Need External Hard Drive

Are you sure? I am not.

 

 

Well, I have an original Baldus print from 1856 that still looks pretty good. I also have an original Atget that also looks good.

Well, I have an original Baldus print from 1856 that still looks pretty good. I also have an original Atget that also looks good.

We're talking about storage and preservation of hundreds or thousands of photos. You're talking about 2 valuable prints which have been preserved over time.

 

Apples, meet oranges.

Well, I have an original Baldus print from 1856 that still looks pretty good. I also have an original Atget that also looks good.

 

Interesting thread, I've enjoyed reading all of the opinions! But, Arthur, I've got to ask. How much better did that print look in 1856? I have some 40 year old printed photographs of mine hanging on the walls here that I can see time has degraded them some and they've never been exposed to direct sunlight. I still have the slides stored safely, so I'm not too concerned. However, I'm more comfortable with the safe storage of my digital files over the last 15 years.

Doug I’m not. I have quite a few prints and many negatives dating back 40 years and slides even older that look just fine. They were technically good when new and still are and I can print most of them today without the use of a computer. I look at digital files from around 2005 and am not as impressed. The quality is getting better constantly but from what I have read here, if I don’t power up whatever storage units I am using from time to time those files may simply disappear and what happens if a drive unit just dies? Will I leave digital behind? Of course not but I don’t feel as confident about it’s longevity. Time will tell and I hope it proves me wrong but I haven’t sold off all my film stuff just yet.

 

Rick H.

I don’t feel as confident about it’s longevity

What longevity are you concerned about? I imagine that if you're like most of us here, you're in your sixties or seventies. Maybe in the next 30 years, you'll have to transfer your digital files to a new backup 3 times to keep them safe. Beyond that, what is it you're worried about? That generations will want access to your files because you're going to be the next Vivian Maier? And, my guess is that if, instead, you're in your 20s or 30s, you're in the minority worrying about digital longevity, since that demographic has grown up in a digital world and don't have the same fears about it that many old geezers do.

Future generations , (at least some people) , will be interested , not everyone has the "throwaway" mentality.

"throwaway" mentality

Perhaps think of it as living for the moment.

 

[How many moments have some of us “thrown away” protecting our negatives, prints, and files that will very likely be tossed by a relatively near future generation which doesn’t recognize the immortality we think is embedded in them.]

 

Now, I will say, I enjoy having even little Polaroid and faded and some partially-torn snapshots (this is what happens to a lot of prints over time in the real world) of my grandparents and young parents. So, along the way, I’ve made sure to print a bunch of my generation’s family pics, not because I think my digital files can’t last into the future but because I think the next generation of stevens and co. will benefit more from having something tangible at their fingertips. I have no doubt, however, that some people are leaving to their children and grandchildren digital, manageable photo albums (not storages of hundreds of thousands of unedited files) that will take the place of those wonderful somewhat moldy smelling shoeboxes that currently house my family’s previous generations’ memories.

Edited June 5, 2021 by samstevens

My digital photography files and negs will fade with me and not be a burden for others. My prints will last as long as the memory shoebox lasts. I am making the best shoebox i can. Edited June 5, 2021 by inoneeye

The longevity of any photo, digital, negative, print, or whatever is as long as someone cares about it - and that has little to do with how long we, the photographer, thinks that should be. I've created all-the-above versions of many photos and my current belief is that the only versions that will survive will be digital in nature. The next generations are not interested in printed, and with smaller homes, less wall space, a lack of the "collections mentality" I think it's important to share with as many as possible, and for us that is digital. It's working in our family, and that's good enough for us. YMMV, of course.

Sam as an upcoming geezer there’s no question the vast majority of my photos are of limited interest to most. When I was shooting film every day I might print five on a roll of 36. Thing is, many times that photo meant something to someone and still does. Maybe a high school basketball player that’s going to be a grandmother one day, that sort of thing. At least four times over the years I’ve done some family photos that could only be done that day, not before and never again. The one day when all the kids, grand kids, grandparents, the moms and dads and aunts and uncles were together. Each time, within a matter of months someone in that photo passed and not necessarily the oldest. It was a photo that will never be taken again of an event that will never be repeated. That’s an important photo and I want to use the medium I trust most for longevity. Will all my work last forever and be considered historic? Of course not but after 40 plus years of this and thousands of images I have a good idea that some will outlast me. Ansel Adams I’m not, never claimed to be, but I’ve made a few images that meant something to people I know. It was time well spent.

 

Rick H.

When you die, your wife's next husband will throw out all your photos. If you want immortality, carve your initials on a redwood.

Archival prints are nice.. so long as anyone wants to keep them.

 

Digital is probably some what less subject "to the gnawing criticism of the mice" as one famous philosopher said about his earlier work. It takes up a lot less space, anyhow.

 

There was a sci-fi story about how the world's knowledge was successively compresssed until it was all on a centimeter cube. Then someone lost it:rolleyes:

There was a sci-fi story about how the world's knowledge was successively compresssed until it was all on a centimeter cube. Then someone lost it:rolleyes:

If the tree of knowledge falls in an empty garden, does anyone know it fell?

If the tree of knowledge falls in an empty garden, does anyone know it fell?

Yes, we'll all know that there is no more knowledge.

I am keeping a well curated (well they interest me and are not too repetitive) set of photos so I can enjoy them in my dotage, or so I planned. But actually I find a lot of memories they bring back are not strictly healthy (nostalgia, sadness at those who have died/moved away/not seen). This is something I never anticipated when I was a young buck. Perhaps when life becomes more settled I will enjoy them more as I thought I would. So many plans go astray.