Digital image longevity

Murray

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Oct 22, 2009, 9:00:56 AM10/22/09

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,26242938-25658,00.html

Alan Browne

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Oct 22, 2009, 4:33:51 PM10/22/09

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Murray wrote:
> http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,26242938-25658,00.html
>

The beginning of the article is great. He's focused on a mere 600
images and a lot (or as much data as he could glean) of detail about
those images. Great stuff.

The ending is the sad truth. Unless printed in some number and passed
around the family, such memories will fade or die. Passing them around
electronically is a near sure way to kill them. People do not back up
or organize their data adequately and eventually a disk lies with data
on it, on a shelf or in a dump, never to be seen again.

For most of us with a digital workflow (of sorts or very deliberate) the
data is likely to survive at least one generation beyond our leaving
this earth ... however, unless you print the best, most important and
most meaningful images - they are near doomed to die digitally. And
annotate those digital images as much as possible. Further, consider
releasing them into the cloud as public images as long as it's
reasonable that the data will remain intact within the images (and there
is nothing too personal about the images).

I recently attended a 50th anniversary party and photographed discretely
and formally just about everything. Part of this was a great outdoor
group shot, with rain, flash and sunlit dappled horizon. I printed this
large (and it has been framed). The family is having a dozen copies of
a bound book with many of the photos of the day printed for the family
(they will add the appropriate captions). That will be an enduring
memory for the family.

Murray

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Oct 26, 2009, 11:12:37 AM10/26/09

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Alan Browne wrote:
> I recently attended a 50th anniversary party and photographed discretely
> and formally just about everything. Part of this was a great outdoor
> group shot, with rain, flash and sunlit dappled horizon. I printed this
> large (and it has been framed). The family is having a dozen copies of
> a bound book with many of the photos of the day printed for the family
> (they will add the appropriate captions). That will be an enduring
> memory for the family.

I really must get back to the wet darkroom. Even my inkjet prints are
fading. The B/W laser prints are OK but wet looks better.

Alan Browne

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Oct 26, 2009, 12:52:30 PM10/26/09

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I use a pigment based printer. I don't expect displayed photos to fade
for a very long time.

Murray

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Oct 30, 2009, 11:33:35 AM10/30/09

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Alan Browne wrote:
> I use a pigment based printer. I don't expect displayed photos to fade
> for a very long time.

Are they available for Canon?

Alan Browne

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Oct 30, 2009, 1:34:18 PM10/30/09

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It's an Epson formulation for Epson high end printers (3800 in my case).
I believe the high end Canon's likewise have high lifetime pigment
based carts.

ColinD

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Nov 1, 2009, 5:54:51 PM11/1/09

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Yes. see:

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=182&modelid=12414

But you cannot use pigment inks in dye-ink printers of any brand.

Colin D.