Considering the life of media, photography has only been around for 100 years or so and most of the early prints have gone, I suppose the Derrograph (SP) is the best survivor (I've also developed another way of making a silver and gold image on copper), not many silver prints have survived and platinum prints survive well but the paper base oxidises away and the paper prints fall to pieces. Plastic base is similar. The electronic files cannot be seen without a display unit and these become obsolete very quickly as do file types. The media itself is highly destructible as it is only plastic which slowly erodes due to the impact of light. A platinum CD would last longest but is it lightly that if one turned up in an archaeological dig in 2000 years time no method of reading it would be known and the discoverer may not know what it was. The amount of material we are dumping is very high but we efficiently destroy it all before committing it to landfill sites. We generally do not leave our ancestors gifts in their graves as we mostly cremate our dead. I do not see much hope that anything will survive the Horus all our precious memories will be eaten by him. Just enjoy life while you have got it as the future will take care of itself. Chris http://www.chrisspages.co.uk -----Original Message----- From: owner-photoforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-photoforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of steve harris Sent: 25 June 2009 22:18 To: List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students Subject: Re: [Fwd: Photography Half-Life (Decay Rate) Changes] David, You concluded that I'm "a bit of an anti-digital zealot". That is not strictly true. In fact, my problem may have been that of an early digital adopter. I started with a Canon G1 in 2001, progressed to a Fuji S2, later a Leica DMR, and then reverted to film capture for a number of reasons. One being that I was uncomfortable with the camera life cycles and cost. Canon is now on a G10, averaging about 1 new version every year. I continue to shoot digital in the studio. I shoot film on the street. I think that we may indeed see the end of almost all film within the next few years. Maybe I just want to shoot it while I still can. I started to think about this longevity issue when I digitized some 200 or so negatives my Grandfather shot in the 1920's. The recent announcement of Kodak about Kodachrome revived my thinking about it. I appreciate your thoughtful answer to my queries. Steve
