Dear Judy,
 
Apologies for the late reply, but I thought I would relate my experiences
with respect to your query.  While optical disk systems are very user
friendly and the media seem to be generally reliable, it is worth noting
that optical disk systems are rarely compatible (even multifunction MO's).
This means that if you want to read your data on another optical driver
(e.g. if visiting another lab, or if someone acquires images on your drive
then wants to read them on a different system), you are likely to run into
problems.
 
Obviously it depends on your needs.
 
We are presently  making the same choice as you are, for our new Zeiss 410
LSM.  For the reasons listed above we are probably going to go for a CD ROM
reader (see previous comments in reply to your question about the merits of
this system).
 
Good luck!
 
Julia Hush
Biological Sciences
University of Sydney, Australia
 
Julia Hush
School of Biological Sciences,
University of Sydney, NSW 2006,
Australia.
Ph. (02) 692 2278; Fax (02) 692 4771