Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/07/03

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Subject: Re: RE: [Leica] OT, B.D. I got it. D100
From: Tim Atherton <timatherton@theedge.ca>
Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2002 15:05:13 -0600

> you've said nothing that i don't agree with.  but... what's your 
> approach to ensuring that your images are long lived, for future 
> generations of colens?  

Interestingly, the issue of archival storage of digital images often 
comes up in the discussion of the changeover to digital cameras from 
film. Many take the "sky is falling" approach and believe a whole 
historical archive pf our times will be lost.

Wearing my other hat as an Archives imaging technician (film and 
digital) it is something we have been doing research on.

People such as MIT, Library of Congress and the Canadian Conservation 
Institute are all working on this. Aside from the technical issues (how 
long will a CD last, re-formatting and so on) I recently read one paper 
from RIT on establishing standards for digital imaging and archiving 
which made a very intereasting point:

Everyone says how long lasting film and prints are, especially B&W - we 
have images from 100+ years ago etc etc. BUT, even those kept in truly 
archival conditions still deteriorate - all the storage does is slow it 
down. Many old images are now showing serious signs of this 
deteriaoration. What we will eventually be left with are copies of 
copies of the original. They only have a finite life. A digital archive 
could be much longer lasting.

People um and ah over the technical issues (you won't be able to read 
the format, where are you going to find a CD reader etc... which are 
really red herrings, the consensus being they are fairly easily 
overcome). Photographic images may prove to be much less peremant than 
digital images barring the EMP from a rogue nuke, but then, no-one is 
going to care!

tim

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