Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/07/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> 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 - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html