There seems to be some rumblings on this subject so I'll weigh in with
the following:
Writable discs (the kind we are most likely to use for archiving digital
images) *may* only last a relatively short period of time (say 10 years
or so). The pits on these discs are turned on or off via the laser when
the disc is written to and it is conceivable that they could flip back
to their previous states, moreso on the re-writable than the WORM (write
once read many) variety. Given that WORM blank discs are as inexpensive
as they are, I would advise using them for archiving scans.
If the label side delaminates then you could well have data loss. Discs
which have scratches, etc. on the read side can often be "fixed" with
polishes. The data is right underneath a thin protective layer on the
label side. Scratch (or delaminate) the data side and data is gone.
All this means is that we will need to periodically move our files from
one storage medium to the next over time. No big deal really since the
copied files should be loss-less. As long as you do this before hardware
specifications change and/or die off...there should be no worries.
Presumably the file standards such as TIFF and JPG should remain viable
for the forseable future. Beyond that it will be up to out heirs to
figure out how to extract and output our images for future generations
;-)
HTH clear some of this up...happy holidays all and have a safe New
Year's Eve!
Mike Veglia
Motor Sport Visions Photography
www.motorsportvisions.com
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