hard drives underwater and JPEG2000

Ysarex · Dec 5, 2011

I'm running a little low on storage so yesterday I headed over to Micro-Center and thought I'd pick up a hard drive.

A 1T drive that I anticipated would cost around $75.00 (holiday time) was $279.00 if they had one at all. The shelves were 80% empty and what was there had new price stickers over the price stickers that were over the price stickers.

Apparently a large portion of the world's hard drive manufacturing capacity washed away in the Thailand floods. I'm not paying a gouge price for more storage -- I'll wait it out. Which brings me to my question:

I shoot RAW and process out to 16 bit TIFF files for further editing and then archive away the final photo as an 8 bit TIFF. I keep redundant copies of everything on external drives. That's a lot of storage overhead. I know I can always go back and re-process from the RAW but, hey that's a lot of work, so I prefer to keep those TIFF files (just the 8 bit ones).

Any experience with JPEG2000? Is it worth it? Was it a bad idea that's already dead? Any hidden pitfalls? I'm thinking my final TIFF files could be JPEG2000 lossless.

Thanks,
Joe

SCraig · Dec 5, 2011

If your TIF files are uncompressed you can store them in Zip files and save a lot of space. Putting them in Zip's is a lossless way of compressing the files as opposed to using compression on the TIF itself. If you are using Windows you can also use compression on the directory the files are stored in however that won't save as much space as using Zip files.

I am really surprised to hear that drive prices have skyrocketed like that. I guess it was to be expected but it is still a shock.

Ysarex · Dec 5, 2011

SCraig said:
If your TIF files are uncompressed you can store them in Zip files and save a lot of space. Putting them in Zip's is a lossless way of compressing the files as opposed to using compression on the TIF itself. If you are using Windows you can also use compression on the directory the files are stored in however that won't save as much space as using Zip files.

I am really surprised to hear that drive prices have skyrocketed like that. I guess it was to be expected but it is still a shock.

Yep, it was a shock alright. They had signs up on the shelves: Limit two drives per customer. As if I was going to buy two at those prices! So I got home and went online looking for external drives -- same thing, double and triple prices.

Sorry I forgot to mention that I already use the lossless compression built into the TIFF files (only one cup of coffee when I posted question). Does JPEG2000 offer that much more? I'm guessing not much.

Thanks,
Joe

Buckster · Dec 5, 2011

I just looked on Amazon and Best Buy in St. Louis, and found reasonable prices on external hard drives, including 1TB drives for under $120, and even a couple under $100.

Ysarex · Dec 5, 2011

Buckster said:
I just looked on Amazon and Best Buy in St. Louis, and found reasonable prices on external hard drives, including 1TB drives for under $120, and even a couple under $100.

Yeah, I did the same thing yesterday -- I didn't check Amazon but I checked Google Shopping. I found similar prices, but when I went to follow through the drive wasn't in stock or the price had gone up. I'll go have a look at Amazon -- thanks.

Joe

Ysarex · Dec 5, 2011

Buckster said:
I just looked on Amazon and Best Buy in St. Louis, and found reasonable prices on external hard drives, including 1TB drives for under $120, and even a couple under $100.

So, I'm looking at Amazon now and sure enough prices seem to be up a little but nothing like I ran into yesterday at Micro Center -- hmm...

Thanks, I should have looked harder yesterday. Now I'll try and order one.

Joe

RyanLilly · Dec 20, 2011

Did you check Micro center's website? The prices seemed a bit high, but if you find the right thing on the website, select in store pickup. I often see things on the micro center website, then go to the store and cannot find them anywhere in the store. If I select in store pickup, its waiting at the desk. And we go to the same microcenter in Brentwood, So I know that place is a mess.

Big Mike · Dec 20, 2011

Do you really think it's necessary to archive your images in TIFF format?

Sure, we all know that it's better quality than a JPEG file, and Jpegs will degrade with repeated opening and saving....but have you ever really tested the theory?
I think that JPEGs are a valid format for archiving, provided you don't compress the heck out of them. And yes, you would be giving up something...but the difference is probably imperceptible and the storage space savings would be enormous.

KmH · Dec 20, 2011

Ysarex said:
I'm not paying a gouge price for more storage

That's just the law of supply and demand at work, and there are alternative sources.

People aren't trading in as many used cars, so the supply has diminished, and used car prices have gone up.

The supply of new Nikon crop body cameras and consumer grade lenses gets smaller by the day driving up used Nikon gear prices becuase more people are looking to the used market..

ChefCanon · Dec 21, 2011

The prices are and will continue to be high for a while - as per the natural disasters that have taken place in Japan / and the oriental parts of the world. Where a hell of a lot of electronics are produced.

Garbz · Dec 21, 2011

ChefCanon said:
The prices are and will continue to be high for a while

This was quite timely posted just before I came to get my daily dose of TPF: Hard Drive Prices Slide As Thai Flood Aftermath Subsides - Slashdot

edit: now with link. duh

Ysarex · Dec 21, 2011

Big Mike said:
Do you really think it's necessary to archive your images in TIFF format?

Sure, we all know that it's better quality than a JPEG file, and Jpegs will degrade with repeated opening and saving....but have you ever really tested the theory?
I think that JPEGs are a valid format for archiving, provided you don't compress the heck out of them. And yes, you would be giving up something...but the difference is probably imperceptible and the storage space savings would be enormous.

This question does indeed plague me. I have frequently run tests with multiple images and the visual results tell me you're right; just save as highest quality JPEGs. Then I do a difference test in Photoshop and see how much data is actually altered and I can't bring myself to "push the button."

Joe