Store negatives digitally and safely convert to prints later?

[astraline]

I'm an 80 year-old photographer so please forgive my ignorant technical question
I have many precious negatives, some almost as old as I.
Is there a very good quality device that will store the negatives so in the future they could be converted to prints?
Thank you so much for any help you can offer me.

 

[tirediron]

Just to confirm: You want to convert your negatives to digital files, and then store them so that you can print them when you choose?

There are lots of options, and like a lot of things, it depends on the amount of time and money you want to put toward the project. If you have the time, then your best option would be to purchase a good quality scanner to convert the negatives to digital files. Once you have them converted, then you need to decide on storage. Because there's not a lot known yet about the longevity of digital files, my recommendation would be a three-pronged approach:

1. Store one copy of the files locally (your computer);

2. burn a set to CD/DVD-ROM and store them in a safe-deposit box or similar; and

3. upload a third copy of the files to "cloud storage". Depending on the number of files and the resolution, you may be able to find a free solution, or you may have to pay a monthly subscription fee to maintain the storage.

I would also make sure you keep the original negatives in archival-quality negative holders in a safe-deposit box as well.

 

[480sparky]

If your digital files don't reside at three, separate distinct postal addresses, they really don't exist.

 

[Dave442]

Welcome to the forum.
I have many family negatives that have survived from the 80's all the way back to the early 1900's. Many of those were put in archival type storage years ago, but a fire or other disaster could wipe them out.

As 480Sparky noted, if you digitize those negatives then you need to store those files in multiple devices that are located in distinct locations.

The problem I have with a lot of digital storage is the short lifespan of the technology. In another 20 years it could be that someone comes across your storage media that was created today and does not have a device at hand that can connect and read the data.

In the last 20 years I have gone from floppy disc storage to Zip Drive storage to CD storage to DVD storage to External drive storage and recently added cloud storage. I currently do not have a way to read floppy discs or Zip drives, and to read a CD or DVD I need to pull out an older computer that I use just for reading those discs.

 

[480sparky]

..............In the last 20 years I have gone from floppy disc storage to Zip Drive storage to CD storage to DVD storage to External drive storage and recently added cloud storage. I currently do not have a way to read floppy discs or Zip drives, and to read a CD or DVD I need to pull out an older computer that I use just for reading those discs.

It may not be the evolving technology that causes one to not be able to access older devices. Usually, it's the death of the device itself. A hard drive that won't spin up, or a corrupt file that's needed to read a CD or drive.

 

[petrochemist]

If the images are family photos then sharing them with family members makes a good way of keeping them at separate locations. Often this also gets round the issue of aging media, where the files can simply be copied to new media & even have the digital format changed if required. This is seldom a problem when a reader for the original media is available.

Printing from digital versions shouldn't be a problem either, as long as the scans are of reasonable quality.

The historic family photos I've scanned at work will not lost a little of the detail from the prints, but the ability to boost the contrast on faded prints more than makes up for this. In reality the images will probably only be used for illustrating the family tree online - so scans of 3" prints prove quite adequate.

Given the amount of images stored as TIFF/JPEG I'm pretty sure systems will be around for a long time to read these data types even after they are no longer the preferred format for new data. Even with the pace of change in the digital world translation systems are likely to be available for over a hundred years.
Many of the prints we have of similar age are seriously degraded. Most of my Daguerreotypes have been damaged around the edges by air ingress, and even newer shots from as late as the 1970s are sometimes faded to the point significantly...

 

[webestang64]

If your digital files don't reside at three, separate distinct postal addresses, they really don't exist.

From working in a photo lab and one who does all this scanning of negs. prints I can tell you from years of experience above is the only way to ensure lasting digital images. All 3 devices must be of high quality and use hard drives not USB sticks or CD or DVD. Even the 100 year Gold CD/DVD's have failed and we could not retrieve the data.
Of course the only way to ensure your negs will last a very very long time. Fire proof safe.

 

[Jamesaz]

I'm an old film guy too. I scanned my negatives and printed out a contact (like) sheet for indexing and stored them together. (This was after losing several years of digital images due to storage device failure. I've come to regard digital images as not actually existing until they are a print that can be copied to film.) Perhaps an archivist at your local university can advise you on materials and procedures. Best of luck.

 

[maris]

Forget the digital approach. Make multiple archival prints now and store them in different places. The prints don't have to be big, they only have to capture the information content of the negatives.These pictures will always be readable into the deep future at least while eyes exist.

On the other hand I reckon that digital technology will continue to rapidly evolve and today's methods are inevitably a sort of stone age that will have doubtful accessibility even to future archaeologists.