Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/07

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Slide Preservation
From: Jem Kime <jem.kime@cwcom.net>
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 20:23:22 -0000

Gib,
having worked in the visual media for the last twenty years or so, the 
advice I might pass on, is keep the originals rather than worry about the 
transfers to whatever is "this season's" storage medium.

There have been at least 6 different 'state of the art' media which various 
libraries have been dumped on to in that time, as ever, the best way for 
researching the past is to go back to the original.
if there's a use for the digital files, sure, but keep the originals, 
they're not too large surely?

best wishes,
Jem



- -----Original Message-----
From:	Gib Robinson [SMTP:robinson@sfsu.edu]

Maybe I missed a bit of the Kodachrome/E6 debate but I didn't hear any
mention of photo CD's as a way to preserve slides you want to keep. 
Whatever
the life span of current E6 is, there are still many ways to lose slides
besides the aging process. Now we have pretty good digital means to 
preserve
them. For around $2.00 per image you can get a digital file that will
produce a good print up to 8x10. For about $15 you can get a BIG file for
big prints. Those prices will clearly drop. Since disk storage is pretty
cheap and getting cheaper, you can transfer those CD images to a hard
drive/JAZ drive, optical disk or whatever and keep them around for many
years.

I have photographs that my grandfather took on his honeymoon. He was a
wonderful photographer and he kept photographing printing until he was near
ninety. The photos are priceless and I assume most of us have photos our
grandchildren, nieces and nephews would want to see and preserve even if no
one else does. Since we all put good $ into equipment, processing, etc.
Seems we should take care of our investments.

- --Gib