Sony MVC-FD91 Mavica

My first digicam, I bought this in '99 to shoot projects for my business and put them on the web. Soon I was using a Wratten 87 and shooting infrared, which was far easier than shooting IR film. Overall, this is a very well thought out camera and probably set the tone for other manufacturers to follow. The build quality is pretty decent, better than most for that time period. It felt good in the hand and when shooting. I thought the non-optical viewfinder to be interesting. I didn't like all the stickers plastered all over the camera designed to show all the features of the camera. The ability to shoot MPEGs and images to floppy disk was the clincher for me. Carry enough floppies and you're set. If the camera was priced a little lower, I'd have given a higher value rating, 5/5, but this was a big investment for me at the time. A year later I bought a Canon Digital Elph and rarely used the Mavica after that.

- Spot meter - Big bright f/1.8 lens - 52mm thread - MPEGs - 1.44 MB floppy - Ergonomics - Big LCD - SteadyShot

- Size - Price

Canon Digital Elph S300, Fujifilm FinePix Pro S2

Never used.

this is a great camera. it's lasted a long time with still perfect pictures every time, if not better. takes excellent artistic pictures and is extremely easy to use. the only problem i've had with this camera is that the microphone panel has started to pop up and expose the inside, but it still works nontheless.

very powerful 14X zoom... extremely clear pictures. useful MPEGmovie function. autofocus that gives extremely beautiful touch to pictures.

pictures taken at night tend to be very grainy, even with the flash. no way to light movies by way of the camera.

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I tried a friend's FD-91 for a few minutes and decided it was one of the nicest cameras I had ever used.. "I must have this..".. I said to myself..
Probably the best camera I have ever owned.. you really do not need to buy anything else except perhaps a 52mm screw on clear filter to protect the lens. Controls take a couple minutes to figrue out but everything falls easily to hand after that. You can use it in total novice auto everything mode, or use the buttons to override nearly every setting. Aperature AND Shutter Priority modes if you want. Pop up flash is a bit on the wimpy side and doesn't swivel for bounce flash and no hot shoe to add a better flash. The killer features of this baby are the 14:1 optical zoom lens, better zoom than most binoculars! And without a separate Macro control, you can get down to 1/2" for extreme closeups, meaning you can fill the entire frame with a one cent coin. The HD floppy recording media.. use it in almost any computer out there, and the media is dirt cheap.
The drive is 2x speed, so about 2-3 seconds from shutter click to ready to shoot the next one.. it's not a "rapid fire" camera, but it also has two different MPEG movie modes with audio - yes the camera has both a microphone and a speaker.

Tons of third party freeware programs to suck photos off the disks onto your hard drive, organize them, whatever. The camera builds an HTML Web Page ON the disk as it records photos. Photo filenames are numbered in sequence but only go up to 999 then start at 0 again. Not a problem really, but that might be worth mentioning. The viewfinders give you a full image playback view and/or a thumbnail view and in either mode you can selectively erase any picture on the floppy. The onscreen information is tremendous - a disk "gas gauge" and another for the battery. There are enough icons on the screen that you always know what mode you're in, or push a button and turn them all off to see ONLY your subject. Through-the-lens SLR style shooting is WYSIWYG.

You can approach this camera as either a total amateur or a skilled advanced shooter or anywhere in between. There are cameras out there now with higher res, but scant few with a better lens than this bad boy.

At its current price point, which is less than HALF of its original 1999 debut price, this is one absolutely kick-ass digital camera with unbelievable specs. It's getting harder and harder to find. eCost.com where I bought it doesn't even stock it anymore. After some months of use, I am totally satisfied with it. Highly recommended!

14:1 Optical Zoom Lens
Full Auto or Manual Override for almost every feature
TWO viewfinders, both through the lens - 2" color LCD swivelling screen plus higher res eyepiece viewfinder.
3.5" cheap HD Floppy media
No interfaces, cables or other nonsense.
Onscreen menus for everything.
Precision-built, quality Sony product.
Well-supported everywhere. Tons of accessories and Web sites. Standard 52mm screw on for filters or other lens add-ons. Buy'em anywhere.

They include the NP-530 battery.. the longer life NP-550 is superior but costly as are most Sony accessories.
1024x768 is the maximum resolution. Good enough for desktop or 4x6 prints.
Some JPEG artifacting visible depending on subject.
Not a good low-light camera but incredible results from normal ambient light or outdoors.
A big brute of a camera, this one won't fit in your pocket :)

None.

Haven't needed any from either the dealer or from Sony.

It offers great flexibility of use. Offers portability with the 3 1/2 inch floppy to move your pictures from PC to laptop, etc., has easy to understand menus, and even let's you take 30 second movies in an MPEG format.

Light in weight, easy to use, can take as many pictures as you want aslong as you bring enough floppies.

Kinda bulky in size

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I have been very disappointed with the picture quality overall, but I do love the lens! I get some fabulous candid shots because I can zoom into a fullface frame from 20 feet away. In this manner I catch people in very animated conversations with their best personal mannerisms on full display, and they never even realize I shot them. I'll stick with film for now for my important work, but I'm waiting for Sony to give us 3 megapixel, image stablized zoom extremes- or interchangeable SLR lenses and then I will go entirely digital. If you expect to mostly print 4X6 prints this camera is perfect for you. If you need bigger prints go for a higher resolution camera.

Zoom lens! Creative controls.

Floppies are great for ease of use, but an additional media type would be good for the more than casual user.

Olympus D620L

Not needed.