Re: new alt process--gelatin silver

Amen, Bob, and if I can think of another reason to 'hold a real object in your hand' rather than create a facimilie for HISTORICAL STORAGE???, I shall post that one too.

S.
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Bob Maxey
  To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
  Sent: Friday, April 08, 2005 7:37 AM
  Subject: Re: new alt process--gelatin silver

>>>National Gallery in Ottawa, Ont. (Canada) has gone away from CD-ROM for
  documenting their images towards going the film route- you know- THE WET
  Route. As they feel the CDs' are not resistant to viruses.
  So there, don' worry- the wet route will not disappear. It is up to most of
  us to keep the rote going.>>>

  Without starting a film is/is not better than digital thread, allow me a few moments to point a few things out. These are my opinions; they must be opinions because no accurate information exists to contradict me (smiley)

  The problem with digital anything is it does not really exist. It is a series of bits and bytes; ones and zeros, existing only as data that is subject to problems; now, or down the road. Or possibly never, fat chance. I am certain that more than a few people have lost years of work due to a computer problem.

  Film and prints are different. They are solid. The exist. You can hold them in your hands and you can damage them without too many problems. To a point. Stains can be removed. Creases can exist, but the image largely remains. If the prints are in a fire, you can often recover part of the image (been there, done that). Melt a CD and that's that.

  You can store the images in terrible conditions and still recover the image. Well, to a point. Magnets do not affect my slides and negatives. I have plenty of Kodachrome slides processed by Technicolor. Many have turned funky colors and faded. I can recover the original glory if I want to spend time and effort. If a digital file fails, there is no guarantee I will be able to recover the files.

  Digital has advantages. but in my view, one should never depend on digital files for LT storage of our history.

  What concerns me is the use of truly cheap digital media. Many people use those 5,000 for a buck forty nine CDs, and in my opinion, this is a big mistake. We simply do not know what awaits those files years down the road. I would be really concerned to learn that once transferred to CD, the originals are destroyed. If a museum did do this, chances are the reason would be so the files can be distributed on the net or on CD. If they put convenience above common sense, I say, forget making it easy for the masses to access and keep the original files in storage.

  I bought one of the very first CD players. The few CDs I bought with the machine cannot be played. I do not know what happened, but the disks do show damage. My 78 RPM records are perfect and playable to this day. Scratches are there, but so is the content.

  I am glad The National Gallery is changing their wicked ways. I hope it is a trend.

  Bob
  ...

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Received on Fri Apr 8 09:05:35 2005