A sputtering apparatus comprises a substrate unit that includes a substrate on which a target material is deposited in a chamber and a target unit on which a plurality of target sections formed of the target material are arranged. The voltage associated with the heating element is measured, yielding an output code which is applied to a look-up table. With this arrangement, it is possible to resume the supply operation after an interruption necessary for the pushing-out, before the stack is pushed out of the stacking shaft completely, and thereby results in very short cycle times. 5 is preferably 100 nmsec or more, and a permeation rate of the alkaline developer to an exposed portion of the image recording layer is preferably 100 nFsec or less.