Palmer Multimedia Imaging

06/25/2026

Increasingly, our customers are asking for their video memories to be put in the MP4 format and placed on a flash drive instead of a DVD. There are advantages and disadvantages to each format.
The DVD has been around for 30 years and has become somewhat obsolete. Most new computers don’t even include a drive anymore. DVDs could only support Standard Definition (SD) video.

The recording norm now is High Definition (HD) which requires much more space than a DVD can provide. But family memories were only recorded in SD, if they were analog and early digital tape. But unlike a flash drive, a DVD cannot be erased. Of course they can get damaged, making them unreadable. But in general, they have a long life as long as there is access to a DVD drive.

Flash Drives are more convenient. They can hold more data and be accessed on a computer and a smart TV. The MP4 file format can easily be shared and posted on the cloud. The liability of a flash drive is that it can be easily erased and/or corrupted. In addition, it has a life span of only holding information for 5-10 years. The flash drive is storing your memories as electrons, which can dissipate over time or be shortened by frequent use or environmental conditions. This is comparable to the old floppy drive which held information magnetically and now most are mostly unreadable.

The key to holding on to family memories is redundancy. What we have used for recording memories continues to change. Now with digital, there is no generational loss in quality due to replication. But there will be the need to keep moving this data as computer lifespans are often around 5+ years.

03/27/2026

Love it or hate it AI is here. The image on the left is the original. The image on the right are the changes made after just typing in what I wanted to see.

03/09/2026

Today marks the beginning of year 33 for PMI. The technological changes that have taken place over the last 32 years are incredible.

I never envisioned being self employed, but it happened. It started out of necessity when the company I worked for, Guardian Photo, was bought out by Kodak. It’s interesting that I have been in business 10 years longer than Guardian Photo existed. And now Kodak is a faded memory with the name unfamiliar to younger generations.

I took some non-credit classes at RIT learning about digital imaging and a new program called Photoshop. I was an early adopter of both. I didn’t think at that time that these would wipe out an industry that was around for 100 years. I was wrong. I had my first 2 digital cameras in the 90’s and by early 2000’s digital cameras improved to the point that film died.

My interest in Photoshop led me to attending conferences to learn from experts. Networking led to my becoming the technical editor for a number of those expert’s books and co-authoring two which were translated into multiple languages. Interestingly, the technical book industry has imploded. Where once you would visit a book store and find an entire rack of Photoshop books, you might find one, if you find a bookstore. The technology is changing so rapidly that a technical book could become obsolete before it is printed. Most technical education is now a YouTube click away.

For over 20 years I have been on the pre-release/beta team for a number of Adobe products including Photoshop which has become the industry standard for editing. The company has embraced AI. Now, timely tasks that took a lot of familiarity with the program are being accomplished with typing in what you want to see done. Photo realistic imagery is being created without using a camera.

When I started out, photography and videography were still analog. Now film and video tape are obsolete as well as CDs, LPs, cassettes and DVDs. The smart phone has pretty much ended the amateur point and shoot and stand alone video camera market. The concept of having a physical print of a picture is no longer the norm as showing an electronic version often suffices.

Am I complaining? No. Technological change is inevitable. Here we go year 33!

04/15/2025

Family memories fading away? We can help.

03/15/2025

https://palmermultimedia.com/storing-memories/

Passing along your family memories has never been easier or harder. It is now possible to digitize family memories and share them without generational loss that was the problem in years past. The challenge is holding on to those memories without losing them. Interestingly, old prints seem to be the....

03/12/2025

Year 32!!!!!

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03/12/2025

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12/04/2023

We have decided to stop taking credit cards. Credit cards were a small percentage of payments. Monthly service fees, % fees per transaction, and the time involved through the regular PCI compliance, have made it unprofitable as a payment method.