new to list, CD-RW woes

[Claire Hart]

Hello.  This is my first day to be on this list.  I've had 9.2.2 on my 
iMac DV 400.  I've had no trouble downloading photos and the little 
movies from a Jam Cam and a Sony Handy Cam with Memory Stick, all via 
USB.  I've never taken the time to figure out how to connect the Handy 
Cam with FireWire, but I knew that soon I would get Panther, and then 
it would probably be simpler, so I've just waited.

Now that Panther is loaded, it doesn't recognize that the Handy Cam is 
connected when I use FireWire.  It does recognize it through USB, and 
in fact has downloaded all of the photos very simply, without me 
reinstalling any drivers.  I've added a Fujifilm S5000 camera to the 
collection, again without installing any drivers, and USB works 
wonderfully.  But FireWire is as good as dead.  I am really ready to 
start creating some little movies, such as for the various activities 
our kids are involved in.

Then there's the related problem of the Fantom Drive FireWire 40x12x48x 
CD-RW.  While this is not a DV problem, it's related to the above 
situation, I think.  When a CD is inserted, I'm asked what I want to do 
with it.  When I want to burn a CD from iPhoto, it tells me, "The disk 
drive could not be used because the disk drive is not supported 
(followed by a very long error code)."  I could not create a CD from a 
predetermined playlist in iTunes, either, for some similar reason.  The 
Fantom Drive website doesn't seem to address FireWire problems with 
Panther, only USB problems.  I had no trouble burning back music or 
data CDs in 9.2.2 with this burner.  (There are currently no drivers 
for Panther for my Microtek Scanner, either, but that really is a 
different issue.)  Do I need Toast or something like that?  I thought 
that additional software was no longer necessary with Panther's version 
of iTunes, iPhoto, etc.

Incidentally, I have no trouble accessing my Acom Data FireWire 
external HD.

Could someone point me in the right direction?  I put off switching to 
X until it looked like bugs were pretty much worked out, but I'm really 
missing having the use of my CD-RW and scanner.  I hope that I'm just 
overlooking something obvious.  I currently do not have a DVD burner, 
but that shouldn't be the issue, should it?

Thanks for your suggestions,
Claire