere. I really don't think you can discern where this was developed and printed without knowing the vendor's information. Every lab had a choice of at least some of what to print on the back.

I ran the digital production departments of a portrait lab, 2000-2005. We had 15 Noritsu digital mini-labs (ultimately 40), all using Kodak Professional papers. But we didn't back print anything on our prints. Each order came with a reorder form and quality guarantee (printed on the Noritsu) that included the subject's information. All of the printing data was stored in a database that linked to the image. Numbers on the form pointed to that record.

A drugstore mini-lab that processed and printed film needed the information shown above, for reprints. The only problem was, if you reprinted at a different location, on a different machine, with a different paper, those numbers were seldom anywhere close to correct... Process variations, printer calibration, and individual paper emulsion batches varied too much.

BebuLamar

I would say the prints were made in 80's or later. The negatives could be from much older times.

twowindsbear

This info is certainly better than my WAG.

hassighedgehog Loc: Corona, CA

Two of them have what appears to be years at the beginning of the second line. One looks like 1950 and another 1966. Could just be something else. Is there anything in the front margins? Some of my old ones have a shortened date (like 54 for 1954) and month in the front margins. Color or black and white?

dyximan

They were black-and-white and the images were from the fifties possibly the sixties I was just trying to Find out if there was any information embedded in the markings on the back as my friend didn't know exactly when they were taken or where

BebuLamar

The images can be black and white but the paper they were printed on is Fujicolor Crystal Archive which is color paper. One hour photofinishing store often printed B&W neg gave to them on color paper. I don't think the back printing were available back in the 50's.

dyximan

I wanna thank all of you for your time effort and answers

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Correct...

Most amateur labs switched to color paper for B&W prints around the mid to late 1990s.

BebuLamar

More research and I found that Fujifilm filed for trademark of the "Fujicolor Crystal Archive Paper" in 2010. So the prints were made in the 21st century. The photographs could be taken a long time ago.
Please correct me if Fuji made the Fujicolor Crystal Archive Paper before that.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

That sounds about right to me.

Both Fujifilm and Kodak long had two lines of papers — One was for amateurs (higher contrast, higher saturation), and one was for professionals (natural color favoring human skin, with normal contrast and saturation).

When the paper market contracted rapidly, they consolidated to a smaller number of products and manufacturing facilities. That was happening then...

Bill P

I'm feeling that 2010 is too late for Crystal Archive, but I'm getting old.