# Any photographers here still shoot film? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 22, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-photographers-here-still-shoot-film/572163 "2011-02-22T00:14:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-photographers-here-still-shoot-film/572163/61 "2011-02-24T22:46:27Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Can I do the same thing with computer data from that same era? As long as you copy them to a new machine every 5-10 years or so, yes. That’s what I have done. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-photographers-here-still-shoot-film/572163/62 "2011-02-25T00:51:36Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > As long as you copy them to a new machine every 5-10 years or so, yes. That’s what I have done. Exactly my point (and Steve McCurry’s). ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-photographers-here-still-shoot-film/572163/63 "2011-02-25T01:15:13Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Don’t get me wrong–all things considered, I do prefer keeping the archive stored digitally, but anything important I will make sure to make a few prints of. I just feel that, in the long run, it’s easier to put away a negative, forget about it, and come back to it in 50 years or so and still have something you can access. Like I said, I can go through negs stored in a shoebox from the 60s and 70s and have something easily printable. (Hell, I could go back to the dawn of photography and be able to access that information with little effort). Can I do the same thing with computer data from that same era? Computers now are a much more mature and stable format than they were 30 years ago. I’m pretty sure you can pop a hard drive from 20 years ago into a computer and have it mount with little problem. Besides, if you aren’t monitoring your system for failures over 50 years, you aren’t taking advantage of digitals benefits. The standard of “stick it somewhere” for 50 years isn’t a reasonable standard. It’s almost certain that moisture, mold, dampness, fire, animals, misplacement, dropping, etc. will damage the negatives, not to mention the inherent degradation of the media. Off the top of my head, the NFL doesn’t have the original broadcast of the first superbowl and Nasa lost a bunch of moon pictures. That almost certainly isn’t going to happen in the digital age. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-photographers-here-still-shoot-film/572163/64 "2011-02-25T01:28:05Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Exactly my point (and Steve McCurry’s). Oh, I think there’s very little here that we disagree on. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-photographers-here-still-shoot-film/572163/65 "2011-02-25T02:00:59Z")
> [@treis](#): > > Computers now are a much more mature and stable format than they were 30 years ago. I’m pretty sure you can pop a hard drive from 20 years ago into a computer and have it mount with little problem. Besides, if you aren’t monitoring your system for failures over 50 years, you aren’t taking advantage of digitals benefits. > > The standard of “stick it somewhere” for 50 years isn’t a reasonable standard. It’s almost certain that moisture, mold, dampness, fire, animals, misplacement, dropping, etc. will damage the negatives, not to mention the inherent degradation of the media. Off the top of my head, the NFL doesn’t have the original broadcast of the first superbowl and Nasa lost a bunch of moon pictures. That almost certainly isn’t going to happen in the digital age. And, yet, I can go through my grandpa’s shoebox, and find negs from the 30s and 40s I can scan and print today without any problem. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-photographers-here-still-shoot-film/572163/66 "2011-02-25T02:02:24Z")
> [@treis](#): > > The standard of “stick it somewhere” for 50 years isn’t a reasonable standard. It’s almost certain that moisture, mold, dampness, fire, animals, misplacement, dropping, etc. will damage the negatives, not to mention the inherent degradation of the media. All of those things will also damage computers over time. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-photographers-here-still-shoot-film/572163/67 "2011-02-25T03:15:49Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > All of those things will also damage computers over time. The whole point with digital images is that it’s not tied to a specific piece of hardware. You move the bits around, keep them current. If you leave them on an old disk you deserve what you get, and I agree it’s probably worse than storing negatives. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-photographers-here-still-shoot-film/572163/68 "2011-02-25T03:24:55Z")
Makes me think of an Aussie couple I met last year in Vietnam. They’d kept all their wedding photos on their PC – which was subsequently stolen in a burglary. The only ones they had left are copies of the few sent to their families. ---
**Author:** ![Norse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9adbd/32.png) [@Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norse)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-photographers-here-still-shoot-film/572163/69 "2011-02-25T09:38:10Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Makes me think of an Aussie couple I met last year in Vietnam. They’d kept all their wedding photos on their PC – which was subsequently stolen in a burglary. That’s why I keep two separate backups at home, one locked in a safe, plus one backup off-site. And I’m spending quite a few hours digitizing my negs and slides, both for “computer darkroom” processing (I don’t have the space for a wet darkroom) and for additional safety. But being a “belt and suspenders” type of guy, I don’t trust digital storage. It hasn’t been around long enough to _prove_ its longevity. Film has. Film has been around for 100 years, and we _know_ that if it’s treated reasonably it’ll last for multiple decades. That, and the fact that very few burglars would bother stealing my negative binders but might very well take all my computer stuff if they could, is one of the reasons that I’m still trying to get some shots on film once in a while. That, and of course, the personal satisfaction of using precision engineering like the classic Nikons. Heck, if I could afford it, I’d probably get myself a Leica M4 just for the sheer fun and for no rational reason at all. ---
**Author:** ![WreckingCrew](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wreckingcrew/32/4080_2.png) [@WreckingCrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WreckingCrew)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-photographers-here-still-shoot-film/572163/70 "2011-02-25T12:15:14Z")
There is some high-end photographer who advertises on WGBH radio as “still using film” so they are out there, but it has become rare enough to be a marketing tool. ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-photographers-here-still-shoot-film/572163/71 "2011-02-25T17:12:41Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > All of those things will also damage computers over time. True, but data is not hardware. One thing you can do with data that you can’t do with physical media is back up information using a redundant system. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-photographers-here-still-shoot-film/572163.md?page=3)