JudyTee23 wrote:
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.
I recently had the pleasure of examining a small p... (
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