Rangefinder Magazine
December 2001/Features

Burning Your Own by Marshal M. Rosenthal
CDs, That Is

Today’s photographer must look beyond the conventional tools of film and camera in order to survive. In the years that I’ve been writing about new technologies for Rangefinder, I’ve watched personal computers go from being considered a toy, to somewhat useful, to now a vital component of the photographer’s digital camera bag. While some might say that it’s digital cameras that have made such a difference, I’d disagree. Not that filmless imaging isn’t important, but without a computer running software, the images are limited in what can be done to them. So if you take this as gospel, then one might wonder what’s the next step on the digital path?

Plextor Plexwriter PX-S88TU/SW

Burning your own—which is to say, being able to take those digital images and transport them in a way that they can easily be viewed by others—be they clients, ad agencies, stock houses, etc. Now, obviously we’re talking about CDs. Once an expensive proposition to have made—and which gave Kodak a few bucks from professional photographers paying to have their images written to the PhotoCD format (DVDs are for another time and much farther down the road...)—taking images and putting them onto a CD oneself has become simple and inexpensive. Most computers, if not all by now, have CD drives (whether PC/Mac) and some even come with CD-RW drives (which allow you to “burn” your own CDs).

And it’s the CD-RW drives that are making this all possible. Basically, it is a CD drive that doesn’t just “play” CDs, but also can take a blank disc and write upon it, either once (CD-RW) or a multiple number of times (CD-RW). The finished disc is now indistinguishable from a commercially made one—and depending upon the software program that is used to create it—can have images on it, music and even video. There’s even one special format called VideoCD that can be created and which is similar to that of a DVD in that it will play in most DVD players and can hold video and sound—in essence being a digital videotape (but unlike DVD, the amount of space that can be used is less and the sound can’t be multi-channel). The capacity of the CD itself is quite large and so many hundreds of megabytes can be placed on it—so you could put multiple sizes of images, thumbnail sketches and even a slide show to present them. It’s also possible to create hybrid discs that will play in both Mac as well as PCs.

So let’s go over the two steps required to make this all work—the software and the hardware. On the hardware side, if the CD-RW drive is built in, then that means the “drivers” that will make it work are as well. And in addition, a program to use with it is usually included (for example, CD Creator from Roxio). In addition, those getting DVD-RW drives (such as the new models being put into PCs and Macs, called superdrives) also get software to use that is designed to work with the drive (PC-based DVDIt!! from Sonic Solutions being often included, as is iDVD for Macs). How to use the software is fairly evident, it’s up to the user as to what he/she wants to put on them that will determine the process resulting in the final disc. Those wanting/needing to get a CD-RW drive have a number of options available—price affects the speed and performance of the drive, but the most important issue is avoiding making “coasters” due to the drive not getting all the data in a constant stream and so ruining the process. Granted, blank CDs are pretty cheap (often under $1), still this isn’t something to be desired. Many of the new external drives come with either a large buffer to avoid data loss (as in 8MB), or have a “burnproof” feature that enables them to wait when data is slow and then resume without incident. Another important choice is what kind of connection the drive has as this affects the performance as well. USB drives are becoming popular but they have a disadvantage in that they are very slow in comparison to those drives using Firewire (or iLink) connections. Still USB features plug and play ease and can be used very successfully. One example of this is Plextor’s portable CD-RW drive, the Plexwriter PX-S88TU/SW (www.plextor.com). Not only is it compact and affordable (under $300, retail) and truly portable (weighing under 1.5 lbs.), works with PC/Macs, but it’s compatible with the faster 2.0 USB format as well as the standard one. It also features the abovementioned “burnproof” technology.

Toast Titanium Mac

On the software side, there are a number of programs that will successfully create CDs. Roxio (www.roxio.com) makes Toast for the Mac, and this program is as simple to use as it is powerful. The most recent version has a spiffy new interface and a host of features, such as being able to make VideoCDs and burn MP3 music. They make Easy CD Creator for PC users, and the latest version offers XP support as well as for earlier Windows systems (in fact, Roxio has licensed their CD burning technology to Microsoft to use in XP). What’s useful about Roxio products is that they also include other functions that go beyond the basic burning of a CD—such as software to help eliminate the hiss of vinyl records and cassettes transferred to digital, and design and print your own CD labels. There are other programs out there, of course, so it’s mostly a matter of seeing what they offer and what systems they will run on, then making a choice based on your needs.

The fact is that just as once a computer was considered a luxury and now a necessity, being able to take your images (digital or turned-digital) with you is also now something that needs to be done (and we haven’t even talked about the long term storage qualities of storing images on CDs as opposed to floppies, zip disks, and other magnetic media). Who’d have thought that that popular slogan of the 60’s, “Burn, Baby, Burn,” would return in such a technologically positive way?

Marshal M. Rosenthal is a photojournalist based in Los Angeles, and a frequent contributor to many imaging and computer publications. He can be reached at marshalr@pipeline.com/.