Digital Storage

Digital cameras don?t produce negatives. So what is the best way to preserve your memories? Here are the top 3 methods:

Third Best - Hard Drive

Your computer?s hard drive is a great place to store your digital images. They are quickly accessible for printing, e-mailing and viewing, and big hard drives are inexpensive. Using a program like Adobe Photoshop Album (available at Photo Express) can help to organize your files so that you can access them with a few clicks...but there is a dark side. Hard drives don?t last forever, and we have all heard horror stories about a friend of a friend who lost a ton of data with no backup because a hard drive went kablooie. While convenient, storing your images only on a hard drive can prove disastrous.

It is recommended to have at least two hard drives with the data being "mirrored", that is continually copied, from one drive to another. This method of data backup takes too much computer knowledge, money and effort for most people. There must be a better way.

Second Best - CD-R

CD-R stands for Compact Disc - Recordable. These little storage devices are great because they take up less space than negatives and you can archive several hundred images on a single CD. For the truly organized photographer, programs like Photoshop Album will even keep track of which CD you have written each image to!

However, by now you?ve probably also heard some horror stories about CD-R?s not reading a few years after they were written. Check out this great article on "CD-rot".

While it?s true there are CD-R?s that are now or will soon be good only as coasters, the problem is avoidable. The biggest mistake most people make is buying a stack of 50 CD-R?s for $30 or so at a big box store. These CD-R?s are cheap in both price and quality. We urge you not to use these for your photos, as these types of CD-R?s can in fact break down fairly quickly.

Purchase high-quality CD-R?s made for archival purposes such as Fujifilm CD-R?s for Photo (available at Photo Express). If you don't have a CD burner, we also provide a service to burn image files to CD.

Here are some tips to make your CD-R?s last longer. Store them in a cool, dry, dark place as heat, humidity and sunlight can cause damage. Store CD-R?s in their cases, upright like books. Use only water-based or alcohol-based felt markers (usually marked "non-toxic"). DO NOT use ball-point pens, touch the bottom of CD-R?s with your fingers or bend them too much. If you follow this advice, your CD-R?s should hold onto your memories for decades. However, there is still a better way.

Best Of All - Prints!

You may be surprised to hear it, but archival-quality prints are the best way to preserve your digital files.

Prints made on archival paper will last at least as long as a CD-R and are easier to display! Use archival inks (not dye-based) for inkjet prints, or better yet get your prints done on photo paper just like you used to from negatives.

Compatability is also an issue. Remember those big 5¼" floppy disk drives, record players and film projectors? Nobody knows how long CD-ROM technology will be in vogue, but it may be that your grandkids will have to go to a garage sale to find a drive that can read your files. Prints only need the light of day and human eyes to be seen for generations to come.

Surveys show that people with digital cameras are taking more pictures than ever, and printing less pictures than ever. One reason is people tend to think digital files are immortal, and are therefore in no hurry to print them. We have already heard stories of years? worth of pictures being wiped out by computer crashes because the images weren?t archived. Don?t be one of them!

Many people simply don?t know they can have their digital prints made as easily and inexpensively as they could with film. Photo Express has an in-store kiosk and online photo service which both provide excellent quality prints on photo paper for less money than developing film, without extra effort! Saving money on developing is why many people went digital in the first place.

Conclusion

Having a few thousand untouched image files on your hard drive can be daunting. Remember, with digital you only print the files you really want. We suggest browsing your collection, selecting the best images and getting them printed immediately. Then make a habit of printing a certain amount of images at a time, like you probably did with film. The number doesn?t have to be 24 or 36, it can be anything you want (printing once a month is another good idea). Once you get caught up, it?s a lot easier to stay that way. Until then, shoot lots, print the best, and burn the rest!

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