Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/07

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Slide Preservation
From: Stephen Holloway <stephen.holloway@balcab.ch>
Date: Mon, 07 Feb 2000 18:12:25 +0100

Gib Robinson wrote:

> Maybe I missed a bit of the Kodachrome/E6 debate but I didn't hear any
> mention of photo CD's as a way to preserve slides you want to keep. Whatever
> the life span of current E6 is, there are still many ways to lose slides
> besides the aging process. Now we have pretty good digital means to preserve
> them. 

Digital representations have technically an unlimited lifespan - but the
media (e.g CD) used to store them of course doesn't. I don't know what
the current expected lifespan of a CD is but it's probably not as long
as Kodachrome (or B&W). The other problem is that standards change. So
even if the CD is readable in 100 years the format may have been
forgotten (you can't just hold it up to the light to see what's on it).

If you're prepared to migrate all your scans every 10 years or then
digital has no peer. But it's no good for stuffing in a shoebox and
tossing in the attic.

- --
Stephen Holloway
http://www.deepturtle.com/steve/photos