Digital Pics and Kodak vs. Snapfish

Posted on Monday 11 December 2006 at 4:08 PM - Post Comment

"There are two types of data: those that have already been archived by backup and those that have not yet been lost." - Unknown


My mom with my grandmother.

I recently received a box of photographs that belonged to my late grandmother. They included pictures of my mom when she was a child. There were also pictures of my brother and I when we were children. I "ooo'd" and "aaaah'd" as I went through the box. I was happy to have these treasures to one day give to my son. But what is going to happen in the future when my son gets a box of photographs to go through with his children? How do I preserve all these digital pictures for him to one day "oooo" and "aaaaah" over?

I miss my 35mm camera. If I could convince Hubby, I would buy another one. I would happily pay for the quality of the 35mm prints knowing that I wouldn't have to fool with printing them myself. I wouldn't have to deal with printing problems like clogged print heads, streaked pictures or off colors. Not to mention I don't like the looks of the prints. With my film camera...I drop the film off, I pick the film up...with pictures, store the negatives in a cool, dry place.

I love the convenience of downloading pictures from my digital camera to the computer. I really like not having to pay for pictures that don't turn out.  I love being able to quickly upload pictures to my blog. But my biggest problem has been storing pictures. Inkjet pictures can fade over time.  Dye sublimation printers are still too expensive.  Pictures stored on CD's or DVD's will eventually be lost because time will cause the data to corrupt. Even if the data remains in tact, in 20-30 years will CD's and DVD's have gone the way of 5 1/4" floppy disks...or 8" floppy disks?? (Yes, Virginia, there was 8" floppy disks) Will my son need special equipment just to look at his childhood pictures? What happens if my hard drive crashes??

For now I dutifully store my pictures on my computer, Hubby dutifully backs it up, right Hubby? Uuuh, you have been backing the computer up, right Hubby? Hubby?? Why do you look like a deer caught in the headlights??

Now, as far as printing digital pictures, I've decided I'm not going to fool with printing them myself. With homekeeping and homeschooling I've got enough on my plate. I recently did some research on those websites that allow you to upload your digital pictures and they'll send you the prints. I spent quite a bit of time...too much time really...reading all the reviews and opinions I could find. The two websites that had the best reviews were 1. Kodak EasyShare ( http://www.kodak.com/ ) and 2. Snapfish which is owned by HP ( www.snapfish.com ). The net concensis is that Kodak provides the best prints while Snapfish has the best price for prints that are almost as good as Kodak. Most people who used either of these services were generally pleased with what they got. So I decided to go ahead and give Snapfish a try. I'm going to get our vacation pictures printed and see what they are like.

In the mean time, I'm still campaigning for a new 35mm camera.

I am totally with you o that.

Posted by Tinakay on Monday 11 December 2006 at 5:49 PM - Link

My hubby complains when we run out of ink and tells me how expensive it is. So that is one thing why I haven't printed out my pics. I heard the other day that DVD's are going to be obsolete in the near future so having a digital camera and storing your pics on disc's are really kind of silly. You will just keep "upbgrading and spend a ton of money doing so.
Thanks for the Snapfish info.

Tina Kay