How to keep a legacy of photo images after death?

[Speedy]

mrlynn wrote:
Do magneto-optical drives still exist? At one point they were considered the most stable form of long-term archiving.

/Mr Lynn

This ^.

[mrlynn]

I was curious about Magneto-Optical drives, having raised the issue. A visit to a company called MaxOptix clarifies things:

The State of MO

Current state of MO disks
Manufacturers - Sony is the lone manufacturer of MO disks today. However we do have many disks in stock from MaxOptix, Maxell, Philips, Verbatim, HP, etc. Contact us or click here for a complete list.

3.5 and 5.25 Availability - For the foreseeable future Sony will continue to make a limited amount of 3.5 inch media (PN: EDMG13C and EDMG23C). Sony will continue full production of most 5.25 inch media.

Current state of MO Drives
Manufacturers - All manufacturers have ceased drive production as of 2010. Most all drives on the market are refurbished and offer strong reliability and affordability. MaxOptix has been in the drive business for many years and still offers a complete line of refurbished drives and support for repair of most manufacturers drives.

3.5 and 5.25 Availability - We try to stock the most popular refurbished models from Fujitsu, MaxOptix and Sony, but we come across and acquire hard to find drives. If you don’t see what you need please contact us.

http://www.maxoptix.com/the-state-of-mo/

Since M-O disks require dedicated drives that are expensive and no longer available new, seems to me the M-discs are the best bet for archival storage, assuming independent reviews bear out the claims of the manufacturer. These M-discs can be written to and read by most computer optical drives (see above).

I am going to look into M-discs for our own family photo archives, once I get to the long-delayed chore of scanning the b&ws from the first half of the 20th century. I bought a good scanner; what I need is time. . .

/Mr Lynn

[OWC Jamie]

Rolando wrote:
[quote=OWC Jamie]
...(real prints, not photo printer prints, but film prints) made and distributed to those important to him.

But physical photos have the best chance to survive for decades to come.

What does that mean. Are the Fuji machines at Costco or the Kodak Machines at Walgreen's NOT prints? Or are you referring to Inkjet/Color Laser printers?

I would recommend Costco for bulk prints anyway, because the unit cost will be low.
To answer your question, yes, I am referring to real photographs, not inkjet printed ones. They fade.

[mrlynn]

OWC Jamie wrote:
To answer your question, yes, I am referring to real photographs, not inkjet printed ones. They fade.

Real photographs fade, too. Might take a while, but they do. As do color transparencies.

/Mr Lynn

[Rolando]

OWC Jamie wrote:
[quote=Rolando]
[quote=OWC Jamie]
...(real prints, not photo printer prints, but film prints) made and distributed to those important to him.

But physical photos have the best chance to survive for decades to come.

What does that mean. Are the Fuji machines at Costco or the Kodak Machines at Walgreen's NOT prints? Or are you referring to Inkjet/Color Laser printers?

I would recommend Costco for bulk prints anyway, because the unit cost will be low.
To answer your question, yes, I am referring to real photographs, not inkjet printed ones. They fade.
Thanks! Made me worry for a second. I print about 10 photos a month. I guess as long as I keep them out of the sun they will be ok!