Film vs digital Christmas flower comparison

[WA3VJB]

For Paul, here's the XYL this afternoon- 60 degrees and ptly cloudy. No snow on the daffodils.

Taken with a Blackberry Curve on "medium" setting.

60 degrees, eh ?  Looks fully jacketed to me.  Then again, if she's like Pam, the multi-layering stays put until about mid-May, then maybe we see skin.

Speaking of whom, the missus is in FLORIDA where it was 80 degrees today at Tiger Island, northeast part of the state.  Visiting her kin, escaping our big snowstorm overnight.

I've got one of those BB Curves too.  Awful unit.  No flash, no way to force an exposure bright or dark, digital zoom is horrid, blah blah blah.

Yet, I've taken shots on the dang thing because it was there and easy to fetch up. So it's better than nothing.

[KB2WIG]

"    How do I save my digital photography for my grandkids to enjoy 30 years from now? "

Try this system?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Disc


klc

[Steve - K4HX]

OK, print them out and put them in a shoebox.

Recordable CDs and DVDs have a lifespan of <<about>> 15 years, and that timeframe is VERY plant dependent (where the discs where actually made).

--Shane
KD6VXI

That's the thing, nothing has replaced the shoebox of old family portraits printed on Kodak paper. I have them going back almost 150 years and they''ll probably be good 150 years from now. What format does digital have that's guaranteed to be readable in 2200? I do still own a 1980s IBM PC, who would know how to run it? Or even this Intel box dated 2009?

[WA1GFZ]

I've been storing my digital photos on multiple computers so I have a back up waiting for the right storage device.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Yep, I agree - hard copies are the best bet for long-term compatibility with the MKI Eyeball.

Just be aware that if you're creating and saving them as .jpeg files, you're not going to enjoy the resolution you'd see with good ol' film. Digital photography beats film hands down for speed and convenience, big issues in today's world. But film shot through the proper optics still wins out for overall color, clarity, and resolution. You can come close with digital formats(RAW,TIFF), but they require a lot more massaging to get there, more work than getting a role of film developed and printed. Pick your poison.

[WA3VJB]

Interesting market trend regarding the printing of photos by retail labs, regardless of whether the source is film or digital.  They've nearly all switched over to digital prints with dye-based ink, rather than on photosensitive "chemical based" paper.

I shoot 120/medium format 6x7 and 2 1/4, but the negatives use the same C-41 developing chemistry that my 35mm film uses.  Most labs locally still have all the C-41 chemistry, so what I've been doing is simply getting the film developed, then scanning at high resolution those frames I want to review on a monitor or ultimately, burn down to a disc to take back and have them print.

I can also ship that disc to a place that can print with photosensitive paper. I can scan at a level of detail far greater than the grains in the negative, and greater than the default setting the lab might use as an interface to get from the film negative to the digital print.  So the "weak" link, if it can be called that, is still the grain structure at least among elements I have the control over.

For ordinary snapshot stuff of course I just shoot the frame to the wireless printer upstairs and presto, out comes a print.  

Still reassuring to have physical media like a negative or a print as a "source" for the future, instead of sole reliance on a digital storage format that might not be around.

[Opcom]

"    How do I save my digital photography for my grandkids to enjoy 30 years from now? "

Try this system?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Disc


klc

There was, maybe is, still a format guaranteed 100 years. It is a laserdisc. The less costly version used some kind of matrix between two glass discs and was a constant angular velocity analog system with a resolution of about 700x488 in the luminance channel and half that horizontally in the chrominance, which was TDM'd between the two color components. It could also store data wit an optional interface and had the old SCSI as an interface.

Those technologies are surely already obsolete, but simple enough that a player could be built in the future. What digital formats even exist that will be recoverable without errors in 100 years, or even 1000?

As time passes, we see our important data moved from one technology to another because of obsolescence and upgrades. At some point the data we have cherished and considered important may be discarded, or in some way set aside and forgotten until the media or storage mechanism decays.

[w1vtp]

Many years ago I blew up my XT computer by misplugging the power supply into the board by one pin.  Blew the MB to smithereens.  I still have the 20 MB MFM HD and as far as I can tell it should be fine.

Lesson here is that I have files on that HD that I would love to extract but nothing except a XT type clone could read it.  The data is still there (probably) but it is inaccessible.  Unless we migrate these files or or in the case of my inaccessible files print them they can be gone forever.  It pays to more than duplicate. Use  more than one medium

[flintstone mop]

Hey AL
Here is a link to a nice gadget I have used many times to save my bacon.

http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20070222/access-any-old-hard-drive-via-usb/
 
Or this one from the bay:

  http://cgi.ebay.com/HDD-Hard-Drive-Multi-Function-Dock-Card-Reader-SATA-IDE-/170609074269?pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item27b917e05d


The laptop HDD can be powered from the USB port.
The reader from the ebay link has its own PS to power a SATA or IDE HDD.

Be careful accessing Win 95 or 98 HDD's. You might corrupt the data on the drive. I have had no problems with reading and grabbing files from an XP HDD.
Fred

[K3ZS]

For digital photo archiving I use Memorex ProGold CD's.    They are suppose to last a hundred years, I'll tell my grandchildren to let you know if that is true.  The Gold substrate doesn't tarnish or degrade (so they claim).     They also recommend copying at a speed no greater than 16x, the higher speeds don't completely burn.    You get 3 CD's for about $10, not cheap but maybe my ancestors will appreciate them if they still have digital CD drives around.

[flintstone mop]

Those gold blanks were cheap around 1999. I bought hundreds of them as I built a digital audio library converting my vinyl audio.

Fred

[w1vtp]

Hey AL
Here is a link to a nice gadget I have used many times to save my bacon.

http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20070222/access-any-old-hard-drive-via-usb/
 
Or this one from the bay:

  http://cgi.ebay.com/HDD-Hard-Drive-Multi-Function-Dock-Card-Reader-SATA-IDE-/170609074269?pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item27b917e05d


The laptop HDD can be powered from the USB port.
The reader from the ebay link has its own PS to power a SATA or IDE HDD.

Be careful accessing Win 95 or 98 HDD's. You might corrupt the data on the drive. I have had no problems with reading and grabbing files from an XP HDD.
Fred

I'm intrigued.  We are talking about the ancient MFM format HD's, right?  I can read SATA and PATA HDs with my external cables.  But I'd be at a loss on how to hook up my old ST225 Seagate. The connections aren't even close.  Tell me more.

BTW, here is a facinating video of  one of those beauties reving up.  I do NOT recommending exposing the disks as this person did. Sure way to have a head crash

Al

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EwyLhzjlug&NR=1

[flintstone mop]

oooohhhh boy Al,
That is very old Hard drive technology. In the IBM room at work they had many stations of these things spinning away. The IT guys called them juke boxes