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In less than four years since it introduced digital minilabs to the country, Fujifilm through its local business partner, has set up 25 of these state-of-the-art machines in Sri Lanka, accounting for over 80 percent of such installations here.

Of the total of 31 digital minilabs installed in Sri Lanka as at mid May, 25 are the Fujifilm FrontierTM machines, said a spokesperson for Hayleys Consumer Products Ltd. (HCPL), the sole agent in Sri Lanka for Fujifilm. Another six Fujifilm digital minilabs are on firm order and are scheduled to be fully operational by the end of August, Hayleys Consumer Director Rizvi Zaheed said.

"Fujifilm completely dominates the domestic digital photo processing business with its Frontier 350 and 370 minilabs, easily establishing itself as the technology leader and the preferred choice for digital processing within this country," Zaheed said.

The 25th Fujifilm digital minilab was installed recently at Photo Technica - Colombo 3. In Sri Lanka, Fujifilm Frontier digital minilabs have been in Fort, Colombo 3, Bambalapitiya, Wellawatte, Dehiwala, Kirullapone, Ambalangoda, Kalubowila, Kotahena, Borella, Wattala, Negombo, Chilaw, Kiribathgoda, Kurunegala, Kandy and Jaffna.

Masatoshi Furukawa, Managing Director of Fujifilm Regional Services (Singapore) (Pte) Ltd., said: "What Hayleys has achieved in marketing the Frontier equipment over a short period of time is a truly commendable achievement."

Worldwide, Fujifilm has installed more than 16,000 digital minilabs since the machines were first introduced to the market. In this period, total installations of digital minilabs by all competitors together, adds up to less than 7000 globally, giving Fujifilm a global market share of over 70 percent.

The Frontier digital minilab, which costs approximately Rs 11 to 13 million, represents a paradigm upgrade in photo processing and printing technology over its analogue predecessor, and offers an amazing degree of flexibility to its operator and his customers.

The Frontier machine utilises the latest version of software developed and is so versatile, it can even erase scratch and dust marks on negatives.

Head of the Photo Imaging Division of Hayleys Consumer Jude Silva said the Frontier minilabs can produce ultra high quality prints on photographic paper from regular colour negative films, slide films and from digital sources such as digital cameras, CD-ROMS, Floppy and Zip disks, PC cards and the Internet as well as other prints in cases where negatives or image files do not exist.

The high resolution scanners and image processors in Fujiflm Frontier digital minilabs combine a charge coupled device (CCD) scanner with three beam lasers to scan and print negative and positive (slide) films in a wide range of film sizes.

After the scan is completed, Fujifilm's own advanced digital processing technology optimises print quality through high-speed digital enhancements such as 'Hyper-Tone' for bringing out the background in strongly back-lit photos and 'Hyper-Sharpness' which visibly improves edge definition of objects, colours and shadows, Silva said.

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