It was asserted that compared to traditional silver-based imaging, digital images have -

Mr. Davidson responds:

This argument is not only wrong, but backwards. Digital storage is less secure than any other form of photographic storage. As a highpriced Information Security consultant, part of what I do is consult for "Business Resumption Planning". This is the art of keeping yourdigital electronic data safe and useable over a long term. A "long term" example: Hospitals in Illinois must keep patient records in asecure form "forever"; it's the law.

That's a real problem in the digital world. The current BR standard for magnetic media is two (2) years. Hum, that isn't very long in thephoto world. I recently dug out some floppy disks that were last used 3 to 5 years ago. While they had been stored properly, I was unable to read orfix any of them. They all had to be reformatted. Therefore, any magnetic media - floppies, hard disk, tape, removable disk like "Zip" or"Syquest", must be regenerated every two years at the longest. Do you really believe that people will do this? They don't today.

You also have the issue of magnetic corruption that can very easily destroy your data. I hope you keep good backups. Also, molds and fungus growjust fine on disks and CD-ROMs; I've seen it.

Nobody knows how long CD-ROMs will last. The current BR estimate is 10 years. That's still not very long by photo standards. How long are youwilling to wait to see if it is still readable?

There is also the conversion issue. In the past 15 years, 8" floppies, paper tape, and punch cards are all technologies that have gone by thewayside. If you were sued and had to produce data from any of these, could you? Probably not. However, if you were given a negative from a hundredyears ago you could make a pretty nice print. In 10, 20, or 30 years from now what format of CD-ROM will be used? will your drive read today'sdisks? Will your software understand the formats? How much are you willing to bet on any of this?

I'm not "anti-digital" by any measure, however, do NOT use digital technology for photographic permanence. Sure, you can makehundreds if not thousands of "original" copies, but tomorrow that one critical byte in the header is garbage and you have nothing. If youdo digital, make sure you have an evolving BRP keeps you up to date every year or two.

BTW, all of these arguments are irrelevant. People will move to digital photography (or any technology) when the cost/benefit beats out thetraditional photography (or any current technology). It has always been that way and always will be that way. That is why some pros and amateurs aredoing it today. That is also why most aren't.

Clyde Davidson

To read an earlier E-Sylum article, see:
BEN KEELE ON DIGITAL NUMISMATIC LITERATURE (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v12n26a05.html)