non digital cameras

[Leadfoot281]

I spent half of December without a computer and because I don't have a TV, things got a little slow around here. I started digging through some old family photos. As I was looking through boxes of old pictures (on tin!) showing the farm from the late 1800's, it dawned on me that my current digital pictures may not survive into the future.

I'd like to get a decent film camera because I'm certain they'll still be viewable 100+ years from now. I have my doubts about pixels and the whole digital format after seeing all the changes over the last 130+ years.

Any brand/model recommendations? Any specific features I should look for? I think the last film camera I had was Kodak 110.

[Black Dynamite]

Depends on your level of expertise. There are thousands of good reliable "point and shoot" camera's out there.

If you know how to use an SLR, they take much better pictures but require more know-how as far as settings and interchangeable lenses. It's not difficult to learn to take great pictures however. I have an Olympus OM-10 that I bought used 20 years ago that works great.

[Marauderjack]

Digital photos on good storage media should last indefinitely unless you are referring to the current technology going bye-bye??

[Juice]

That's stupid. Get a DSLR you antique, and join us in the 21st.

Digital images are indestructible. Keep copies on more than one media, and you'll never lose them. Ever.

Film is perishable, degrades over time, and being a physical object, can be misplaced.

Get a film camera if it makes your shorts tight, but that's about the only reason to choose film over digital.

[PonyUP]

I spent half of December without a computer and because I don't have a TV, things got a little slow around here. I started digging through some old family photos. As I was looking through boxes of old pictures (on tin!) showing the farm from the late 1800's, it dawned on me that my current digital pictures may not survive into the future.

I'd like to get a decent film camera because I'm certain they'll still be viewable 100+ years from now. I have my doubts about pixels and the whole digital format after seeing all the changes over the last 130+ years.

Any brand/model recommendations? Any specific features I should look for? I think the last film camera I had was Kodak 110.

Burn your digital photos on a CD, head to a Kinkos and get the ones you want printed, that way you can be selective

[fastblackmerc]

Pictures on a CD or DVD will certainly outlast you and your kids, if you have any, and most likely their kids.

The biggest threat to CD's or DVD's is keeping them from getting scratched. The top of the CD or DVD is actually more vulnerable to scratching then the underside.

[Leadfoot281]

That's stupid. Get a DSLR you antique, and join us in the 21st.

Digital images are indestructible. Keep copies on more than one media, and you'll never lose them. Ever.

Film is perishable, degrades over time, and being a physical object, can be misplaced.

Get a film camera if it makes your shorts tight, but that's about the only reason to choose film over digital.

]

1. I'm not worried about the 21st. I'm worried about the 22nd. Everyone will have SD slots then too? Will fingers and eyeballs be obsolete?

2. I have 100 year old film here and it still looks very good. I don't need any special equiptment to look at them either.

3. You're 100% correct. I am stupid. Glad someone finally figured it out.

4. I've already lost 1,000's of digital pictures. Bad hard drives will do that to ya I suppose. I still have 1,000's of 100 year old film pictures though.

Thanks for the help everyone. SLR it is.

[fastblackmerc]

]

1. I'm not worried about the 21st. I'm worried about the 22nd. Everyone will have SD slots then too? Will fingers and eyeballs be obsolete?

2. I have 100 year old film here and it still looks very good. I don't need any special equiptment to look at them either.

3. You're 100% correct. I am stupid. Glad someone finally figured it out.

4. I've already lost 1,000's of digital pictures. Bad hard drives will do that to ya I suppose. I still have 1,000's of 100 year old film pictures though.


Thanks for the help everyone. SLR it is.

4. I've already lost 1,000's of digital pictures. Bad hard drives will do that to ya I suppose. I still have 1,000's of 100 year old film pictures though.


So you had no backup of your pictures? I guess they weren't valuable enough to save on CD, DVD's external harddrive, USB key, etc.

[Juice]

]

1. I'm not worried about the 21st. I'm worried about the 22nd. Everyone will have SD slots then too? Will fingers and eyeballs be obsolete?

2. I have 100 year old film here and it still looks very good. I don't need any special equiptment to look at them either.

3. You're 100% correct. I am stupid. Glad someone finally figured it out.

4. I've already lost 1,000's of digital pictures. Bad hard drives will do that to ya I suppose. I still have 1,000's of 100 year old film pictures though.

Thanks for the help everyone. SLR it is.

I have almost 50,000 pictures backed up on 3 hard drives, as well as a cloud storage. All of the computers on the planet would have to get wiped simultaneously for me to lose my pictures.

You're worried about digital formats? That doesn't make sense. If the format changes, you don't lose your pictures. When they are stored on your computer, you can put them on whatever media you want.

There's nothing wrong with film, and if that's what you really want, then more power to you. Also, I didn't say you were stupid, I said your reason for buying film over digital is stupid. That is also different than saying buying film is stupid, because it's not. Film cameras take amazing pictures in the right hands, I just think you're picking it for the wrong reasons.

[Kodimar]

You can print digital images out too. I print out all my pictures at Target, it's fairly cheap and pretty fast.

I have similar concerns as you do, file and hardware compatibility concerns emp attacks... Ok, maybe not so much the emp attacks but you know what I mean.

I like digital because you take all the pictures you want with no film cost but still get them printed out and they look just as good as film.

However some people just like shooting on film. So if you are dead set on film head over to ebay and you can find some great deals on film SLR cameras.

[kernie]

You can print digital images out too. I print out all my pictures at Target, it's fairly cheap and pretty fast.

I have similar concerns as you do, file and hardware compatibility concerns emp attacks... Ok, maybe not so much the emp attacks but you know what I mean.

I like digital because you take all the pictures you want with no film cost but still get them printed out and they look just as good as film.

However some people just like shooting on film. So if you are dead set on film head over to ebay and you can find some great deals on film SLR cameras.

Good post, the fact that you can simply print the digital images makes this thread kinda silly.

Now i-tunes, that's a different story!...back-em up! I know this from experience.

[Marauderjack]

I have about 200K photos with most of them stored on an external 1TB hard drive and on CD's & DVD's....using DVD's now since most of my photos are 10+MB when uncompressed!!

I run my photo programs from my "C" drive to a 500MB external drive and store NOTHING on the "C" drive!!!

I have learned a lot from loosing everything in past crashes so now I back up my entire "C" drive (operating system too) weekly using www.acronis.com !! In the event of a crash or virus intrusion I simple restore the entire "C" drive to an earlier date and I'm back up and running in about 30 minutes!!! You can actually backup every day if you wish!!

I have had to do this 3 times in 2 years and never lost a single photo!!

BTW, CD's and DVD's don't like light or water exposure so store them in a safe, dark place and they will surely outlast your grand kids!!

My $0.02...FWIW??

[Kodimar]

Some writable CD's actually do have a shelf life of about 10-15 years because the manufacturer uses cheap dye that fades over time.

So for archival purposes I would make sure you use quality CD-Rs or DVD-Rs and do random checks on them to make sure they aren't failing.

Also if a new technology comes out make sure you take the time to transfer the information to the new media. In a hundred years it might take a bit of digging to find a working cd player and something that still can talk to a IDE or SATA device.

[Dragcity]

Leadfoot, I'm with you Brother. I love the quality of 35mm film. My son just started using my old Cannon SLR. I used to take a ton of photos years ago. Digital seems different to me.

I like the ease of use and the abiltiy to just ignore or delete poor pics, which don't get with film. Film and processing is expensive these days.

Everyone is right, just go to Walmart, Target, wherever to get what you wnat printed off a jump drive...

Plus, these new Fords have a video screen on the dash and several USB ports in the console. You can have a slideshow run right on the dash. Cool stuff. (My wife's new Edge Limited)

[fastblackmerc]

Some writable CD's actually do have a shelf life of about 10-15 years because the manufacturer uses cheap dye that fades over time.

So for archival purposes I would make sure you use quality CD-Rs or DVD-Rs and do random checks on them to make sure they aren't failing.

Also if a new technology comes out make sure you take the time to transfer the information to the new media. In a hundred years it might take a bit of digging to find a working cd player and something that still can talk to a IDE or SATA device.

Get CD's that have a gold colored underside.