Show me your Mega Pixels baby! (Sony Mavica MVC-FD90)

Member Name: partyspice

Product:	Sony Mavica MVC-FD90
Date:	17/09/01 (479 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to Use, Loads of functionality, Floppy disk storage

Disadvantages: A bit heavy, Battery drains on prolonged use, At the pricey end of the market

Picking a decent digital camera is a right bugger - there are so many of them offering a range of features and naturally a range of prices. Let's face it, although they are getting cheaper such digital cameras are still a bit pricey.

When I came to chose one I had valid reasons. I have a SLR Canon camera that uses good old 35mm film. Works great, but scanning the pictures is a bind. This is where the idea of a good functional digital camera came from!

After much deliberation the Sony Digital Mavica (or MVC-FD90) was the choice. Why? Let's put it into perspective so you can get an idea of my personal needs.

The Requirements

1) A camera that was not too complicated but offered a decent selection of functions
2) USB connection optional. Would prefer 3.5" disk storage meaning no leads and unlimited storage by swapping disks when full
3) A decent zoom
4) Good quality shots so a reasonable picture resolution was needed
5) Nice big viewing screen so you can see what you are doing

Pretty specific eh! The crunch one was the storage. Having a PC set up that is already linked to the world and its dog is great, but adding yet more cables and having to mess around each time I wanted to download pictures would be such a pain!

My employer has the previous model of the Mavica and I had played around with this at work and found it easy to use and easy to gain access to the pictures taken. I liked it. So armed with this knowledge and a fist full of vouchers from iPoints, MyPoints and other such places, I trotted off to PC world and bought the camera at a much reduced price (as it was also reduced in the sale to about £450)…

What do you get for your dosh?

1) The camera (of course), a lens cover, strap, battery and battery charger, a manual and a big box!
2) 1.6 mega pixels (what the hell are mega pixels!!!)
3) Up to 2.5 hours of battery time (ehm)
4) 16x digital zoom
(which is very good)
5) MPEG Movie creation (up to about 15 seconds with sound)
6) 4x Floppy Disk drive (built in)
7) Audio (Mono) Video Out port
8) Auto or Manual focus
9) Good sized viewing screen on the back of the camera
10) Option to buy adapter disk to use Sony Memory Stick (big bonus)
11) Lots and lots of functionality, which I will cover in a second

OK - so it works and it takes pictures and the techy stuff sounds impressive! But what does it really mean to the consumer in terms of usefulness, etc.

Taking Pictures and Movies

On the back of the camera there is a three-way switch with PLAY, STILL and MOVIE above. STILL allows you to take a picture (as with any normal camera). What you see in the viewing screen is what you get. Same goes for the MOVIE option, except of course you shoot from 5 to 15 seconds worth of moving action (whey hey).

The PLAY option allows you to view your photos or movie. Great to be able to see what you have taken instantly - no more waiting for photos to come back from the shop! Simple as that really! Well actually no - there is more folks!

FLASH! (Ahaaaa)

The FLASH button (on the back) offers several modes of flashing (must be careful here or else this could get very rude). I tend to stick to the EYE icon on the screen (which is the red-eye reduction) so it flashes before it takes a picture as well. There is also an ordinary flash option (no red-eye reduction) and no flash at all option.

MACRO

Another button (when on denoted by a flower on the screen) is for more close-ups. When on, the camera adjusts itself to suit the subject you are taking a picture of.

PROGRAM

Keep pressing this for a series of pre-set camera options:

Normal (no settings applied)
Single moon icon on screen denotes a long exposure for dusk (early evening) shots
Moon with a plus sign denotes long exposure for night (dark) shots (th
is works so well!!!!!!!!)
Mountains icon for scenic long-distance shots
Little Bloke and a Mountain for a shot with something of interest in the foreground
Circle in a frame icon for portrait shots

DISPLAY

This is neat. It just turns off any text and icons displayed on the viewer, so you can either get a better uncluttered view of a picture you want to take or view.

MENU

This is a biggy so please bear with me. I will pick the functions I have used and have found productive!

When in STILL mode you have these options:

1) EFFECT: Allows you to select special effects before you take a picture like changing to a black and white picture or sepia picture. You can even have a negative type effect that is surreal! You can also turn on or off the date and/or time that is stamped on the picture.
2) FILE: This has several options. You can format a disk or copy a disk. The most useful feature here is the file size option. You can change the resolution of your photo before you take it. I set mine to 640x480 and the quality if still excellent. You can set it as high as 1472x1104. Be aware, the higher the setting the less pictures you will fit on a standard floppy disk. The 640x480 setting will allow 32 pictures per disk whilst the highest setting allows about 2 or 3 pictures per disk. Believe me, the lowest setting is very, very good and the detail is great.
3) CAMERA: This option has a sub-menu with adjustments you can make to the photo dependent on the lighting conditions, etc. so you can adjust sharpness, white balance and exposure from here. The only one I have used is the Flash Level. This has three levels - high, normal and low. Normal usually suffices, but if you need that extra bit of oomph to get a shot from a distance with a flash, the high level does work very nicely
4) SETUP: This deals with settings for the camera itself such as Video Out (PAL or NTSC), Language (English is the default but i
f you are inclined to Japanese then go ahead!), Clock/Date Setting, Beep (because this camera still makes a noise!) and the LCD Brightness of the viewing screen. All niceties to have although other than date and time I have left the rest as default

When in PLAY mode you have these options:

1) INDEX: This shows all your pictures in a portfolio type display in the viewing screen. You can scroll up and down them, select one and view a larger image of it. The screen also displays the time and date the photo was taken, as this is all captured on the floppy disk
2) DELETE: Select a picture you don't like and delete it. It asks you if you are sure as well - how Windows is that!!!!!!
3) FILE: The options are different here. You still have the format disk option though. You can set up a slide show to page through all you photos, print mark the photos and protect photos (so you don't remove them accidentally)
4) TOOL: From here you can copy a photo and resize a photo
5) SETUP: As above - no differences there!

When in MOVIE mode you have these options:

1) EFFECT: As above
2) FILE: As above but here you can set the record time of your movie from 5 to 15 seconds in length
3) CAMERA: As above but with reduced options
4) SETUP: Same as above again!

Phew! Sorry about that! Tried to be as concise as possible, but at least you can get a feel for the scope and functionality built in to this camera!

All the MENU options appear on the viewing screen as pop-up menus and sub-menus. You navigate using the MENU button, which is a largish round button with impressed up, down, left and right indicators on it. Pressing the centre of the MENU button acts as RETURN on a PC keyboard and selects an option or confirms a change to the settings.

The Viewing Screen

This is about 4 x 5 cm and is clear and easy to look at. The screen will appear much darker when taking in-door or night shots. Wher
eas with an ordinary camera you see what you look at, with a digital one like this the light is very much reduced. You will need to enhance the exposure or backlight by using the menu options. Or - if you are like me - go on intuition and take a picture whether you can see anything or not! Well - as long as it is pointing in the right direction, said the actress to the bishop!

On the viewing screen you also can see the icons of things you have selected such as whether the flash is on or if the camera is in a certain mode. The battery indicator is up there too and indicates in minutes (useful touch) how much life there is in the battery. Believe me, 2.5 hours as it says on the box is an overstatement. I guess if you just turned the camera on and left it for 2.5 hours without touching it, then that statement would be true.

I estimate on full-charge it would last an hour with constant use. Intermittent photography will increase the battery life to about a day, which gives a few hours a night to charge the little demon back up again. Be aware, the more complicated you make a shot, the more the battery will go down - so use of flash, zoom and flicking between STILL and PLAY will eat the power! You can get a larger capacity battery I believe and when I find one I will let you know!

Extra little bits include a tripod mount underneath the camera plus the option (mentioned earlier) about getting the adapter disk for the Sony Memory Stick. Cannot comment on how much this will increase the space for pictures, but I am assured from the chap in the shop that it does increase the potential tremendously. In addition, you can still use the adapter to transfer from the camera to your PC by using you PC floppy drive!

The manual that comes with this is very good and explains clearly what to do and what not to do as well as how to use the camera. Included is also a list of add-ons for the camera such as wide-angled lens, carrying case, etc. They all
look very nice - no prices though - and PC World hadn't got any in stock. Perhaps a camera specialist may have these items too…

Overall

I am sooooo pleased with this camera. What a time save it is! No more scanning, just take a picture then transfer using a disk (no cables!!!) and there you have it. It is brilliant for Web site developers who need to take pictures quickly and easily and it does not cost the earth compared to a Digital SLR camera.

My only possible grumbles is that it is a bit heavy (round the neck) and compact it is not. The battery could have been designed to last a bit longer too. However, there are so many plusses here that I have to say that this is a worthwhile investment for the long-term and this will get used over and over and over again!

Summary: