|
Post by Dave Watkins on Dec 3, 2008 16:46:02 GMT -5
So I'm paging through Rangefinder magazine and I see an ad for this company that archives your digital images ... on film. What am I missing here? The company says that archiving digital images digitally is risky because of the lack of "archivalness" of media such as CD, and because hard drives fail and computer systems become obsolete. Does anyone see the point to this? digineg.com
|
|
|
Post by Pierre Stephenson on Dec 3, 2008 17:33:54 GMT -5
I saw this earlier this summer in Rangefinder and had much of the same reaction. It fascinated me that we seem to have come full circle.
I still have some problems with some of what they claim.
"they (digital storage) lack the chemical and mechanical stability to provide true archiving" - DigiNeg by Acmeworks True standard CD will start to degrade in 3 to 5 years, and Sharpie markers will kill them really quickly. However, digital storage provides an extremely inexpensive solution allowing us to maintain multiple backups and regularly renew our archive without any loss of data.
Additionally, archival CDs and DVDs are available with lifespans of approx. 200 years.
"Now consider film. Chemically, it's been scientifically proven to have a useful lifespan of hundreds of years. Mechanically, it can’t fail because there’s nothing to fail." - DigiNeg Saying that film cannot mechanically fail is simply false. It is subject to handling, storage, environment and physical issues that can be just as much of a factor in archiving and longevity.
While I think this is an interesting alternative, or perhaps another way to augment your archives, it is by no means full proof and is definitely not a lossless storage medium.
|
|