Digital BW, The Print

Robert Damon wrote:
> I'm getting excellent results scanning Kodachrome (and Ektachrome) 
> slides taken in the late 70's. So 25 year old Kodachrome slides are 
> holding up well in my hands. The slides look good visually and they 
> produce nice images via my Nikon 4000 ED scanner. The overwhelming 
> majority of them do not appeare to have visually deteriorated at all. 
> I'm not confident any of my digital images will be easily readable 25 
> years from now. Long term storage of digital data (not just images) is 
> a major issue for many of the reasons outlined by Peter Nelson (and 
> others). I've got lots (probably hundreds) of 3.5" floppy disks with 
> data (documents, etc.) prepared on a Macintosh IIx or IIci back in the 
> late 80s-early 90s. I doubt if I could read much of it anymore. The OS 
> has changed, software has changed or disappeared, floppy disk drives 
> are no longer standard equipment (on Macs, anyway), etc.  Most of them 
> will simply be discarded -- not worth the time or trouble anymore to 
> even figure out what's on them.

Most people have the idea, as put forth here, that computer technology 
will continue to be a good application of Moores Law.....  However with 
any technology, what it is capable of, surpasses the requirements of the 
typical user.  For example, to do email, web browsing, and word 
processing, a 500MHz processor, 128MB of memory and a 20GB hard drive 
are enough power. To do photo editing, bump the memory to 512MB and add 
a second hard drive (say 40GB) and your looking at enough resources to 
do 99% of what you want to do, even though the computer is running Win98 
or NT 4.

Now as for storage, CD and DVD are similar technologies, the next 
storage method may be similar again, or completely different, if it's 
similar enough, lets call it HVD (High capacity Versatile Disc) then no 
reason the drive can't support CD/DVD/HVD just like most DVD recorders 
and players support CD now.  Suppose the following technology is the UVD 
  (Ultra-high capacity Versatile Disc) -- capable of storing all of the 
startrek TV shows and movies on a single disc, along with all of the 
commentaries, and bios of all the actors etc.  Those drives can easily 
have the ability to support CD/DVD/HVD/UVD on a single drive....

The problem with CD/DVD recordable media is that it uses dyes to 
represent data, and photographers with large collections of C-22 and E-4 
materials know that dyes can and do fade with time.  So we need a 
storage method that either uses more stable dyes, or a completely 
dye-less process.

W















> 
> On the other hand, I have talked to some friends who, during that time 
> period (late 70's) bought cheap film (repackaged inexpensive movie 
> film, I think it was) thinking they were saving money vs. buying 
> Kodachrome. Their images have all but disappeared, and are now useless. 
> So not all film will last. Kodachrome is apparently among the best of 
> the color films in this regard. Properly processed and stored high 
> quality B&W film is probably the best for long term storage.
> 
>