Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/12/30

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Re: OT - recordable CD's
From: JCB <jcb@visualimpressions.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 23:24:24 -0800
References: <5.1.1.6.2.20031230143139.0331b708@mail.brick.org>

At 07:11 PM 12/30/2003 -0700, Adam Bridge wrote:

>I'll have to do some research - but I know that I have hard drives 10 MB 
>ones, that can still be read by my RT-11 system and they were written in 
>the 80s.


hmmmm 20 years. I have negatives and prints from when my parents were 
babies. 90-100 years old. Even some of their parents when they were kids. 
Late 1800's. 100+ years. And still in very nice condition. And perfectly 
usable in todays darkroom technology. Or digital technology.

But don't let me stop you folks from relying on mag media.

I've lost a lot of mag files due to mag bit rot. I have never lost a 
print/neg/transparency from old age. I have Ektachrome E2 slides that I 
processed in our kitchen sink, back in the early 50's. They are still quite 
nice. Some have changed a little but when film changes color one way or the 
other, it is still quite usable and recoverable. No matter how faded a neg 
or print becomes, it is still recoverable. Recently, I just recovered a 
color print of my grandmother. It was barely visible on the paper. I 
scanned it and used an Applied Science Fiction plug-in to recover it. It 
worked like a charm. Had that been 60 year old mag media... gone.

When magnetic bits disappear, there is no bringing them back. They don't 
just fade, they simply disappear. One day they are there, the next they are 
gone. Yes, they actually do fade, but because they are bits, either they 
can be read, or they cannot. On or off. Nothing in between. Yes, RLE and 
FEC algorithms can repair a couple of bits here or there, as long as they 
are in the right place. But bit rot is not particular as to where it happens.

Anyway, if I were a digital photographer, I don't know what I would do. 
Maybe have all of my stuff O/P to film via a film recorder.

:-)

JB

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Replies: Reply from "Eric" <ericm@pobox.com> ([Leica] Re: OT - recordable CD's)
In reply to: Message from JCB <jcb@visualimpressions.com> ([Leica] Re: OT - recordable CD's)