RANT- Reality Check-"The Early Days of Digital Photography"

Given the trouble that I've had finding a 'regular 8' (mm) movie projector
to transfer some old family movies, combined with my contining search for
a
reel to reel recorder that will play some old family audio tapes recorded
at
3 3/4 ips, I have to be skeptical that the technology to read today's
flash
card format will be available 100 years from now. I did a university
computer program in the early 1960s (a Fortran course) and prepared my
program and data on punched cards. I suspect that the chances of finding
a
computer to run that program today are better than the chances of reading
a
flash card a century from now. Do you really think that the technology
will
still exist to do this?


I bet its not as hard as that. I know people with Real to Reals. I bet movie
projectors can be found on ebay University archives will keep the possibilty
alive. Fortran is more of a problem....but I bet some machines are still in
use....and some of those will be archived.

Given the trouble that I've had finding a 'regular 8' (mm) movie projector
to transfer some old family movies, combined with my contining search for
a
reel to reel recorder that will play some old family audio tapes recorded
at
3 3/4 ips, I have to be skeptical that the technology to read today's
flash
card format will be available 100 years from now. I did a university
computer program in the early 1960s (a Fortran course) and prepared my
program and data on punched cards. I suspect that the chances of finding
a
computer to run that program today are better than the chances of reading
a
flash card a century from now. Do you really think that the technology
will
still exist to do this?


I bet its not as hard as that. I know people with Real to Reals. I bet movie
projectors can be found on ebay University archives will keep the possibilty
alive. Fortran is more of a problem....but I bet some machines are still in
use....and some of those will be archived.

Gene Palmiter responds:

I bet its not as hard as that. I know people with Real to Reals. I bet movie
projectors can be found on ebay

300 hits, and the first page looks like almost all are really projectors, of a
wide variety of types and brands.

Hell, I've got one in the basement, with no idea of whether or not it
works...it has been there for more than 20 years.

Charlie Self
"Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles."
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

"real to reals"?

I suggest you sell your cameras and buy a spelling book.

"Gene Palmiter" wrote in message
news:NIt7d.585$6y6.196@trndny02...
Given the trouble that I've had finding a 'regular 8' (mm) movie
projector
to transfer some old family movies, combined with my contining search for
a
reel to reel recorder that will play some old family audio tapes recorded
at
3 3/4 ips, I have to be skeptical that the technology to read today's
flash
card format will be available 100 years from now. I did a university
computer program in the early 1960s (a Fortran course) and prepared my
program and data on punched cards. I suspect that the chances of finding
a
computer to run that program today are better than the chances of reading
a
flash card a century from now. Do you really think that the technology
will
still exist to do this?


I bet its not as hard as that. I know people with Real to Reals. I bet
movie
projectors can be found on ebay University archives will keep the
possibilty
alive. Fortran is more of a problem....but I bet some machines are still
in
use....and some of those will be archived.

Kibo informs me that "Gene Palmiter" stated
that:

Given the trouble that I've had finding a 'regular 8' (mm) movie projector
to transfer some old family movies, combined with my contining search for
a
reel to reel recorder that will play some old family audio tapes recorded
at
3 3/4 ips, I have to be skeptical that the technology to read today's
flash
card format will be available 100 years from now.

Well, both of those conversions are actually pretty easy to do. If you
haven't been able to find a person or organisation with the appropriate
equipment, you simply haven't been looking hard enough.

I did a university
computer program in the early 1960s (a Fortran course) and prepared my
program and data on punched cards. I suspect that the chances of finding
a
computer to run that program today

With about a 5 minute download, I could compile any of the standard
flavours of FORTRAN on this machine, for free.

are better than the chances of reading
a
flash card a century from now. Do you really think that the technology
will
still exist to do this?

Some people in this thread seem to be under the impression that there is
some sort of mysterious black art to communicating with old hardware.
This is not the case. As time goes on, the current state-of-the-art is
so much more capable than older equipment that you can usually knock
together a simple interface to handle the basics, & emulate the more
exotic aspects in software.

I bet its not as hard as that. I know people with Real to Reals.

Yes, I had one myself until a few years ago.

I bet movie
projectors can be found on ebay University archives will keep the possibilty
alive. Fortran is more of a problem....

You can get free FORTRAN compilers for Linux/Windows right now.

--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------

"Mardon" wrote in
:

Given the trouble that I've had finding a 'regular 8' (mm) movie
projector to transfer some old family movies, combined with my
contining search for a reel to reel recorder that will play some old
family audio tapes recorded at 3 3/4 ips, I have to be skeptical that
the technology to read today's flash


I recently sold an Akai deck on ebay. Five years ago I discarded a regular
8mm camera and projector. I couldn't find anyone who wanted the projector.
Stuff like that is still around.

Bob

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wrote in
:

I did a university
computer program in the early 1960s (a Fortran course) and prepared
my program and data on punched cards. I suspect that the chances of
finding
a
computer to run that program today

With about a 5 minute download, I could compile any of the standard
flavours of FORTRAN on this machine, for free.


Yeah, but how are you going to read the punch cards?

Bob

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Delete the inverse SPAM to reply

Drifter wrote in
news
Summed up ..again...

Film Photography development timeline
Begin-------------------long timeline----------------current day

Digital Photography development timeline
Begin-short timeline-Current day


OK.

But, when film photography was new, photography itself was new, and film
was new.

When digital photography was new (by your meaning -- in the late 80s),
photography was established, and so were the core technologies that
digital added (CCDs, memory, CPUs).

Commercial digital photography products were just about incorporating
existing digital technologies into existing photographic technologies,
rather than inventing entirely new photographic technologies.

Another aspect that differentiates them is that when the Brownie was new,
Eastman had to convince the world that Photography was a good thing, that
they needed cameras. But since he already did that, no one needed to
repeat that cultural curve again.

Digital photography has progressed to the point that a consumer can spend
$400 on a digital camera that will produce resulting prints that are
every bit as good as the prints he used to buy from his 35mm SLR. In
fact, the limiting factor now is the photo printers, rather than the
cameras. Of course there is still room to improve the cameras, but not as
much as there had been. Nikon has just released the successor to the CP
5000, and it's been 3 years in the making.

Bob

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bob wrote:

Digital photography has progressed to the point that a consumer can spend
$400 on a digital camera that will produce resulting prints that are
every bit as good as the prints he used to buy from his 35mm SLR. In
fact, the limiting factor now is the photo printers, rather than the
cameras. Of course there is still room to improve the cameras, but not as
much as there had been. Nikon has just released the successor to the CP
5000, and it's been 3 years in the making.

Yes - it is fairly obvious that digital photography is still on a rising
action. We are still increasing the megapixels, decreasing the noise,
standardizing the formats if not the lenses, and inventing new aspects
of the design of the cameras. We still have not perfected the EVF, which
should be the ultimate way of evaluating a digital image before shooting
and after. It seems we are about 60% of the way there. We will probably
never get to a point where we can say we are done developing the
designs. We are still refining 35mm still cameras.

Two more points: The ultimate mega megapixel camera at a reasonable
price has not yet been produced (I would say 16mp would be sufficient),
but there are plenty of cameras available NOW for reasonable prices that
produce as fine an image as 35mm film. So shoot away, enjoy your
pursuit, and enjoy the further development of the hardware. What a planet.

Gary Eickmeier

Kibo informs me that bob stated that:

wrote in
:

I did a university
computer program in the early 1960s (a Fortran course) and prepared
my program and data on punched cards. I suspect that the chances of
finding
a
computer to run that program today

With about a 5 minute download, I could compile any of the standard
flavours of FORTRAN on this machine, for free.


Yeah, but how are you going to read the punch cards?

That'd depend a lot on how many I needed to read, & how often. If I just
needed to do it once, & I'd build an optical reader from scratch, & feed
the cards by hand, (or pay a student/unemployed-person to feed them for
me).

--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------