 BetterPhoto Member |
Preserving film negatives I'm looking for some thoughts on preserving photos. Over the past 40 years I've taken, at best guess, some 20,000 photographs, nearly all them candid shots of births, birthdays, vacations and everyday family memories. I have kept all my negatives in protective sleeves in notebooks. Now that I am nearing my 70's, I want to preserve what I have for future generations and family genealogists by puting them on CD's or DVD's. As such, I have a number of options: (a) I can have a professional photo lab do the work--relatively high resolution(equiv 5x7 size) but way too expensive. (b) I can have a store like Wal-Mart do the work--cost is less than $1.75 per roll but relatively low resolution (equiv 4x6 size) but they are not set up to dust, handle the film carefully and catalog the images consistantly. (c) Purchase a scanner and do the work myself--scanner prices range from $200 to $1000+. From my limited research, the market offers dedicated 35mm scanners and flat-bed models--some with film feeders and many without but I shudder at the time and work involved. Flat-bed models require more coordinated placement and handling of the film on the scanning bed. Dedicated scanners are usually limited to one size film. Both are perceived by me to be slow or slower than I would like, and color correction is a concern. Other concerns include how long CDs and CD players will be around before the standard CD technology meets the fate of the 3-1/2" floppy; storage format: JPEG, TIFF, BMP etc.; best media: CD or DVD, brand, single vs multi-layer, +R vs -R format, etc.
Thanks Ron
|
|
|
|
||
|
BetterPhoto Member |
This is a tough one with the rise of digital applications for photographic archiving. Before it was keep your negatives high and dry and hope for the best. But I think that CD's would be the way to go. First, unless you don't mind the work, I would have a professional lab do it. The job will be done by people who are paid WELL to do it on a daily basis. Also they will probably use better archiving materials (CD's, etc) than retailers, or at the very least can do so upon your request. If you have someone do it for you, talk to them and make sure you are confident with the way your images will be stored. After all, you're paying them. As to the longevity of CD's, even if the medium moves on to something bigger and better, and I'm sure it will, the images can be transfered from one medium to the next and so on and the use of premium materials should reduce image degradation. And one last note. COPIES. Give them to family members, keep two or three on hand. Accidents, disasters, things beyond our control. These events are bigger than just pictures but better to have one less thing to lament over. Walrath Photographic Imaging
|
|
|
|
||
|
This old forum is now archived. Use improved Forum here
Report this Thread |
||