CompuServe Messages

Matt, If you don't need the other features of Photo CD (multiple image resolutions for each image, or playability on home Photo CD or CD I players, for example), you can use a much less expensive scanner. Three examples of good-but-less-expensive scanning systems are Leaf, Nikon, and the Kodak RFS 2035. You can get into this business for less than $10,000 for the scanner. As for storage, of course you can use the standards – Syquest cartridges, or tape. However, you also can use writable CD-ROM storage. Kodak and Philips sell CD writers that are multisession-capable. This means that you don't have to write the entire 600 Mb capacity all at one sitting. You can write several images at a time, then come back and add images. Kodak's product is the PCD Writer 200. It costs $5,995, and will work with DOS, Windows, Mac, or UNIX. It produces discs that are ISO 9660 compliant. This means that you can write a standard image file to the disc (eg, TIFF, PICT, etc.), and read the disc on any system with an appropriate application, including DOS, Windows, Mac, and UNIX. The CD-ROM discs will be readable on CD-ROM XA drives. The formatting software will cost an additional $2,000 or so. That puts your total investment in the CD-ROM writer system at about $8,000. Kodak Writable CD discs cost $25 each in quantities below 500. Regards … Paul