The future of photography?

[ArtScott]

So you are assuming companies that manufacture physical storage like HD's and external drives are not going to manufacture these products?

They will change...I worked in the computer MFG areafor 13 yrs....I watched hard drives that had huge storage, 16mb and weighed in at 350 pounds with platters larger than 33rmp albums, go to almost what a harddrive is today...when I left the drives were in an approx 6 inch form factor and 64 mb took 8 platters stacked...that meant 8 read / write heads floating microns off the platters...a simple speck of dust could crash these.....just a very few years ago computers were still using PATA drive interfaces...you can't hardly find a Pata drive any more or the flat ribbon cable for one....I have a lot of these drives with thousands of images on them and if my Pata to USB external drive box dies I could lose access to these images in the future....I am however quickly moving everything off the pata drives to sata....yes Harddrives will become obsolete as larger and more efficient SSd's come along the nwhat we know use will be obsolete....all things become obsolete and now in the digital age most things are actually obsolete before the the shipment reaches the consumer ... ... ...

 

[jonh68]

They will change...I worked in the computer MFG areafor 13 yrs....I watched hard drives that had huge storage, 16mb and weighed in at 350 pounds with platters larger than 33rmp albums, go to almost what a harddrive is today...when I left the drives were in an approx 6 inch form factor and 64 mb took 8 platters stacked...that meant 8 read / write heads floating microns off the platters...a simple speck of dust could crash these.....just a very few years ago computers were still using PATA drive interfaces...you can't hardly find a Pata drive any more or the flat ribbon cable for one....I have a lot of these drives with thousands of images on them and if my Pata to USB external drive box dies I could lose access to these images in the future....I am however quickly moving everything off the pata drives to sata....yes Harddrives will become obsolete as larger and more efficient SSd's come along the nwhat we know use will be obsolete....all things become obsolete and now in the digital age most things are actually obsolete before the the shipment reaches the consumer ... ... ...

Yes they are obsolete, but my point is do you think personal physical storage will end? I don't think so.

 

[jonh68]

It is a safe bet. Different technologies, different investments, skills, business models.
Remember the Zip Drive?
TDK?
BASF?

They were replaced by other forms of physical storage. I really doubt we will be using cloud storage for our photos or be forced to as the OP thinks. There will always be a way for personal storage.

 

[AlJohnston]

The Prisoner's Dilemma would appear to apply here. All corporations would have to co-operate to enforce universal cloud storage. Any that defect to offer physical storage would have a valuable market to themselves.

 

[NewBert]

Well I will never move to cloud storage, or cloud computing either. So at one point I imagine I will have to give it up. Right now they are merely pushing the cloud, but eventually you will be required to use it, because all you machine will be is an access port. MS and others have already stated that is where they plan on moving it to. The claims of being secure is bogus to me, it is more like the very few controlling all of the information, and therein lies the danger.....

I'm with you 100% on this. If/when we're all forced to use the Cloud, I'll just have to squeeze every last drop that I can from my "old technology" local storage. After that, I'll just have to find something else to do with my time than digitral photography....:frown:

I feel that the only reason that Cloud Storage will be allowed to take hold is that most people nowadays value convenience over privacy/security. If the consumer rejects it, it won't happen. But most people will embrace it, unfortunately. It's a very slippery slope IMO.

 

[snegron]

They were replaced by other forms of physical storage. I really doubt we will be using cloud storage for our photos or be forced to as the OP thinks. There will always be a way for personal storage.

That is what was said about film photography, and look where film is today; developing labs are becoming more scarce, large film manufacturing corporations (Kodak) have announced their plans on getting out of the business, ect. I have no doubt whatsoever that we will see the end of film photography in the not so distant future. When digital photography was introduced many thought that we would always have film no matter what...

Again, my guess is that technology will continue to change until all the components that allow you to have personal storage will become obsolete.

 

[Lurker]

The Prisoner's Dilemma would appear to apply here. All corporations would have to co-operate to enforce universal cloud storage. Any that defect to offer physical storage would have a valuable market to themselves.

That assume that buyers would vote with their wallet against losing having control over their own data storage. I have my doubts about that.

Apple's success has shown that customers are more than happy to relinquish control over: their own computer, content that they buy or software that they want to install in exchange for a bit more user comfort and are even willing to pay more for it

Cloud services will be sold with arguments like access to your data anywhere and never again will you lose a single picture because of a hard drive crash and your cloud storage will grow with you, you will not have to copy over your data every other year to a new drive. The majority of the people will go for it. Maybe not the people here, but the mob that defines the market will. And if there's no room in the market for personal hard drives, then they will not be sold. At least not for reasonable prices.

Apple now has iCloud, Microsoft has SkyDrive. And do you think they're going to sit just on their thumbs or that they're going to make it more attractive to store your personal data there than on a hard drive?

 

[snegron]

I'm with you 100% on this. If/when we're all forced to use the Cloud, I'll just have to squeeze every last drop that I can from my "old technology" local storage. After that, I'll just have to find something else to do with my time than digitral photography....:frown:

I feel that the only reason that Cloud Storage will be allowed to take hold is that most people nowadays value convenience over privacy/security. If the consumer rejects it, it won't happen. But most people will embrace it, unfortunately. It's a very slippery slope IMO.

As you mentioned, I too agree that most people value convenience over privacy/security. Unfortunately, most consumers appear to be accepting this new cloud technology. This brings up another argument as to whether this technology is something consumers want or is it something that corporations deemed profitable therefore they will push everyone toward it?

 

[camerapapi]

It was easy when we used film, right? Do you remember when a Kodachrome slide processed by Kodak could easily last, taken the appropriate care, 40 years in storage?
Remember when cameras were not obsolete? The Nikon F was manufactured during many years suffering only minor outside changes and many interior changes while the body remained like the original of 1959.
Digital has changed everything related to photography. Did you ever imagine Kodak would end up selling their film patents? Could you ever imagine Agfa closing their doors?
Technology evolves so rapidly that most of what we have after one year becomes obsolete. Your D1X, an excellent camera, was introduced to the professional market with heavy, poorly performing NiMH batteries. They became obsolete almost immediately been replaced by the much more efficient Lithium ion cells. Remember the nightmare of using flash with the original cameras like your D1X? Look at how easy and convenient it is using flash today.
I remember when CD had a limited capacity and sold for a fortune. Look at what $20 buys you today!
What the big companies will do in the future I cannot discuss because I do not really know but what I know is that digital is not yet perfect and there are many areas where improvement is needed so they will continue to develop new technologies rendering what we buy obsolete in a short period of time.
I am no professional and I do not need fancy cameras. None of my cameras are new, the youngest is the D300 that is at least 5 years old, the rest like the D2H and D70 are so old that they are living dinosaurs. They still take great pictures and I know them well.
Put your mind to rest. We cannot modify the future.

William Rodriguez
Miami, Florida.

 

[snegron]

That assume that buyers would vote with their wallet against losing having control over their own data storage. I have my doubts about that.

Apple's success has shown that customers are more than happy to relinquish control over: their own computer, content that they buy or software that they want to install in exchange for a bit more user comfort and are even willing to pay more for it

Cloud services will be sold with arguments like access to your data anywhere and never again will you lose a single picture because of a hard drive crash and your cloud storage will grow with you, you will not have to copy over your data every other year to a new drive. The majority of the people will go for it. Maybe not the people here, but the mob that defines the market will. And if there's no room in the market for personal hard drives, then they will not be sold. At least not for reasonable prices.

Apple now has iCloud, Microsoft has SkyDrive. And do you think they're going to sit just on their thumbs or that they're going to make it more attractive to store your personal data there than on a hard drive?

Let's not forget Adobe and the future of their imaging software products. They too are headed in that same direction.

 

[southmine]

I grew up before computers, and I can very well live without them, or any technology. I can drop all of this in an instant, and ruck up and move out to the woods, and be just as, or even more content.

/\ /\ /\ /\ /\
What he said :biggrin:.

I've gone back to shooting mostly film anyway, and if it dies before I do, I'll quit this as a hobby.