Sony MVC-FD88 Mavica

OUR GRANDDAUGHTER MADE A HIT AND I DID TOO

EASY TO USE

NOT FOR BENNGERS

NIKON COOLPIX 800

HAVENT NEEDED

The Sony Mavica FD88 is a good intermediate camera, even with it's three year old technology. By "yesterday's" standards, it was state of the art, and top of the line. By today's standards, it's still a pretty decent camera, but doesn't quite meet the quality of the newer Olympus and Nikon cameras (in my opinion). The Sepia, black and white, and varied other special effects modes will appeal to creative amateurs. Varied lighting settings help you with indoor shots. The 8X optical and 2X digital zooms will allow you to get closeup shots easily, and it's great to have a rechargeable battery pack instead of using AA batteries that wear out quickly. Though the camera has to be bulky to fit in a floppy drive, it does allow for a neck strap (included) so you don't have to lug it around by hand. Bring plenty of floppy disks however, as depending on your settings, you may not be able to get more than a few photos on a disk. Overall, the FD88 is a good camera, if you can get a good deal on it. When new, this unit sold for $800-1,000 retail. Even today, the stores that do sell it tend to sell it for $600. I found it at a Wolf Camera sale for $349.00. Considering the photo quality and features compared with newer models of cameras out there, I'd say if you can get your hands on one of these for $450 or less (as of 4/5/01), then go for it. Any more, and you're paying more for the Sony name, as opposed to this camera's quality. A link to my Yahoo photo site is in this review, with sample photos from various cameras, including this Mavica.

For some the floppy format is still a strength. Though feature rich, the camera is fairly easy to use without the manual if you're somewhat of a techie person, but a quick read of the book will help those who aren't. The ability to add 37mm lens filters for lens protection and effects is a good feature still rarely found on even today's cameras. The 8X optical zoom will bring the action in close - if you have a steady enough hand to keep "camera shake" from producing a blurred photo.

Even at the medium size setting of 1024 pixels, you can only get about 5 photos on a floppy disk. The 2X digtial zoom feature is nice to add to the 8X optical zoom, but at this level, even a small amount of unsteadiness of your hand will result in blurred photos. The camera body has a somewhat cheapish plastic feel to it - less solid than expected. The Mpeg movie mode is very disappointing indoors, being too dark even in bright indoor light at night, without natural sunlight coming in. The camera's flash falls off quickly when out of it's short range indoors. Lack of an optical viewfinder may be bothersome to some.

Olympus D-400 (A+ camera), Kodak DC215 (C+ camera), I/O Magic MagicImage 500 (D- camera).

Have not had to use. Have heard rumors from two camera store owners that getting warranty work done is hard, as Sony may try to blame camera problems on users.

Love this camera, had an Olympia for a couple of years. But utilizing floppy discs for storage makes downloading and manipulation easy

great pictures, zoom amazingly sharp, ease of down load, video clip feature preety cool for attaching to emails

# of pictures on floppy

Olympia

No Need for

This is a good camera for outdoors and inside with the flash. I've taken many good photos. The prints are just fine to about 6X8. Overall a great point and shoot with a good zoom. The biggest drawback I found was that there is no control over shutter speed, aperature, ISO, etc.

Good zoom. Some exposure control.

JPEG compression is a little strong.

None.

Not needed.

I bought my FD88 used for $450 as an upgrade to my FD73. It's been enjoyable to use with good flexibility, good quality images, and lots of useful features.

Very good image quality at the higher resolutions. The zoom is quite effective and the MPEG movie feature is a fun novelty to have on the camera. Flash is effective as are the programmable and manual exposure features. Floppy disc storage is the simplest way to upload your pictures to any computer with no cables or software needed.

Macro is not nearly as effective as the FD73...you really can't get in close enough for true macro work. The LCD refresh rate is slow and makes for a "jerky" image. LCD screen very hard to use outdoors on a bright day...the lack of a viewfinder can be a problem. Image acquisition/focus time is relatively slow.

FD73

Never used.