>> 1. If the image files/blobs were stored separate from the data in
>> their
>> own table, would there be an impact on overall database performance?
>
> Assuming that the images themselves were seldom modified after being
> inserted (which is probably the case), keeping the blobs in a
> different table would improve performance as modifying another field
> in a record would not require duplicating a BLOB.

When you update a row, but not it's blob, then the blob will not be duplicated.
Both old and new record versions will store the same blob-id.

Ivan
http://www.volny.cz/iprenosil/interbase/