Digital Dark Age

I've talked about this on that other website, which I haven't visited since a long-standing member there told me to "shoo".

There are lots of things that I hate about digital cameras but most of them can be fixed either through better design and/or technological improvements in the (far-off) future. The biggest problem with digital is reliable storage or the lack of it. A digital format is extremely reliable when it comes to reproduction and tranmission. However, when it comes to storage, any digital format is volatile. And this will won't change any time soon. The monetary and time costs for ensuring that a digital file lasts, are also quite substantial.

The following article talks about a 'Digital Dark Age'. I personally feel that this is very real and that photographers (and their clients) should take this problem seriously.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081027174646.htm

The storage is one of the downfalls to shooting digital.

Currently my steps for storage after any shoot - personal or client is to download all my cards to my laptop, then from there copy all of those files over to an external hard drive as well. Only after I know I have the files on my laptop and external do I format my cards. This way I know I have 2 copies of each file.

This is still limited in what I need. I would like to get up to an offsite backup and maybe also an online solution.

I haven't read the article but I'm assuming it may also talk about file formats and the storage of media over X years. File formats come and go and knowing you can read your files is always risky. JPG is pretty standard now and I believe there will always be a reader for that. TIFF and RAW formats may change but for now I'm comfortable with them.

I know you also need to watch for how you're storing your shots as well as media is faulty. CDs/DVDs are more volatile than hard drives etc. For those working with clients and offering discs you should always have something written or inform the client that the disc isn't 100% to last any amount of time and they should take the proper precautions etc.

I will read the link later tonight - my ramble may be way off HAHA.