momee Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 I'm going through pictures and just uploaded a few to my fb page. Would you keep the hardcopies? I can always reprint later and they aren't quality ones I would frame or anything... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Yes. I'm always afraid they will become inaccessible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Yes. I'm always afraid they will become inaccessible. What she said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pink and Green Mom Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Yep. We lost our pictures not once, but twice. Apparently we didn't learn the first time :crying: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalmia Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 I am thinking of going back to film for photography for important family memories because the digital images lifespan is constantly endangered by technology change and the lifespan of the preservation media (CDs, USBs don't last forever--remember floppy disks????). Properly printed and stored photos can last a hundred years. Floppy disks lasted maybe 10? CDs get scratched. I can use digital for my less important pictures and request a CD when I print my film (best of both worlds). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingiguana Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Yes. It's not clear if photos printed these days are going to have the staying power of older photos. Black and white photos seem to last longer. I don't know if color printing technology has improved recently, but my "old" color photos (10-20 years ago) are already fading. I want to scan them and get them reprinted as black and white photos. (The negatives might still be fine, but I haven't looked to see. I don't know if most people have hung on to their negatives -- or ever had them to start with) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingiguana Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 CD's, btw, seem indestructible, but apparently they break down after 10 years or so, even in good storage. We're already losing data stored on CD's from that short a time ago. It's not just that the technology changes and makes things unreadable. The companies producing these things may say they'll last forever, but the truth is, they only have a few years of data to back up this claim. Black and white photos, though, have stood the test of time. The only thing I'm not sure about is whether a black and white photo printed now is using the same technology as one printed 50 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 I keep the ones that are really special, but no-one needs 10,000 photos documenting their life. I go by how I would feel if that particular photo somehow disappeared. Most of them I don't feel strongly about, so they get tossed. I want my grandkids and great-grandkids to have some mementos of my life, but I figure a few special photos will be more meaningful to them than boxes full they can't identify. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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