>> Do any of you have experience with the Sony
  >> Mavicas that store images on CD? ...

  dk> I'm not sure I'd buy the Sony just for the
  dk> reasons stated. I think most modern USB connected
  dk> cameras will simply be recognised as a USB hard
  dk> drive.

Point noted, but for some consumers there are other
factors to consider.

It's disappointing that I've been unable to come up
with a way to mount my Mavica CDs via USB, but given
that they are mountable as ordinary disks, this is not
a hardship for me.

With 157MB CDs only 8cm wide I can store up to 150
high-resolution pictures (1600x1200 on a 2.11 mpx CCD)
per disk. I can shoot for hours without ever having to
change disks. When I've filled disk I don't have to
swap in an expensive second Flash memory unit, and then
run out. I can feed it disks for as long as I want.
When I bought the camera I bought a spool of fifty of
them at a bulk rate of about $0.79 per disk. The images
live forever on the disks where they were originally
taken. I don't have to download them to a computer hard
drive or to other CDs to make room in memory to take
more images. The onluy reason I have to copy them to
the hard drive at all is if I want to use them, e.g.,
in Web work, for printing, graphic manipulation, etc.
It costs me a total of about -- what -- about a half a
cent every time I pull the shutter.

Although I'd be delighted if the USB mounting problem
could be solved, I'm willing to live with the
workaround for all the advantages I enjoy.

I should also mention that the camera mounts fine on
USB under Windows. The mounting glitch is strictly a
Linux problem. (But I don't have a native Windows
machine.)

-- 
Lynn David Newton
Phoenix, AZ