#Kodak Photo-CD vs. ???
2 messages in this thread
I am working on a proposal to help a company transfer film to CD. They
have to do things like 4 color separation. Kodaks processor runs for
around 100K. While its nice that they can pack 120 high res. images onto 1
disc, this company is not too concerned about the amount of discs they have
to store. Is the high compression the real differance between Kodak and
its competitors, or are they the only game when it comes too the high res.
storage. I'd love to find a CD-R processor that can create and store the
same image (even if there are only 50 per disc) for about 1/3 the cost.
OK, so I'm sniveling around for some more help – snivel, snivel 🙂
– Matt
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