Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/06/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I agree with the points you are making and would like to add that getting the best scan you can from a slide/negative can be a lot of work and also that, I believe because of grain aliasing, there is a risk of scans being quite poor in resolution. I get great resolution from low speed slide films but most of the scans from 200asa print film have been extremely disappointing. I use a 4000 dpi Nikon scanner. As a result I have not scanned any way near as many of my 40 years worth of negatives as I expected. Frank On 25 Jun, 2005, at 08:36, Nathan Wajsman wrote: > Afterswift@aol.com wrote: > > >> Whether a PC or Mac circa 2025 will be able to read CD-R's is >> problematic. What may happen has an analogy to 8mm movie film. I >> don't think 8mm or Super 8 projectors are being made now. You can >> still find 8mm cameras in flea markets. We can still access these >> films but at some expense and trouble. >> > > CDs have been around for about 20 years now, and are still readable > on all relevant devices. In any event, I do not indend to have > anything stored on CD-R in 20 years. Already now I use only DVDs > and external hard drives. As long as the computers in the future > continue to have USB ports, my hard drives will be readable. I also > expect that DVDs will continue to be readable on new equipment, > since given the number of DVDs people have, it is safe to assume > that future generations of DVD readers will be backwards-compatible. > > However, when the next generation of blue-ray DVDs comes out and > the format is stable, I will convert to that because of the > additional space they will provide. > > I am personally much more concerned about file formats. I hope that > TIFF will continue to be supported. If not, then there will be some > work involved in converting all my images to whatever new format > emerges as a standard. But again, I hope that TIFF will be like > standard ASCII--a text file created 20 years ago is still readable > if saved in that format. > > There is no question that storage is the big challenge for digital > photographers. > > >> That's why I suggest that we make good printouts on high quality >> papers of our favorite image files. On subjects that I want to >> have a more permanent record, I use a film camera so I can have a >> negative backup. >> > > Printouts as storage? Not very convenient, to put it mildly. I make > prints when I want to hang a picture on the wall or give to someone. > > >> Which reopens a question: why doesn't one of the major camera >> outfits market a high quality yet reasonable 35mm negative >> scanner? Kodak and Fuji and Leica should be in the lead. Nikon and >> Polaroid featured film scanners a few years ago, but the market >> seemed to have lost its drive. That may be due to the low cost >> transfer of negatives to CD positives now. >> > > As others have pointed out, there are plenty of good film scanners > out there at much lower prices than a few years ago. But because of > the shift to digital image capture, the market for film scanners is > small and shrinking, and so it does not makes sense for Nikon etc. > to invest in product development in this area. And for Leica to > enter such a market would be commercial suicide. > >> If you have a good negative scanner, you can skip the CD-R and >> produce a fresh print from the negative itself at any time, either >> digitally on in the darkroom. >> > > You still need to store the scanned image somewhere, unless you > want to re-scan the negative every time you want to make a print. > > Nathan > > > -- > Nathan Wajsman > Almere, The Netherlands > > General photography: http://www.nathanfoto.com > Seville photography: http://www.fotosevilla.com > Stock photography: http://www.alamy.com/search-results.asp?qt=wajsman > http://myloupe.com/home/found_photographer.php?photographer=507 > Prints for sale: http://www.photodeluge.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >