[Leica] Film recorder services

[jplaurel at gmail.com (Jim Laurel (gmail))]

I think your kids and family will definitely be interested in seeing your 
photos in 50-100 years. Just imagine how interested you are to see your 
grandparents and great grandparents photos from their time. But as you say, 
and as Brian points out in his presentation, whether anyone in the interim 
will be motivated to continually move your images to the current form of 
storage is another matter altogether.

But transferring to film seems a huge task to undertake. We're all facing 
the same dilemma. I think the best bet is to simply make archival prints of 
your best work and store them properly.

I am interested in this idea of printing negatives with inkjet printers on 
transparency material, then using those transparencies for contact printing 
onto photographic paper. I've seen some very nice results from that process.

--Jim


On Mar 26, 2014, at 3:17 PM, Howard Ritter <hlritter at bex.net> wrote:

> The more I read and think about the transient nature of digital recording, 
> and the inevitable loss of our digital photos as recording media become 
> obsolete, I wonder about how to preserve my best work. I can personally 
> transfer files from, say, my hard disk to whatever medium replaces it, 
> using wifi in order to avoid obsolescence of connectors etc?at least as 
> long as wifi protocols remain backward-compatible. I know it's sheer 
> vanity to think even my kids and their children would have any interest in 
> seeing pictures from 50 or 100 years, let alone anyone else in the future 
> world, but which of us isn't driven to some extent by vanity?
> 
> It seems to me that the best way to back up a digital photo in at least 
> acceptably faithful form would be to print it on film (idea not original 
> with me of course). The most accurate and at the same time most 
> bulletproof way would be to print the R, G, and B components of a digital 
> file each on its own frame of silver-based monochrome film, but that might 
> be over the top except for the most important archival purposes of the 
> most exceptional pictures. I'd think that printing at maximal resolution 
> on a K/F'chrome emulsion (as long as they remain available) or a 
> silver-based K/F'color emulsion would be practical and serve the purpose 
> well. I make the assumption that there will always be a way to convert a 
> film image to the digital du jour. Preserving the emulsions then is its 
> own separate task, but maybe more easily accomplished than preserving a 
> digital file. I could see doing this with the best few hundred of my 
> photos that (IMHO) have some value other than family or temporary 
> significance if the price is reasonable.
> 
> Questions: has any LUGger actually done this or heard of its being done? 
> Is anyone making consumer film printers any longer? I remember them from 
> 25 or 30 years ago but a quick Google didn't turn up anything except what 
> looks like industrial stuff for maybe for producing film for movie 
> theaters. Is there a commercial service that will make 35mm film prints of 
> digital files?
> 
> ?howard
> 
> 
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