Noritsu America Corporation is the North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n company that sells, distributes and repairs photo-processing machines designed and manufactured by Noritsu Koki, Ltd. of Wakayama, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Founded in 1978, the American company has a dedicated sales

Sales

A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....

, technical-support, and field-support staff based in Buena Park

Buena Park, California

Buena Park is a city in northwestern Orange County, California. As of Census 2010 the population was 80,530. The city is adjacent to the city of Anaheim and is 12 miles northwest of downtown Santa Ana. The Current OMB metropolitan designation for Buena Park and the Orange County Area is "Santa...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

Noritsu printer-paper processors (called minilab

Minilab

A minilab is a small photographic developing and printing system, as opposed to large centralized photo developing labs. Many retail stores use minilabs to provide on-site photo finishing services....

s) are typically designated a model number beginning with "QSS" followed by a number which increases with each new model. As of August, 2007, the newest Noritsu minilab are the QSS-37 series. Noritsu film processors for both C-41

C-41 process

C-41 is a chromogenic color print film developing process. C-41, also known as CN-16 by Fuji, CNK-4 by Konica, and AP-70 by AGFA, is the most popular film process in use, with most photofinishing labs devoting at least one machine to this development process....

 negative

Negative (photography)

In photography, a negative may refer to three different things, although they are all related.-A negative:Film for 35 mm cameras comes in long narrow strips of chemical-coated plastic or cellulose acetate. As each image is captured by the camera onto the film strip, the film strip advances so that...

 and E-6

E-6 process

The E-6 process is a chromogenic photographic process for developing Ektachrome, Fujichrome and other color reversal photographic film....

 slide

Transparency (photography)

In photography, a reversal film is a type of photographic film that produces a positive image on a transparent base. Also known as dias or slide. The film is processed to produce transparencies or diapositives instead of negatives and prints...

 films are typically designated QSF, followed by a letter/number combination. Machines that use Kodak's 'SM' chemical cartridges will also have 'SM' appended to the model number http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/chemicals/qaFlexicolorSmV21.jhtml

Noritsu is unique among companies that produce 1-hour photofinishing equipment in that they do not produce consumer photographic products such as film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, photographic paper and chemistry. Because of this, Noritsu has allied itself with the Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak

Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquarted in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1892....

 corporation, which produces film, photographic paper and chemistry, but not photofinishing equipment. In the past, some Noritsu models have been re-branded and sold by Kodak as their own equipment. More recently, Noritsu has sold their digital minilabs under their own name, but with Kodak's software (called DLS for Digital Lab System) providing image processing and a user interface, rather than Noritsu's own software. Machines with Kodak DLS software typically have the last digit in their model number changed to a 2 (i.e. a QSS-3011 will be called a QSS-3013 with Kodak DLS.) Additionally, Noritsu sold and supported Kodak's "Picture Maker

Kodak Picture Maker

Kodak Picture Kiosk is a line of self service photo printing kiosks manufactured by the Eastman Kodak company....

" kiosks when they were first introduced in the mid 1990s.

Noritsu equipment works with different brands paper and chemistry including Kodak, Fuji

Fujifilm

is a multinational photography and imaging company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.Fujifilm's principal activities are the development, production, sale and servicing of color photographic film, digital cameras, photofinishing equipment, color paper, photofinishing chemicals, medical imaging...

 or Trebla.

Noritsu printer-paper processors are designed for color photographic prints, but can be modified to print black and white. This procedure involves removing the yellow

Yellow

Yellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green...

 and cyan

Cyan

Cyan from , transliterated: kýanos, meaning "dark blue substance") may be used as the name of any of a number of colors in the blue/green range of the spectrum. In reference to the visible spectrum cyan is used to refer to the color obtained by mixing equal amounts of green and blue light or the...

 dichroic filters (the magenta

Magenta

Magenta is a color evoked by light stronger in blue and red wavelengths than in yellowish-green wavelengths . In light experiments, magenta can be produced by removing the lime-green wavelengths from white light...

 filter is retained for a contrast filter) and replacing the heaters which warm the RA-4

Ra-4

The RA-4 is an Egyptian weapon which may be used as an assault rifle, sniper rifle and grenade launcher....

 color developer

Photographic developer

In the processing of photographic films, plates or papers, the photographic developer is a chemical that makes the latent image on the film or print visible. It does this by reducing the silver halides that have been exposed to light to elemental silver in the gelatine matrix...

 with a chiller.

Although Noritsu has typically produced minilabs that utilize traditional silver halide

Silver halide

A silver halide is one of the compounds formed between silver and one of the halogens — silver bromide , chloride , iodide , and three forms of silver fluorides. As a group, they are often referred to as the silver halides, and are often given the pseudo-chemical notation AgX...

 papers and photographic exposure systems, since 2003, in partnership with Epson, inkjet printing systems have been added to the product line. Noritsu refers to them as "digital dry printers" and designated them with a model number beginning with "dDP" (sic.).

In March 2006, Noritsu and Fuji announced a strategic alliance. Noritsu now manufactures all of Fuji's photofinishing hardware. Each company produces its own software. http://www.imaginginfo.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=49&id=2412&pageNum=1