That's interesting. My negs, from the mid to late sixties, all seem to be just fine, and I suspect that I was a lot less careful with them then you were with yours.
That said, it seems that with digital, and a prudent backup and archiving scheme (there are probably several good options), the pics and files can last a very long time. The way I understand it, is that if you "refresh" the files every so often, they will remain as new. By refresh I mean to copy them to another drive. As you suggest, the backup/copying really doesn't take much time, and it can all be done automatically while you're doing something else. Shel > [Original Message] > From: Godfrey DiGiorgi > My film negatives, carefully archival processed stored in archival > sleeves, are deteriorating after 25-30 years. Not to unusable, but it > would be difficult to make prints of the quality that could be made > from them when they were fresh. Film is fragile and unique, not > easily reproducible. I'll take the tradeoffs of digital media any time.
