You take a picture because you want it to look good, right?
WHY would you use a format of photography that looks awful?
If you want better iamge quality, you'll need to do any of these things:
Let's look at these in turn.
Color negative film is (IMHO) awful stuff. It's cheap. It's really cheap. Everyone makes it and sells it. You can get the stuff anywhere for a few dollars a roll. C41 color print film is dirt cheap.
To get better quality film, switch to slide (color reversal/transparency), Black and White (monochrome negative), or Black and White transparency (Agfa Scala 200). I haven't seen any of these available in APS. The closest "interesting" film available in APS format that I've seen is C41 monochrome film (TMAX 400CN). Of course, it's still color negative film.
BIGGER IS BETTER. If you want a print that's 8x10, and you want it fantastically sharp and more detail than you can see with a magnifier, use 8x10 film. If people cared at all about photos, we'd all be walking around with 4x5 press cameras (look at an old movie. The newspaper reporter with the big camera with the flashbulb... it's a 4x5.). Film is expensive. Prints are expensive.
They also look great.
With APS, you can select any of several print sizes. The BIG size (panoramic) makes you enlarge the image from the film a ridiculous amount. Grain is obvious. It looks awful. Even a standard print is close to the "maximum enlargement" size. To have APS look CLOSE to sharp, you need 100 speed film.
I'm aware of one decent APS camera. It's the Nikon Prolinea 6i. It uses expensive lenses, but they're really nice.
The only problem with this camera is that it's APS.
You get the idea. Counterpoints to the arguments for buying an APS camera
It's available on every modern point-and-shoot 35mm camera. Really... pulling film across the back isn't that big of a deal. If your kids can't handle loading the camera themselves, they don't need a camera.
Most modern point-and-shoot cameras offer panoramic format.
No great loss there. The index prints come out looking WORSE than a cheap bubble jet printer. Besides, if you REALLY want, you can get an index print for 35mm. If you care how it looks get a "CONTACT SHEET".
Imagine this. You take the picture of your kids birthday. It's a standard 4x6 print. You go on vacation with the same roll of film, and take a panoramic landscape shot.
Are you really going to want the kids printed as a 4x10 or 4x12, with their heads cut off at the forehead and chin, so all you see is a pair of noses coated in frosting? How about that landscape? It'll really look better as a 4x6, won't it?
Please. This is not an argument. This is a good thing.
Look at a Pentax IQZoom 110M. Drop in loading, panoramic available, comfortable zoom lens, can be put on a tripod, autofocus, etc.
It's want you want instead of APS.
Did I mention that you can manually focus this camera as well, so when the autofocus picks the WRONG THING to focus on, you can turn it off?
Just don't buy into APS. Make it go away!
As a side note, the last several "drop in film" systems have disappeared. The film is no longer available; but it wasn't that great to begin with, so no great loss.
This includes: 126, 110, disc film, and in a few years APS. On the other hand, people with a 30 year old Nikon 35mm can still get film and still take great pictures. For example, my father still has a Nikkorex F SLR (light meter too). Everything still works. It still takes 35mm film. It can still take pictures.
On the other hand, I've yet to find a source of fresh 126 for all the Kodak Instamatics that have piled up, Kodak is dropping 110 in 1999, etc. So of course his Pentax 110 Auto will not work. It's a cute camera, but I still prefer a 35mm.