WIX Archives

Some Answers...

Posted by AndyG on Wed Jun 18, 2003 03:41:15 PM

In reply top O/T Digital image storage? posted by Tony C on Wed Jun 18, 2003 01:26:30 PM

Tony,

For cheap large capacity storage you can't go much better for the price than a cd writer. There are all sorts of flavours available for example cd-r (write once) and cd-rw ) re-writeable) which have a capacity of about 700mb which is an awful lot of pictures. These drives don't cost a lot ?100 or less these days. The -r discs are very cheap (get them free in cornflake packets these days!) and if you go for good branded ones they are rated for donkey?s years.

Digital data doesn't deteriorate like analogue data does, on analogue audiotapes for example. The 0?s and 1?s stay in those states as long as the media that they are saved upon remains intact. (Though, you are probably talking decades for a cd to get a bit iffy) You can still copy the file at anytime onto a new disc and on you go again.

I?m not sure if I would rely on an online ?free? storage facility as a reliable back-up service.

I use cd?s, cheap and easy.

Image handling

If you want the absolute best quality images from your camera, set the files to an un-compressed format in your camera eg a tiff file. The downside to this is that the file sizes will be large and you won?t be able to store many images on your smart media or whatever type of removable storage you have in your camera. The advantages are that you have a perfect uncompressed master image, which you can make a copy of so that you can edit a copy. Make as many changes to the copy as you wish and save it in any format, you still have the master tiff! You won?t lose any quality when you save after editing an un-compressed tiff file. You can then save the modified file to a compressed format such as jpeg and reduce the resolution for net usage or what ever without losing any quality. Each time you modify a jpeg, which is already compressed by a variable user set amount) and re-save, the lossy compression effects become more apparent.

BTW: If you only have a particular image in a jpeg format and wish to edit it, save it as a tiff or bmp first, then do the editing. Save as jpeg again after sorting the image out if you require.

Having said all that a 2mpxl image from your camera set for a high quality low compression jpeg format will be more than adequate quality for most purposes including printing. (You?ll still be able to save heaps of files on the memory card too) Remember though if you want to edit, save to an uncompressed format first then re-save after to your chosen format.

Best to try a couple of trials and print them/view them on screen in detail to see the difference yourself.

Ps there are also DVD writers to consider as well, they are not just for movies as they can store huge amounts of data as well. Unfortunately, there is a bit of a format war ongoing like Betamax/VHS/V2000 of old. The formats are DVD-r, DVD-rw, DVD+r, DVD+rw and DVD-ram, from memory. There are a few drives which handle four of these formats fortunately so no real worries about dipping your toe in the market. Media a bit more expensive than cd?s though soon to appear in a cornflake packet near you. ;-)

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