Re: [Leica] Archival storage

[dmm@bronze.lcs.mit.edu (Andrew M. Moore)]

> Althoough widely used as such, optical is most decidedly not archival.
...
> Archival prints are probably still the only true long-term storage.

Many years ago I read an article addressing this problem.  I think it was
in the Scientific American magazine.  An organization was considering
transcribing text (pinted and computer-based) into its binary stream
ones and zeros, and printing the result out on archival paper.

One of the main reasons for doing this was to convert the text into a
machine-format that would never become obsolete.

Can you imagine doing this for images?  The problem would them become
finding space in which to store all that paper!

Obligatory Leica content:

Yesterday I got back a test roll I had shot recently, comparing the
Summicrons 35/2 (latest non-ASPH) and 35/2 ASPH, and I was pleasantly
surprised to see the differences.  I don't consider my eyes sharp
enough to detect subtle differences among lenses (I've always tried to
aim for content), but at apertures of f2 and f2.8 I could clearly see
that the ASPH version had better microcontrast and texture detail.
Admittedly, my test setup was rather primitive, but it's the first
time I've attempted to do something like this.  I still prefer the
non-ASPH for its size and weight savings.  That is, until I need to
work at f2 or 2.8 :)

Andrew