Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/06/25

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Subject: [Leica] Bring Out the Negative Scanner
From: nathan.wajsman at planet.nl (Nathan Wajsman)
Date: Sat Jun 25 00:36:41 2005
References: <2b.75d557ff.2fede050@aol.com>

Afterswift@aol.com wrote:

> Whether a PC or Mac circa 2025 will be able to read CD-R's is problematic. 
> What may happen has an analogy to 8mm movie film. I don't think 8mm or 
> Super 8 
> projectors are being made now. You can still find 8mm cameras in flea 
> markets. 
> We can still access these films but at some expense and trouble. 

CDs have been around for about 20 years now, and are still readable on 
all relevant devices. In any event, I do not indend to have anything 
stored on CD-R in 20 years. Already now I use only DVDs and external 
hard drives. As long as the computers in the future continue to have USB 
ports, my hard drives will be readable. I also expect that DVDs will 
continue to be readable on new equipment, since given the number of DVDs 
people have, it is safe to assume that future generations of DVD readers 
will be backwards-compatible.

However, when the next generation of blue-ray DVDs comes out and the 
format is stable, I will convert to that because of the additional space 
they will provide.

I am personally much more concerned about file formats. I hope that TIFF 
will continue to be supported. If not, then there will be some work 
involved in converting all my images to whatever new format emerges as a 
standard. But again, I hope that TIFF will be like standard ASCII--a 
text file created 20 years ago is still readable if saved in that format.

There is no question that storage is the big challenge for digital 
photographers.

> 
> That's why I suggest that we make good printouts on high quality papers of 
> our favorite image files. On subjects that I want to have a more permanent 
> record, I use a film camera so I can have a negative backup. 

Printouts as storage? Not very convenient, to put it mildly. I make 
prints when I want to hang a picture on the wall or give to someone.

> 
> Which reopens a question: why doesn't one of the major camera outfits 
> market 
> a high quality yet reasonable 35mm negative scanner? Kodak and Fuji and 
> Leica 
> should be in the lead. Nikon and Polaroid featured film scanners a few 
> years 
> ago, but the market seemed to have lost its drive. That may be due to the 
> low 
> cost transfer of negatives to CD positives now.  

As others have pointed out, there are plenty of good film scanners out 
there at much lower prices than a few years ago. But because of the 
shift to digital image capture, the market for film scanners is small 
and shrinking, and so it does not makes sense for Nikon etc. to invest 
in product development in this area. And for Leica to enter such a 
market would be commercial suicide.
> 
> If you have a good negative scanner, you can skip the CD-R and produce a 
> fresh print from the negative itself at any time, either digitally on in 
> the 
> darkroom. 

You still need to store the scanned image somewhere, unless you want to 
re-scan the negative every time you want to make a print.

Nathan


-- 
Nathan Wajsman
Almere, The Netherlands

General photography: http://www.nathanfoto.com
Seville photography: http://www.fotosevilla.com
Stock photography: http://www.alamy.com/search-results.asp?qt=wajsman
http://myloupe.com/home/found_photographer.php?photographer=507
Prints for sale: http://www.photodeluge.com



Replies: Reply from Frank.Dernie at btinternet.com (Frank Dernie) ([Leica] Bring Out the Negative Scanner)
In reply to: Message from Afterswift at aol.com (Afterswift@aol.com) ([Leica] Bring Out the Negative Scanner)