[filmscanners] RE: No more Kodak CD-R's

["Tim Atherton" <tim@KairosPhoto.com>]

> A shame that, and explains why I can't find any. Anyone got any specially
> fond recommendations for any other brands? I've used Verbatim, Traxdata,
> Philips, Memorex, never had a problem with any of them, but...
>
> Regards

I know - we had been using them at our Government Archives with great
success so far... we will have to do some hunting around for a new standard
CD-R (hopefully our sound archives guy, who also runs a recording studio
will do all the ground work - those sound guys are worse than photographers
for being tech-heads, what with their "great 1952 bimble zwummer"
microphones [= Leica M3] - analog vs digital debate, where to still get a
good stylus or the best gold contacts...)

I think I mentioned, the only Gold/best Dye layer CD-R are Mitsui (Kodak
licensed the technology from them) - They also make silver ones comparable
to the later Kodak Ultima CD-R's. After that, I'm not sure.

As I understand it, two of the most important elements of the CD-R in terms
of longevity and reliability is the combination of the foil layer AND the
dye layer. Testing has shown Gold is in many ways about the best foil layer,
silver or the Mitsui/Kodak silver alloy is a good second. But this needs to
be combined with a good dye layer. Mitsui's patented phthalocyanine dye has
come out in testing as the best so far, especially in combination with a
gold or silver foil layer. Kodak also used this under license (as did
Quantegy, but Mitsui made their CD's...). All this is combined with
excellent quality control - a third major factor (you get what you pay for,
especially in CD-R's).

So... right now, I'd probably go for Mitsui Gold or silver, as listed
below - they aren't the cheapest, but are probably the best/safest. The nice
think about the Kodak versions was they were damn cheap for what they were!
(gee - I wonder why they didn't make a profit?). It may also be that Mitsui
is making CD's for someone else, or someone else is making them under
license, and they would probably be cheaper - I'm going to leave that to the
Audio guys to hunt down


tim

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