The present invention relates to a photographic film carrier and more particularly to a film carrier of a photographic printer in which a negative film is inspected prior to making prints therefrom.
Color printers generally are provided with automatic exposure control systems which draw out at least one characteristic value of a color image of a negative film and calculate a printing exposure color by color, substituting the characteristic value in an exposure calculating formula. Practically an exposure control value having a certain relationship relative to the printing exposure is calculated by color so as to automatically control each printing light color component (red, green and blue).
Because negative films include various scenes, it becomes difficult to make favorable prints from all negative films. For this reason, it is customary to inspect negative films prior to making prints therefrom to determine an exposure correction value for an unusual scene image which is expected to provide an unfavorable print when automatic exposure control is used. The determination of exposure correction value is made based on an operator's experience.
Although it is convenient to use a special negative film inspection apparatus when inspecting a large number of negative films, for making prints from a small number of negative films it is normal to inspect visually negative films placed in an exposing position on a frame by frame basis prior to making prints therefrom. However, visual inspection of images placed in exposure positions one at a time is time-consuming resulting in decreased printing efficiency.
Film carriers for automatically placing a negative film in the exposure position generally are provided with automatic film forwarding mechanisms, such as detecting notches attached to respective frames of the negative film for placing each frame in the exposure position or using a frame sensor for detecting frames to place each frame in the exposing position automatically. The automatic film forwarding mechanism which detects notches has a problem in that each negative film is to be attached with notches corresponding accurately to frames of the negative film. With the other mechanism which uses a frame or edge sensor, it is difficult to detect a frame if the frame has an unclear edge. For these reasons, conventional automatic film forwarding mechanisms cannot place a negative film accurately in the exposure position.