Re: PHOTO-3D digest 2282

[P3D wpflem <wpflem@xxxxxxxxxx>]

>
>
> Despite your feelings about it, I respectfully disagree.
> A digital image can *literally* last a billion
> years without any degradation.  I don't have proof,
> but I don't think even Kodachrome could last
> that long without degrading at least a little.
>
> Not that those a billion years from now will care,
> but with digital imagery, they could.  :-)
>
> Mike K.
>

What storage media for the billion years do you have in mind?  Below is
a response which I recently received.  It nicely addresses the issue of
image longevity at least circa 1990's.

"...the very best longevity estimates of digital storage media pale in
comparison to the dark storage estimates of color film. Make B&W seps of

the color film and you're way beyond 100 year life. CDs are expected to
last ten years, and tape - forget it. Worse yet, new technologies always

obsolete current media. I can still print glass plates shot over 100
years
ago, but I can't read digital files created only five years ago. Even
NASA
can't view the tapes from the first Mars mission. The drives that wrote
them don't work and they aren't even repairable. One way out is to
transfer
the digital files to new media every few years. Another is to get a
repro
quality contact dupe which will last longer than any original camera
film."

--
WP Fleming <wpflem@xxxxxxxxxx>

http://www.zianet.com/wpflem



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