Archive film scans

How do you archive film (24x36) scans? One of my possible choices is
48bit RGB/4800dpi - that's lots of data (DVD-5 fits less than one
film).

I posted a similar question in this group but did not get any comment.
Is this a suitable group for my question and a suitable question for
this group?

Oskar

From: "Oskar"

How do you archive film (24x36) scans? One of my possible choices is
48bit RGB/4800dpi - that's lots of data (DVD-5 fits less than one
film).

External hard drives. They are usually around $1 per gigabyte now and I see
them on sale at Fry's as low as 50 cents/gigabyte ... use at least two with
copies of your data on both, ideally kept in separate locations, since they'll
eventually fail but having two copies is safe.

I posted a similar question in this group but did not get any comment.

IIRC you asked about different compressions for archiving, like 24 bit or
jpegs, and most people probably felt you shouldn't compress or convert to jpeg
at all, which is likely why you didn't get an answer.

If you're short on disk space it's probably a good idea to make the first set
of tonal corrections in 16 bit/channel mode and then converting to 8 bit since
saving 8 bit tiffs to cut the storage requirements in half, but few people
recommend going to jpegs (except maybe Littleboy).

Bill

From: "Oskar"

How do you archive film (24x36) scans? One of my possible choices is
48bit RGB/4800dpi - that's lots of data (DVD-5 fits less than one
film).

External hard drives. They are usually around $1 per gigabyte now and I see
them on sale at Fry's as low as 50 cents/gigabyte ... use at least two with
copies of your data on both, ideally kept in separate locations, since they'll
eventually fail but having two copies is safe.

I posted a similar question in this group but did not get any comment.

IIRC you asked about different compressions for archiving, like 24 bit or
jpegs, and most people probably felt you shouldn't compress or convert to jpeg
at all, which is likely why you didn't get an answer.

If you're short on disk space it's probably a good idea to make the first set
of tonal corrections in 16 bit/channel mode and then converting to 8 bit since
saving 8 bit tiffs to cut the storage requirements in half, but few people
recommend going to jpegs (except maybe Littleboy).

Bill

Thanks. The reasoning behind the idea using jpeg-compression was: The
effective resolution of the flatbed scanner is about half the nominal
resolution (according to the German c't magazine).
jpeg-compression will, therefore, not destroy much information.
Basically I think jpeg-compression of 16bit data would suit me and my
data best.
But for the time being I'll use 8bit-tif LZW compressed.
Oskar

Thanks. The reasoning behind the idea using jpeg-compression was: The
effective resolution of the flatbed scanner is about half the nominal
resolution (according to the German c't magazine).
jpeg-compression will, therefore, not destroy much information.
Basically I think jpeg-compression of 16bit data would suit me and my
data best.
But for the time being I'll use 8bit-tif LZW compressed.
Oskar

"Oskar" wrote in news:1102808401.316208.318410
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

How do you archive film (24x36) scans? One of my possible choices is
48bit RGB/4800dpi - that's lots of data (DVD-5 fits less than one
film).


Before I started storing that much data, I would want to make sure that
there was really that much information. If you scale the data first, then
there won't be any point to saving 48 bits (apply levels and curves to
most of the images and then save as 24 bit). There could be some images
that you feel will benefit from the 48 bits with some new technology in
the future, and you should save those as 48 bit.

4800 x 3200 (roughly) is around 15 megapixels. Are your film equipment
and your techniqe really up to 15 Mp? I know that when I started making
enlargements of film bigger than 8" x 10" that it became really clear
that in most cases there just wansn't enough there. As I improved
technique and equipment I eventually got up 11" x 14", but that's about
all.

4800 / 300 = 16". That's a mighty big print. Do you really need that
resolution.

Again, there could be some particular images that you might feel very
strongly about, but are *all* of them that important to you?

I wouldn't trust anything to plastic discs with organic dye (DVD-R, CD-
R). Nothing that was that important, anyway.

Bob


--
Delete the inverse SPAM to reply

"Oskar" wrote in news:1102808401.316208.318410
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

How do you archive film (24x36) scans? One of my possible choices is
48bit RGB/4800dpi - that's lots of data (DVD-5 fits less than one
film).


Before I started storing that much data, I would want to make sure that
there was really that much information. If you scale the data first, then
there won't be any point to saving 48 bits (apply levels and curves to
most of the images and then save as 24 bit). There could be some images
that you feel will benefit from the 48 bits with some new technology in
the future, and you should save those as 48 bit.

4800 x 3200 (roughly) is around 15 megapixels. Are your film equipment
and your techniqe really up to 15 Mp? I know that when I started making
enlargements of film bigger than 8" x 10" that it became really clear
that in most cases there just wansn't enough there. As I improved
technique and equipment I eventually got up 11" x 14", but that's about
all.

4800 / 300 = 16". That's a mighty big print. Do you really need that
resolution.

Again, there could be some particular images that you might feel very
strongly about, but are *all* of them that important to you?

I wouldn't trust anything to plastic discs with organic dye (DVD-R, CD-
R). Nothing that was that important, anyway.

Bob


--
Delete the inverse SPAM to reply

"Oskar" wrote in news:1102808401.316208.318410
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

How do you archive film (24x36) scans? One of my possible choices is
48bit RGB/4800dpi - that's lots of data (DVD-5 fits less than one
film).


Before I started storing that much data, I would want to make sure that
there was really that much information. If you scale the data first, then
there won't be any point to saving 48 bits (apply levels and curves to
most of the images and then save as 24 bit). There could be some images
that you feel will benefit from the 48 bits with some new technology in
the future, and you should save those as 48 bit.

4800 x 3200 (roughly) is around 15 megapixels. Are your film equipment
and your techniqe really up to 15 Mp? I know that when I started making
enlargements of film bigger than 8" x 10" that it became really clear
that in most cases there just wansn't enough there. As I improved
technique and equipment I eventually got up 11" x 14", but that's about
all.

4800 / 300 = 16". That's a mighty big print. Do you really need that
resolution.

Again, there could be some particular images that you might feel very
strongly about, but are *all* of them that important to you?

I wouldn't trust anything to plastic discs with organic dye (DVD-R, CD-
R). Nothing that was that important, anyway.

Bob


--
Delete the inverse SPAM to reply

How do you archive film (24x36) scans? One of my possible choices is
48bit RGB/4800dpi

From: bob

4800 x 3200 (roughly) is around 15 megapixels.

He's scanning at 4800 dpi so should be getting around 6,800 x 4,400 pixels or
almost 30 Mpixels, so 90 MBytes in 8 bit mode or 180 MB in 16 bit mode per
image.

As someone who has wrestled with archiving medium format scans up to 550 MB I
feel his pain

Before I started storing that much data, I would want to make sure that
there was really that much information.

Excellent point, since I think he's scanning with a flatbed.

I wouldn't trust anything to plastic discs with organic dye (DVD-R, CD-
R). Nothing that was that important, anyway.

Another good point ...

How do you archive film (24x36) scans? One of my possible choices is
48bit RGB/4800dpi

From: bob

4800 x 3200 (roughly) is around 15 megapixels.

He's scanning at 4800 dpi so should be getting around 6,800 x 4,400 pixels or
almost 30 Mpixels, so 90 MBytes in 8 bit mode or 180 MB in 16 bit mode per
image.

As someone who has wrestled with archiving medium format scans up to 550 MB I
feel his pain

Before I started storing that much data, I would want to make sure that
there was really that much information.

Excellent point, since I think he's scanning with a flatbed.

I wouldn't trust anything to plastic discs with organic dye (DVD-R, CD-
R). Nothing that was that important, anyway.

Another good point ...