[Leica] Photogs in a Digitally Abreviated World

[jonathan at openhealth.org (Jonathan Borden)]

On Dec 13, 2004, at 2:16 AM, Stephen Gandy wrote:
...
>
> digital prints aren't proven to last as long as silver, regardless of 
> any
> claims made otherwise, cause digital prints and storage mediums ain't a
> hundred years old yet !
> ...
>
> the only way I know of to really safeguard that valued digital print 
> is to
> make a silver neg copy of the digital print.  in silver I trust the 
> future,
> not digital.  someday maybe, but not now.  I am open to other 
> solutions,
> but I won't believe unproved claims of  estimated life spans of digital
> prints and digital storage mediums.
>

You beg this question as you *aren't* open to other solutions if the 
only test you will accept is to wait 100 actual years.

Consider why we have engineers building our bridges instead of 
historians. Historians, even if they can get the bridge built correctly 
are limited by the capabilities of the engineers of the past, whereas 
using information gathered from science, engineers can devise new and 
better techniques.

There are indeed quite reasonable techniques to estimate the life of 
various type of dyes and photographic processes. Of course you strictly 
limit yourself to platinum and carbon printing techniques right? When 
do you think silver gelatin came into widespread use?

Some of the B/W inks are made of finely ground carbon particles -- 
essentially "India ink" --- and there is every reason to believe their 
effective life-span will greatly exceed silver -- certainly silver that 
hasn't been sulfide toned.

Jonathan