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01/24/2006 08:37:51 AM · #1 |
| I read on here where the shelf life of cds was around 5 years. Is the shelf life better for dvds? Is it better to back up photos on dvd's instead of cds or does it not matter? |
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01/24/2006 09:03:22 AM · #2 |
| I'm not an expert, so hopefully someone else will chime in. However, the teacher in a photo class here said that DVD's are far worse than CD's. The quality of CD's varies tremendously (or, so I was told). I only use Maxwell CD PRO disks, which apparently have a much longer shelf life. |
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01/24/2006 09:06:06 AM · #3 |
| I don't know if there is a difference between shelf life between the two at all but I'd be interested to know. I tend to use DVD's mainly now mainly because of the size they hold, especially with my RAW files. I always use Verbatim brand, They have always been reliable for me! |
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01/24/2006 09:19:59 AM · #4 |
| If cd's and dvd's can "go bad" and external drives, etc. can malfuntion, it just seems like there's no really good way of "safe guarding our memories or photos". I guess if we print the really important photos, if we had to, we could always scan them to make more copies. That would be better than not having anything. But I take a LOT more digital photos than I used to take of film photos, so I can't afford to make prints of all of them. I'm still saving them onto cds right now but I'm getting where I need to do something more as I'm getting a lot of photos. Just trying to figure out how I want to do it. |
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01/24/2006 09:21:02 AM · #5 |
I don't think the issue is just with the shelf life of the disc, but also with the shelf life of the technology. You can assume that every 5 years or so you may need to copy all that data to a new medium:
5 1/4" floppies -> 3.5" floppies -> zip disk -> cd -> dvd -> Blu Ray???? |
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01/24/2006 09:24:16 AM · #6 |
I don't think CDs and DVDs will be going away anytime soon. While the technology has been changing, there's been good efforts on backwards compatibility.
As to media longevity, the NIST study on longevity can be found here
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01/24/2006 09:54:20 AM · #7 |
I've heard RW disks last longer.
Do you think the the drive used to burn the disks makes a difference? I recently upgraded from a no-name CD burner to a Sony DVD burner and my CDs seem to be better (MP3 disks i listen to in the car).
I have also heard burning slower makes a more reliable copy as well.
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01/24/2006 10:00:35 AM · #8 |
Because I'm married to a programmer - who was always concerned about backups - we've researched longevity issues. Things to be concerned about - don't use sticky labels to identify your CDs or DVD's. Use Sharpie Markers. I burn 2 DVD's, on 2 different brand media and I store them differently. One set I store in a notebook of plastic sleeves for easy access. The other set I store on the original spindles. I am also in the process of putting my best and favorite shots on a hard drive for long term storage. Actually, I have 2 mirrored hard drives - in case of hardware failure. One professional photographer whose workshop I attended does not do DVD's or CD's at all. His work is all backed up on hard drives (I think he was mirrored with 2 hard drives for each set- if not he SHOULD have been.) He leaves the hard drives turned off and "filed" on his book shelves - leaving them on - shortens their life and increases the chance for failure.
And, yes, with the way technology moves forward, I suspect we'll have another way to back things up in five years. |
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01/24/2006 10:08:41 AM · #9 |
I read over that link on NIST. it is similar to otehr papers i have read - inconclusive conclusions. Certain dye/coatings do seem to last longer, but 'the sample was too small' or they test for extreme conditions, etc. And to top that off, disk makers don't say what they use to make teh disks, and often (according to that study) hange their formulations to improve oongevity or reduce cost.
Since there has been no manufacturer come out with a 'long life' disk or even advertise 'our pro gold whizbangs last longer than all others' I have to ask why?
What don't 'we' know?
I mean there is a lot of research on how long prints, and inks and papers last, and how best to display or preserve images. If I have the original file I can make another print anytime i want, so if the print only lassts 5 or 10 years i could care less. It is one image. If my original files on disk only lasts 2 or 3 years i care a lot more.
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01/24/2006 10:39:53 AM · #10 |
With so much photography going digital now, you would think that the companies making this stuff surely know of the problems and are working on ways to make it better. But in the meantime,it's very aggravating!
Message edited by author 2006-01-24 10:44:45. |
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01/24/2006 10:43:51 AM · #11 |
The ideal solution would be to create a small, thin, but high resolution frame of every image you have taken, from which a larger print could be made. Ideally it would be cheap, use no power, last for decades if stored properly, and not take up too much space.
Something about, say, 35mm wide should do it.
Message edited by author 2006-01-24 10:44:34.
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01/24/2006 11:04:54 AM · #12 |
Originally posted by Prof_Fate:
Since there has been no manufacturer come out with a 'long life' disk or even advertise 'our pro gold whizbangs last longer than all others' I have to ask why? |
I wouldn't say that. Delkin advertises their archival gold DVD disks, and I've seen others as well (Mitsui and Memorex). Doing a web search, the Mitsui Gold Archival DVD-R media can be bought for about $90 per spool of 50. The Delkin disks are about 1.5x the price.
If one were to assume the Delkin is the best, that would be about $0.57 per gigabyte. This is a bit more than I've seen hard drives go for, but hard drive interface standards change, so I'd expect the gold DVDs would make a better archival media.
Message edited by author 2006-01-24 11:10:17. |
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