Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/06/21

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Film is Archival
From: Eric Welch <eric@jphotog.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 21:23:00 -0700

on 06/21/03 8:27 PM, Spencer Cheng at spencer@aotera.org wrote:


> TIFF and JPEG (/JPEG-2000) maybe fine for 10-20 years but beyond that I
> would be surprised. Proprietary formats (like Photoshop) has a very
> indeterminate life time.

With billions of files being created every year in those formats, you can
bet they will remain readable for years to come. And I suspect there is
little reason to improve on Tiff any time soon. Loseless is what counts.
JPEG will evolve. But like I said, they're way too important in terms of
volume to become unreadable.
 
> CD and DVD medium has limited shelf life as does film though B&W
> emulsion has very good durability given decent conditions.

There are CDs now that cost less than $2 apiece whish have 200 year archival
lives. I'm sure DVDs will follow.

> garbage dump long before. I would be very surprised if you will be able
> to buy a 3.5" floppy drive for a Mac in 10 years.

Okay by me, I haven't used a floppy in five years.

> Note that my basic question is not fundamentally a technical one. The
> basic question is how to "select" images that will be treated to last
> 50 years? I can't. Can anyone? Now if one don't care, than any
> digital/analog medium will do.  :-)

A good eye for editing and being liberal in what you keep? :-)

Eric Welch
Carlsbad, CA
http://www.jphotog.com

All I need is my brains, my eyes and my personality, for better or for
worse. 

- -William Albert Allard,  The Photographic Essay

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Replies: Reply from "Ted Bayer" <tedbayer@charter.net> (Re: [Leica] Film is Archival)