Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/04/28

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Subject: RE: Vs: [Leica] Digital vs Film
From: "Aram Langhans" <langhans@yakima-wa.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Apr 2002 06:06:21 -0700
References: <200204280535.WAA13461@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>

William.

I've been saying this for years.  I have a ton of digital files of papers my
students have submitted.  I moved them from floppy to CD about 8 years ago.
There are quiet a few that, while the files are in great shape, there is no
way to read them.  The software used 10-15 years ago just doesn't exist
anymore.  The newer Mac's don't even have floppy drives (yes you can buy
attachments).  And at the current rate of change, I think your 50 year time
frame will be more like 10 years.  I did convert those files that were done
in early versions of Word/Excel Appleworks/MSWorks to a later version of
Office a few years back and made a new CD, but that took a lot of time.  As
others have posted, they have taken literally hundreds of thousands of
digital photos.  Are they going to be able to change them as old formats
fall out of practice and new ones come into practice?  (GIF to JPEG to...)
Will they have the time to take new photos when all they are doing is
converting file after file after file....  Do we save everything as text or
raw data?

As I've stated before, I think this age has the most information available
to it than any other age, and in 50 years I think we well find it has the
least information available to future historians than any other age.  Lots
of stuff storred but no way to access it.  Maybe technology will solve this
problem, too, but for the short run, watch out.

Aram

PS.  Good thing I also have hard copies.  But the ink????

> Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 20:42:54 -0500
> From: William Gower <w_gower@sympatico.ca>
> Subject: RE: Vs: [Leica] Digital vs Film
> Message-ID: <422141D3-5A49-11D6-A111-00050289F09A@sympatico.ca>
> References:
>
<<large snip>>
>
> Are your great-great grandchildren going to be holding one of your
> digital inkjet prints 100 years from now just because Epson or someone
> like Henry Wilhelm says you should experience no significant fading
> under proper storage conditions ?
>
> Do you expect that electronic manufacturers will continue to build
> technology to support the CD and DVD formats 50 years from now, or are
> they going to be the technological equivalent of the 8 track tape, 45
> RPM disk or wax cylinder recording ?
>
> Digital may be more efficient  = more images. I'm thinking now that
> digital = the potential for more images lost.
>
> My thoughts. I guess only time will tell.
>
> William


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Replies: Reply from Andrew Schroter <schroter@optonline.net> (Re: Vs: [Leica] Digital vs Film)
Reply from Andrew Schroter <schroter@optonline.net> (Re: Vs: [Leica] Digital vs Film)