JudyTee23 Loc: Eastern U. S.

I recently had the pleasure of examining a small private collection of old photographic prints, some of which dated back to our Civil War, 150 years ago.

One group of prints particularly interested me. They were 16x20 inch contact prints from 16x20 glass plates. The prints were dated about 1910. They were over a century old, and most were cityscapes photographed from high elevations. The detail in those old prints was absolutely astounding.

The question comes to mind, will our digital images of today be so readily available a century hence? If so, in what form?

Thirty years ago, images were stored on 5½ inch floppy disks. Can anyone read such a disk with today's hardware? Then came the smaller 3½ disks. They are becoming rare and while I still can read them today, what happens when the present equipment wears out?

Then came CD's. But CD's I burned five years ago are unreadable today. The local IT guys tell me the laser tracings have deteriorated. Is the same fate awaiting DVD's?

Many recommend archiving via external hard drives. Will the microscopic magnetic tracings on the disks survive for a century? And, if so, will there be hardware and software available to render the images useful?

Today, I can look at some old photos and see my grandparents as children. Will future generations be able to do the same? Or will our digital images of today disappear like the morning mists?

I am concerned about the obvious ephemeral qualities of digital imagery. I am old-fashioned. I am reducing all of my most treasured digital images to paper prints. For the moment, that is the best solution for me.

I am sure our UHH Forum experts have other opinions and maybe better solutions.

I would like to read some comments.

Annie_Girl Loc: It's none of your business

simply put - it will survive but the general public will not be able to view it in their homes. The media will be obsolete, prints on quailty paper will continue to survive. This is why I erge all my clients to order prints and discourage digital file sales.

wilsondl2 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska

I agree, I got a box of glass negatives on ebay and contact printed them and they are great. - Dave

Ched49 Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.

I don't think you have anything to worry about, I also love to spend hours looking at old family black & whites. Today's technology will find ways to make it easier to save old prints and files.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Boy this strikes nerve with me. The ONLY medium we can be reasonably sure will survive is paper prints. B&W is particularly suited for longevity.

Computers are shipping without CD/DVD drives already. Of course we can buy externals, but the trend is everything from the "cloud."

I see entire family histories being lost due to the stupid and I do mean STUPID idea that digital files are the way to go. Facebook is not your family album and yes, we are learning that CD's burned just few years ago are corrupted.

Did I mention that thinking digital storage will keep images for the future is STUPID. :-)

SpeedyWilson Loc: Upstate South Carolina

This information might be helpful as you plan for the future:

http://atyourlibrary.org/passiton/preserving-digital-photographs

However, as the recent heir of my parents' boxes of old photos, I still plan on making and keeping paper prints of a select number of our current family images. There's a lot of fun in passing around a handful of old photos at family gatherings.

RaydancePhoto

There are gold CD's and DVD's that will store data for over 100 years. They are expensive, but will save your precious data for much longer than standard CD/DVD.

Forget flash drives, they have a life of 10 years max.

Standard hard drives (not solid state drives) stored properly CAN last a very long time.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Right, and this applies to things other than photographs. Suppose the Declaration of Independence had been composed on an Apple Retina iMac Pro. Where would it be now?

I think the only thing we can absolutely, positively count on to survive indefinitely are financial records - how much we owe to banks.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

I understand. Still a STUPID idea. Will your great grandchildren have the Machine to access them.

Nothing beats paper prints in an album or even a shoe box.

RaydancePhoto

I actually agree on the possibility of the medium becoming obsolete. We have been through many in my lifetime. I have some 5 1/4 floppies, but nothing to put them into.

Like vinyl records, prints will store longer than anything if stored properly. I still have some old Edison vinyl records that are 1/4 inch thick that still play.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Right!

Quick! Go find these in your house: 78 RPM record player; 33 1/3 RPM record player, open reel tape deck, 8-track tape player, cassette tape player, Beta player, VHS player, 8 mm movie projector, Super-8 movie projector, filmstrip projector, slide projector. Are they in good, working condition?

I bet your photo albums are readily available with loads of pictures from the old days.

Kuzano

I am in your camp on this.

The simple and most expedient answer to the OP question is a Resounding and Qualified NO!!!!!!!!

I have been a computer consultant for 25 years. I have seen in that amount of time, even though digital photography was not in vogue over that time, how many migrations of data to new media would have been needed to get a digital image file from a camera from 25 years ago onto media that is still relatively available today.

Regarding your post on no CD/DVD burners in many computers, how about this one. I am told (have yet to verify) that there is now longer support for Optical devices (CD/DVD) in Windows 8. If you want to burn CD/DVD's you now have to buy third party software. I will be checking this out.

In addition as the OP mentioned that a friend warned her on CD usage, you can scare yourself right out of using optical disks by doing a search on the terms:

CD Rot
DVD Rot

I haven't used optical media for other than temporary data to transfer to other computers for over a year.

So, without belaboring this post, Anyone anticipating the storage of any photographic image is INSANE to think it is possible in everyday use, and likely for business archival.

Film and Print. Won't it be interesting when we all discover the only way we can really save digital image files is to output them to film (positive or negative) or Print.

Now where did I put that film camera(s). Oh Yeah, I am still shooting mostly medium and large format, and I know exactly where all my negatives, transparencies and print are located.

For those fully converted, Happy Temporary Photography.

Kuzano

I encourage you, of all postings on this thread, to google or yahoo the terms:

CD Rot
DVD Rot

Particularly with reference to specialty long term archival products. You may be partially right, but it's still and interesting exercise.

Kuzano

Now add to the list....

IBM punch card
Cassette tape for Cassette disk (Media for Texas Instruments TI99A computer)
Micro Cassette Tape for hand recorder.
8 inch floppy disk
5 1/4 inch floppy disk
DAT tape cassette
Zip Drive Disk
Jazz Drive Disk
Flash Media memory card (camera)
Compact Flash Card?? still in use somewhat

There is more, your post is a good start.

rebride

When I think photograph, I think print, but that's another subject.
Hard drives, flash drives, SD etc. cards are only very temporary storage. Certainly not archival. Five years without transfer to another drive and your asking for trouble.