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The PrimeFoto recorder copies your images to a backup disk and even creates slide shows and digital photo albums automatically.
 technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

T e c h n o f i l e
You don't need a computer to put your digital photos on CDs


May 22, 2005


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2005, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2005, The Post-Standard

   You don't need a computer to record your digital photos onto CDs.
   Pacific Image Electronics, a scanner manufacturer, is introducing a $250 CD recorder that automatically copies photos from your camera's memory cards onto compact disks. All you do is plug your memory card into a slot, drop a blank disk into the CD drawer and press a button. It does the rest.
   The recorder, called PrimeFoto, even creates slide shows and digital photo albums. The resulting CD displays slides or numbered album pages when played on a home DVD player but contains normal images that can be viewed, copied, edited or printed when opened on a computer.
   The PrimeFoto is a technical marvel -- a smart CD recorder that extends the benefits of compact disk storage to digital photographers who don't own a computer. The PrimeFoto recorder is a breakthrough product that could signal a change, however small, from difficult-to-use multipurpose computers to easy-to-use specialty devices that handle only one or two computer functions. We are long overdue for such an improvement.
   The PrimeFoto recorder is new on the market and might not be easy to find at first. For more information, go to the manufacturer's site at www.scanace.com. Use a search site for discount prices, too, using PRIMEFOTO PRICE as the search term. I saw typical discount prices of about $200 at some Web-based stores.
   The recorder is about the size of a home CD player and uses standard house current; it doesn't work on batteries. (A portable version would be very handy.) It can work on its own, automatically copying photos to recordable CDs (CD-Rs), or it can work through a TV set, so you can choose which photos to copy by viewing your pictures beforehand.
   All memory cards should work with the PrimeFoto recorder, including ones that use a tiny hard disk.
   In addition to copying your camera's digital photos intact onto a recordable CD, where they can be viewed or edited on a computer, it creates a slide show that can be viewed on a home DVD player. The slide show is also viewable as a photo album. Technically, the CDs it creates are VCDs -- video CDs. They're popular in Asia but never caught on much in the West. Most home DVD players purchased in the last few years should be able to play them.
   In my tests of the Primefoto, our new portable DVD player showed the PrimeFoto disks without a problem, but an older home player balked.
   I took the unit along on an island vacation and used it to make backup CDs of the hundreds of photos I took. That was much easier than my usual method, which stores my pictures on my notebook computer, and it was far more reliable, too. CD-Rs cannot be erased, no matter what, but calamities can happen to any laptop computer.
   Here's how the PrimeFoto works: You plug your camera's memory card into a slot on the front, then slip a blank recordable CD into the drive tray and hold a button on the front for three seconds.
   That's all you have to do. A half hour or so later, depending on how many photos you took, the PrimeFoto recorder sticks out its tongue and gives you the finished CD.
   If you want to customize the slideshow and photo album, you can use manual mode. Manual mode requires a TV hookup. You can view thumbnails of each picture on the TV screen and press a button on the supplied remote control to select the images you want in the slide show and photo album. You can also rotate pictures to make sure they're right side up on the CD. A button on the remote shows any selected photo full-screen.
   You have to use manual mode if you want to assign your own title to the album and slide show. (In automatic mode, the recorder uses the date as the title.) You can also add pictures from other memory cards simply by unplugging the first one when you're done with it and plugging in another while you are still selecting photos. You can even add pictures from a CD you've swapped for the CD-R in the PrimeFoto's drive, a nice touch. (It will tell you to put the CD-R back when needed.)
   This represents amazing versatility. But there's more. In automatic mode, PrimeFoto places a soundtrack on the CD that plays during the slide show. The canned soundtrack isn't bad, but you can choose your own music simply by having the recorder "inspect" an audio CD of your choice beforehand. It picks up a soundtrack from the CD. (You can choose your own music in manual mode, too, of course.) You can also plug a microphone into a front-panel jack to record narration for the slide show.
   Your original photos are not altered in any way. They're copied onto the disk and are left alone. You can edit them or print them at any time.
   The PrimeFoto is one of those rare devices that is both highly sophisticated and exceptionally easy to use. All it lacks is a way to operate away from house current. A portable version would be ideal, and would give digital photographers a reliable way to store their photos on field trips and journeys. Pacific Image Electronics, are you listening?