CD-R's

What CD-R's do you prefer to store your images on? I have my own preferences narrowed down to Maxell CD-R pro Photo and Fujifilm CD-R Photo. Only because they have the word "photo" in the title. Both claim archival quality. I have bought another Maxell CD-R pro set which has superior archival life but lacks the word "photo" . Does that really matter? What do you look for when buying CD-R's for storing your images?

Thank you for your response.

Will
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada

Sorry I can't answer your question directly, but I've completely given up on CD's. The cost of external hard drives prompted me to buy 2 of them for back purposes. I now have all of my images on 3 different drives. While still vulernable to some catastrophic event, I believe the odds are very small that all 3 are going to die simultaneously. I've found this solution to be much easier to deal with than trying to copy 700mb of images at a time onto a CD, then on to the next CD. Just my 2 cents YMMV

Keith, I hope all the three drives you have are from different manufacturers ... and not from the same batch of hard drives from the same manufacturer lineup with same firmware and same capacity.

Good point... I have two backup, the same manufacturer. but bought at different times. So not from the same batch etc. The reason I went for the second one is because two other makes were problems.

My current preference is to use the Fujifilm DVD-R's. I used the Fujifilm CD-R's previously and haven't had any problems after several years of usage. I've used Sony as well. The best scenario would probably to do back ups on disc and hard drives so you have copies on more than just one type of media.

We use a whole lot of CDs, and Maxell CD-R pro is our long standing choice. We deliver photos to clients on them, plus my wife files sessions from the studio along with other client paperwork in file cabinets. We keep the latter for ten years, and to date have never had any sign of deterioration or data loss. DVDs are certainly more useful for larger shoots, but for typical portrait shoots, the CDs are just the right size.

As for long term archiving, we're still hooked on CD/DVDs for backup to our hard drives, irrespective of cost. In a land of volcanic ash (eats hard drives0, tsunamis and earthquakes, it pays to have more than one form of backup in more than one location. I figure if (or rather, when) the next major catastrophe comes along, it will be money well spent.

Thank you for the helpful responses. I am looking closer at the DVD-R option. Hank, am I right in assuming that DVDs are more useful for larger shoots because they have a greater capacity? So far I can only fit about a dozen images on a CD-R and I am anticipating a very impressive library of CD-Rs in the very near future External hard drives seems a good way to go as well.

Will
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada

You're right William. DVD's are a matter of convenience due to their larger capacity. For the greatest convenience it would be nice if they held as much as the CF cards we use, in order to eliminate the need to break down shoots into smaller segments in order to fit them on the DVD.

Pay close attention to how you organize and label the CDs and DVDs, though. You will eventually accumulate enough that it can be cumbersome to sort and archive them.

I back up on both external drives and DVDs. About once a year I copy the DVDs recent DVDs so I have a total of 3 back ups. Is this too much? It is unless I have a problem then it was a wise choice

I backup to a NAS with mirrored drives. I have two computers that both have their own copy of the same image catalog. I'm going to add an external disk to make an additional backup and I'll keep it offsite in case of a catastrophic event at home.

I don't see any major reliability advantage to optical storage in comparison to magnetic storage at this point and I don't want to be limited to the smaller size of DVDs.

Mel-

I back up on both external drives and DVDs. About once a year I copy the DVDs recent DVDs so I have a total of 3 back ups. Is this too much? It is unless I have a problem then it was a wise choice>>>
Absolutely. I learnt this lesson the hard way.