Do photos on cd 'age'?

[Steve Hawkins]

Before getting a digital camera I used to get a cd scan (jpg) of my film
pictures when I had them processed. Though the scans were of much smaller
size than the ones I now typically get with the digital, I was always
impressed by them. Lately, though, when I go back to check some of these
old cds it is as if the images are aging and becoming oddly tinted and less
sharp than I remembered, and were less 'zoomable', quickly loosing
definition after a couple of clicks - as if they were aging colour prints in
fact.

I had hoped that having the images digitally 'preserved' would have
safeguarded them from such effects. How should one ensure one's pictures
can be accessed and faithfully reproduced in the future? Does one have to
save them in uncompressed form? If so, I'm going to need a lot more storage
space!

(Forgive me if this is old ground to some!)

Regards,

Steve_H

 

[Yves Alarie]

The answer is NO.
And the answer is ABSOLUTELY NO.

You were impressed with them because is was "new" then and fun. They were
not very good then and did not deteriorate. They were bad then and bad now.
You simply are using a better digital camera or scanner.

 

[Steve Hawkins]

'Absolutely'?

Also, I would have thought Kodak had a better scanner then, than I do now.

Anyhow, it is good to get such a positive response from time to time.

So thanks for that Yves.

Regards,

Steve_H

 

[ric]

'Absolutely'?

Also, I would have thought Kodak had a better scanner then, than I do now.

Anyhow, it is good to get such a positive response from time to time.

So thanks for that Yves.

Regards,

Steve_H

...although CD's don't last forever. You'd be wise to use decent CD-R
media and periodically check you can read it and reburn it to a fresh
CD every few years to be on the safe side...

Ric

 

[Steve Hawkins]

Thanks ric: that's one of the hassles I was afraid of!

Is it safer to store on hard drives, or even DVDs, than CD-R? Or even store
them on line with an isp?

Cheers,

S

 

[ric]

Thanks ric: that's one of the hassles I was afraid of!

Is it safer to store on hard drives, or even DVDs, than CD-R? Or even store
them on line with an isp?

Cheers,

there's no simple answer to this. i wouldn't consider storing them on
a powered off, archived HDD a particularly good solution due to
possibility of the drive not spinning up when you reconnect it. DVD is
less reliable than CD as a) it's more of an unknown, and b) the data
density on the disk is higher and there is less redundancy in data for
error correction - hence a scratch on a disk will have a higher chance
of causing problems on a DVD than on a CD. on line storage is all well
and good, but it's probably not a long term solution - what if they go
bust?

personally, i'd recommend burning periodically to decent CD-R,
labelling with date, and archiving somewhere safe (swapping backup
disks with a friend isn't a bad idea in case you have a house fire!),
and checking those backups periodically. i use an external hard disk
to backup to regularly - mine works either via USB2.0, or over my home
network which makes backups very convenient as i can do it wirelessly
from anywhere in the house (and can also FTP up to this disk from
anywhere on the internet). my external drive cost me approx $120 i
guess.
i use microsoft's free synctoy to backup my "my documents" folder to
this drive regularly - this is a really handy little utility, and you
can also schedule it to run automatically at regular intervals for
completely automatic backup.

this system works well for active backup, i.e. the drives are in
constant use. if you're talking about long term archiving (i.e.
archive and forget it, and expect it to be readable in x years) then
there's no simple solution other than regularly testing your ability to
recover. using decent optical media is a good idea, too.

ric

 

[Steve Hawkins]

More useful suggestions thanks Ric. I did try to get organised on this once
before, but found it all rather daunting and never got around to it. Also,
now that I have Google Desktop, it's very handy to have all the files 'live'
on the pc, where they can be instantly found (at least if I've gotten round
to filling in the properties sheets!). Then there's the burgeoning number of
'layers', crops, 'balances' etc from edited pictures to consider - save with
original, save separate, rename or derivative name, just chuck on assumption
that can be recreated... Fairly makes one's brain hurt!

GD has usefully extracted these saved links on the subject from Forbes
magazine that you might find interesting. The first demonstrates how even
the most careful preservation plans can be sadly fated never to succeed:

http://www.forbes.com/infoimaging/2005/04/14/cx_ah_0414photo.html

http://www.forbes.com/home/personaltech/2004/09/10/cx_ah0910tentech.html

Another not inconsiderable point is that things seem to cost twice as much
here in the UK as they do in the US, if my recent search for a new router is
anything to go by!

Cheers,

Steve_H