The true history of the digital

[joe_pelizza_salusso_di_vol]

What they do not tell you about the digital.

At the moment and for the two century to come, we will not have any

litterature about the digital, their conservation, the possibility of

reading it in the future, the compatibility, and so on.

All we know is that the normal word texts written with star programm

only 15 years ago need a special computer for beeing read today; that

the compatibility between one system and the other is not always

possible; that between ten years the power of the digital system may

require a different programm system for beeing implemented; on the

contrary a normal b&w negative even of the end of the '800 may be

processed today; a kodakrome slide after 40 years have very good dyes

(my personal archive). With a normal Leica M system you can use all

the lenses produced in these last fifty years, with a digital system,

what assurance have you? Are they going to substitute a plastic

camera with onother after only five years? (All this, of course, in

the name of the progress!!). The point is that we have no litterature

at all about the digital system. All the thing that they out there

are telling us is just ads, and nothing else: what about the sun

cycle radioactivity on the digital system? What about the perfect X

ray controll of the Xywkjztdewr airport? What about the drain of the

batteries?

By Joe

[oliver_s.]

No image agency can survive without making sure their stock is safe, so I bet solutions will be found.<p>Compatibility is hardly an issue nowadays. Tiff and jpeg are the format standards; CDs and DVDs are the physical standards. Regularly making backup copies, and re-writing original data at least once a year, is SOP for anyone who deals with IT systems.<br>What do you refer to with "the power of the digital system"? We're so electricity-dependent nowadays that ensuring 'power' has priority in all major towns. Internally (in the reading device), I don't care how the thing maintains its juice.<br>Talk about film longevity to a friend of mine who learned the hard way that his cellar is very close to the next river. As CDs need considerably less space, he stored them upstairs in his apartment.<br>I don't care about long-term compatibility of lenses as I don't expect a camera to last more than ten years.<br>There wouldn't be any life on the earth's surface if solar radiation outside the 400-800nm range made it through the atmosphere in considerable doses.<br>An X-ray system that damages CDs or DVDs would be causing <u>physical</u> damage to the storage medium, i.e. it would also damage non-conductive material such as clothing. Aside from the practical aspects, you don't need such strong radiation to look "into" luggage. And there's still the wireless transmission of data.<p>Summary: a number of the problems you mention have been solved, and better solutions will be found.

[oliver_s.]

You may also have a look at the answers in <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=004KbO">this thread</a>.

[richard harris]

*Yawns*

[Robin Smith]

Despite the confident assertions of Olivier and others. I too am doubtful on the longevity of digital files of any type for my lifetime. I am not someone who looks on with equanimity of having 10,000 + shots (my present stock) or so become unreadable or needing constant updating to keep them compatible. These are not trivial concerns to me. This is both a software and hardware issue. Sure solutions will be available - but at what time and cost? Stock libraries will of course keep up to date, but I do not, nor will I ever have the kind of resources or time to do this. It is also painfully boring! This combined with the lack of good projection systems for digital images that approaches slide quality and the ease in assessing and editing slides and even negative film, means that it will be a long time before I will seriously consider a digital camera for my own personal stuff. If I was a professional with demanding clients it would be a different story. My opinion may well change of course, but this is my view as of now.

[jay_.]

Looking at the technology of today, Yogi Berra might say "history is becoming a thing of the past" ;>)

[jack_lo_..._t_o]

I think in the future "camera" retailing will resemble computer retailing. There'll be a choice of systems, little or no brand loyalty (e.g.,I just noticed my monitor is a Phillips-do I care?), constant changes(maybe even improvements)in the technology, and we'll get used to shelling out a few grand every so often in order to keep up.This digital technology is such a boon to the manufacturers! It blows away the SLR revolution of the 60s, the auto exposure explosion of the 80s,and the auto-everything of the 90s. In 5 years 35mm film will occupy just a shelf in a large store, and in 10 years--it'll be like finding 627 film today. There is something marvelous about Digital, but make no mistake--we are to get fleeced.

[igor_osatuke]

A client brought a 32meg flash card with Kyocera USB reader yesterday. She needed prints of the five images on that card. We spent close to an hour trying different ways to access the card: USB port on Mac, USB port on several PCs, Kyocera did not have a Mac driver for the device, PC's would not see the device even with the driver installed. I have a card reader that's about two years old, but it is a SCSI machine, and none of our computers have SCSI any more, plus the reader will not accept this size card anyway. So she took the card back, and is going to e-mail the images from her computer. Welcome to the digital future v1.01. My two cents.

Cheers.

[joel_matherson]

All rehash of the film/digital arguement aside as I believe digital is here to stay, but I do wonder about the formats for storage too. I went Nikon digital with Compact Flash technology. Is this another beta vs VHS battle in the making? VHS may have won that one but its now on the way out. You may like digital but you've got to give film the credit for how long it has perservered in several popular formats. I have no fears I wont be able to get film for the rest of my life.

[fotografz]

I think Jay's post is the most accurate. The disposable society has

caught up with photography...and the future ain't what it use to be.

[al_kaplan1]

It makes perfect sense that they want to sell us new plastic housed crap every couple years with new software to access the latest temporary digital camera storage medium. They gotta make money selling SOMETHING if nobody's buying film anymore. Kodak sold cameras so people would buy film

[norman_mayersohn]

Actually, Al, Kodak even gave away cameras so people would buy film. You probably recall that the 1930 Anniversary Kodak (a brown box camera marking the company's 50th year) was given free to anyone who came into the store with a 1918 birth certificate. My father, born in 1917, still holds a grudge that he wasn't eligible.