Importing from Old Kodak Picture CD's

[Old Muley]

I've got a bunch of old Kodak Picture CD's that I'd like to import the photos from, but I'm having no luck. These CD's all date from around 1999 to 2001 and so far I've been unable to locate any images on them. If memory serves me correctly, these had some type of stand-alone application on the CD that would display the images, but this was back in the days of OS 9 so any chance of finding a machine to actually run the app is lost for me.

 

[leighonigar]

I've no idea, but Google found me some pages that suggest you should have *.PCD files which need to be converted. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_CD#Converting_Photo_CD_Images

 

[FourCandles]

What photo applications do you have / use? e.g. iPhoto / Photoshop / Lightroom etc.

 

[Old Muley]

What photo applications do you have / use? e.g. iPhoto / Photoshop / Lightroom etc.

I used iPhoto and have access to Photoshop. My attempt to import via iPhoto failed- iPhoto couldn't find the pictures but instead found images that appear to be part of the PictureCD software. This might end up being a vain attempt anyway since the wikipedia entry on the older PictureCD format (.pcd) suggests efforts to convert result in low resolution (512x768)! images.

At this point I might have to look into a film scanner to bring everything in using a more up-to-date format.

 

[FourCandles]

OK, iPhoto won't be an option then; 2 options spring to mind.

You've not mentioned which version of Photoshop you have access to, but version CS2 (and probably earlier) came with an optional plugin (on one of the install CDs) to read Kodak Photo CD files. The plugin should work on PS CS3 and CS4 (but if you have an Intel Mac you may have to run using Rosetta, because it will be a PowerPC-only plugin), and may possibly work on PS CS5 (in 32-bit mode).

Or, if you have access to a PC or you run Windows on your Mac, try Irfanview. This can then save the files to something more common that iPhoto can deal with.

 

[Old Muley]

Well, I've had absolutely no luck extracting any photos from these CD's so now it's on to option two; rescan the original negatives. I had to chuckle when I was looking over the packaging on one of the Kodak picture CD's and it stated it was a "time capsule" that would "save your pictures for a lifetime".

 

[xlii]

What can you see on the CD by drilling into it with the finder...

Failing that, if you have access to a pc can you see what is on the cd by using windows explorer?

 

[SeussCat]

Importing from old Kodak Picture CDs

Hi, I hope you get this before having to scan in all your old negatives. I have recently been doing the same thing - found old Kodak CD's from 1999/2000 and was trying to reclaim the images.

There is a folder on the CD labeled "Pictures" my husband had better luck finding it on PC - but sometimes when I put the CD in I could see the folder.

Otherwise, if I left the CD in the drive, and restarted the computer - it would then be able to see the "Pictures" folder and I could get all the images again.
I'm trying to find out how I can do this w/o having to restart all the time as I'm sure it's not good for the computer.

If you found any other way - please let me know too.