wgerrard
Veteran
I knew someone would challenge that, and fair enough. But...
Despite Kodak rolling out a few new film brands, what else is happening in film? Has anyone improved on the basic processing cycle? Are teams of grad students working in row houses in Rochester in hopes of scoring a big IPO? Is someone engineering a $1000 scanner that's as good as a $20k drum scanner? Who is marketing film cameras that are innovative rather than well executed twists on something from the 1960's? Where's the film equivalent of smart phones?
Maybe someone is doing all that, but I'm pretty sure they aren't. Nothing is happening, nothing has happened, for a very long time in film that is in any way comparable to the burst of innovation and entrepreneurship we've seen in the digital industry.
To be clear, I'm not slamming film or praising digital. My only digital is a point and shoot. But, I think it's just demonstrably wrong that film technology is attracting money and brains bent on making it better. I mean, when was the last time you heard some kids say they want to grow up and be film techies?
wgerrard
Veteran
That 64K RAM cost a fortune back then.
I started on 6502.
I started with whatever was in a VIC-20. Was that a 6502, as well?
Had a Commodore 64 and one of it's huge and oh-so-slow floppy drives hanging off the serial port. Wrote a Commodore BASIC program to analyze results of a survey for work. Hope it worked. It spit out results, but you never know about these things.
wgerrard
Veteran
Kaypro, Roger? If so, I had one, too.
wgerrard
Veteran
Stayed late one night in the early 1980's in a place that had just bought its first IBM PC clones. Tweaked autoexec.bat in each of them to greet its user by name the next morning, and then go merrily on its way. Consternation, but not hilarity, ensued. I had to confess my sin and was duly chastised.
Apple I- that is rare.
I started with mainframes, an $8M supercomputer, "TI-ASC #7" first generation Vector/parallel computer in 1979.
Now- embedded systems. I just can't deal with GUI's. Or OS's. That I did not write myself. Prefer just doing it all from scratch, or at least minimal. Like still using Wordstar. Great for writing FORTRAN and Assembly.
I started with mainframes, an $8M supercomputer, "TI-ASC #7" first generation Vector/parallel computer in 1979.
Now- embedded systems. I just can't deal with GUI's. Or OS's. That I did not write myself. Prefer just doing it all from scratch, or at least minimal. Like still using Wordstar. Great for writing FORTRAN and Assembly.
JSU
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It's not just a software issue, it is also hardware. Do you still have a functioning Zip 100 drive, among the several other obsolete formats?
In 1992 George H.W. Bush was nominated as the Republican party candidate in the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. Bush's acceptance speech was the first time the Houston Chronicle covered an event in digital. I don't recall what medium to which the images were saved but it wasn't too many years before it was realized that those images could no longer be opened. It was an issue of format and multiple pieces of hardware that no longer talked to each other or lacked connectivity. This was among the reasons that the Chronicle continued using film until July, 1994, when the film processors were shut down and removed. Being one who primarily used Leicas, I was among the very last in our shop to continue using film.
But the real issue is what news organizations are doing with their digital files. Due to the expense and logistics of archiving digital many news organizations only save the final edit for an assignment. I, among others, wonder what will be done when situations arise such as 5th, 10th, 50th anniversaries of events that originally didn't have major significance come around. Or perhaps the coverage of a ball player's rookie season who goes on to a hall of fame or even a hall of shame. Where once news organizations had complete archives (the morgue) with significant staffs, now due to down sizing and expenses such archives are deleted as a line item in an upcoming budget. Who loses (?), ...as usual, the readers.
As far as cameras go, you couldn't give me a Nikon D1 series camera, or any of the D2 series save for the D2XS. Digital isn't like film (analog), when a digital generation advances usually the previous iterations aren't worth revisiting. A few exceptions exist, such as the Nikon D2XS or for that matter the Leica M8.2. Where I regularly use film cameras 20 - 30 years old, it will be a while (perhaps another 20 years) before digital cameras 20 or more years old are regarded as still useable. Then there is the issue of whether or not the sensor (ie, the camera) is still functioning.
Like it or not, we now exist in a disposable society. Where a Leica film M was built for longevity, most digital cameras are built to survive the release of the next generation. Still, my D3 & D700 Nikons could well be the last digital SLR's I ever buy given my age (soon to be 57.) Hopefully my M2, M4 and pair of M6's will be the last film M's I will buy.
In 1992 George H.W. Bush was nominated as the Republican party candidate in the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. Bush's acceptance speech was the first time the Houston Chronicle covered an event in digital. I don't recall what medium to which the images were saved but it wasn't too many years before it was realized that those images could no longer be opened. It was an issue of format and multiple pieces of hardware that no longer talked to each other or lacked connectivity. This was among the reasons that the Chronicle continued using film until July, 1994, when the film processors were shut down and removed. Being one who primarily used Leicas, I was among the very last in our shop to continue using film.
But the real issue is what news organizations are doing with their digital files. Due to the expense and logistics of archiving digital many news organizations only save the final edit for an assignment. I, among others, wonder what will be done when situations arise such as 5th, 10th, 50th anniversaries of events that originally didn't have major significance come around. Or perhaps the coverage of a ball player's rookie season who goes on to a hall of fame or even a hall of shame. Where once news organizations had complete archives (the morgue) with significant staffs, now due to down sizing and expenses such archives are deleted as a line item in an upcoming budget. Who loses (?), ...as usual, the readers.
As far as cameras go, you couldn't give me a Nikon D1 series camera, or any of the D2 series save for the D2XS. Digital isn't like film (analog), when a digital generation advances usually the previous iterations aren't worth revisiting. A few exceptions exist, such as the Nikon D2XS or for that matter the Leica M8.2. Where I regularly use film cameras 20 - 30 years old, it will be a while (perhaps another 20 years) before digital cameras 20 or more years old are regarded as still useable. Then there is the issue of whether or not the sensor (ie, the camera) is still functioning.
Like it or not, we now exist in a disposable society. Where a Leica film M was built for longevity, most digital cameras are built to survive the release of the next generation. Still, my D3 & D700 Nikons could well be the last digital SLR's I ever buy given my age (soon to be 57.) Hopefully my M2, M4 and pair of M6's will be the last film M's I will buy.
I have a functioning 5.25" drive. No problems. 3.5" drives, got a bunch of them. 100MByte Zip drive, Yes some of those. And the 250MByte drives read the Zip 100's. I even have working 40MByte CLIK drives, two of them. Still use them. And the 80MByte SCSI drive in the 1992 Kodak DCS200ir still works.
I have not used 9-Track tape in a long time. And I gave away the 8" disk drive on the Xerox 8/16.
I still use the Nikon E3 with its PCMCIA memory card for my projects. It works with the SB-29 and 60/2.8 Micro-Nikkor. It is full-frame, and I do not need to resize the files for the Internet.
Something funny about using a 14 year old DSLR to document rebuilding 50 year old lenses.
I have not used 9-Track tape in a long time. And I gave away the 8" disk drive on the Xerox 8/16.
I still use the Nikon E3 with its PCMCIA memory card for my projects. It works with the SB-29 and 60/2.8 Micro-Nikkor. It is full-frame, and I do not need to resize the files for the Internet.
Something funny about using a 14 year old DSLR to document rebuilding 50 year old lenses.
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NickTrop
Veteran
Here's a thread about opening these files with some suggestions and some links, however, it says the camera produces PICT not TIFF files and that its file format is MAC proprietary so the free conversion sw is MAC only. It also suggests Quicktime for Windows, which makes sense.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/29014-5-help-view-apple-quicktake-pict-format-files
The only problem I have of this nature is hardware Matrox MJPEG files I converted from Hi8 video. Can't find a codec that will work. It's from the late 90's.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/29014-5-help-view-apple-quicktake-pict-format-files
The only problem I have of this nature is hardware Matrox MJPEG files I converted from Hi8 video. Can't find a codec that will work. It's from the late 90's.
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JSU
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Do you have any idea how unique you are? Unfortunately, corporations concerned more about next year's budget than the usefulness of an archive 5 or 50 years from now have sold out to a smaller bottom line.
I used to work with a man who stored his 35mm negs, uncut, in paper grocery bags with the month and year marked on the outside. Once he received an executive request for an image from about one year previous. I watched in total amazement as he reached to the back of a shelf under his enlarger for the appropriate paper bag, opened and reached into a bag with 70 or 80 rolls stuffed inside, and pulled out the very roll he needed on his first try. The college intern rolled his eyes and left speechless.
I used to work with a man who stored his 35mm negs, uncut, in paper grocery bags with the month and year marked on the outside. Once he received an executive request for an image from about one year previous. I watched in total amazement as he reached to the back of a shelf under his enlarger for the appropriate paper bag, opened and reached into a bag with 70 or 80 rolls stuffed inside, and pulled out the very roll he needed on his first try. The college intern rolled his eyes and left speechless.
JPEG "standard" is a collection of compression schemes, many of them are proprietary. The "Baseline" compression scheme is not proprietary. So if you are unlucky enough to use software that implements "JPEG" using a proprietary scheme, and move to a different package that did not license it--- "face it flounder".
PKR
Veteran
I played my first game of pong on a wall of 370s in Charles Townes's lab in LeConte, UCB in the early 70s.. It was loaded from about 6" of cards.. p.
I still have a card reader for a Wang 360 Calculator.
But one of the Nixie tubes is out, and a bit is stuck in the ALU.
Nothing gets older faster than Digital anything. Being able to make a computer do exactly what you want it to do, priceless.
Good thing my wife is into computers. She used to debug the compilers on the Cray. Otherwise, she would make me clean out the basement. She has her O-Scope set up on the dining room table. She can't say much...
But one of the Nixie tubes is out, and a bit is stuck in the ALU.
Nothing gets older faster than Digital anything. Being able to make a computer do exactly what you want it to do, priceless.
Good thing my wife is into computers. She used to debug the compilers on the Cray. Otherwise, she would make me clean out the basement. She has her O-Scope set up on the dining room table. She can't say much...
PKR
Veteran
You can find Nixie tubes in some older test equipment for sale on ebay. i remember the older Berkeley Counters used Nixies. The later units had the vertical number rows.
I think the big problem with storing digital anything is the constant change in media. With the faster SD cards now available there is talk of the retirement of the CF. Remember Zip drives..
semilog
curmudgeonly optimist
None of that ancient stuff for me. If it isn't programmable, not interested...
The oldest Programming manual in my collection. The IBM Mark I.
I suspect this means there were only 258 copies, and this is number 16.
The copyright explicitly grants permission for unlimited copying of the manual, in part or in whole.
Anybody got a paper-tape reader...
The oldest Programming manual in my collection. The IBM Mark I.
I suspect this means there were only 258 copies, and this is number 16.
The copyright explicitly grants permission for unlimited copying of the manual, in part or in whole.
Anybody got a paper-tape reader...
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PKR
Veteran
Hmph. You kids and your poncy vaccum tubes. Here's the calculator on my desk.
That’s a really beautiful instrument!
One of my pals, a physics student, was legally blind. A standard slide rule was out of the question. I think a family friend found him an artillery calculator. This was a donut shaped circular slide rule that you “put on”. The rule had shoulder straps and surrounded ones body, resting at between the chin and waist. It had big numbers and was accurate to many places.
semilog
curmudgeonly optimist
None of that ancient stuff for me. If it isn't programmable, not interested...
Um, wow.
Our three cats are named Grace, Ada, and Harry (Nyquist; he didn't seem like an Alan or a Norbert or a Claude... maybe a Clawed).
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PKR
Veteran
I've named my calculator, "Jack", for Jack Kilbey. The fast computer is always Seymour (III now). It's funny, I've never bothered with the photo gear I work with. I'll have to think about why.
semilog
curmudgeonly optimist
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