I agree with the sentiments below. My archives have negatives from 116 size and onwards, just over 55 years back to the earliest, and as 'hard copy' negatives, they can still be used. If you have read about The Pioneer Anomaly you will learn that one of the issues confronting NASA is the inability to use software from that era on existing platforms to investigate. NASA! Not 'podunk-ville'. What chance any digital-only image record being easily stored and easily read in 50 years by the home amateur? Seehttp://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/pioneer_anomaly/
Yes the slide was taken in 1957, so its 50 years old. I too have doubts about the archival quality of DVD/CD media.
The great thing about actual physical photos/slides is low tech access, If I died tomorrow half the stuff I've backed up would probably be binned. But that big box of kodachomes and all my albums would be looked at by my wife & kids simply without the need of a computer.
It makes me sad that so few images now never end up on paper, and I'm sure in 10-20 years there'll be loads of people lamenting the great pictures they took and lost in the early digital era.
Guest
24-Feb-2007 14:24
Shots like this remind me of my worries of going digital. This is what 40, 50 years old and probably looks as good as the day it was developed. Will our digital archival process hold up to this? I think a large part of the photographic community will be in for a sad shock as soon as 20 years from now, when we find out that optical media isn't as "archival" as once thought.
