SONY Mavica FD-81

The SONY Mavica one advantage which places it over other digital still cameras -- it shoots directly to floppy disks. There is nothing more convenient than being able to shot a couple of pictures and simply hand it over to someone else. Since the camera uses the standard PC format (FAT) and ISO naming (8.3), almost anyone with a computer can read the disks without any special hardware. It's also convenient that should you run out of storage and need to take more pictures, almost any store will carry PC formatted floppy disks. This convience is the appeal of the Mavica series.

This is also it's primary downfall though. Because the camera is limited to working within a 1.2MB space, it must make the files very small. That level of compression yields a significant number of artifacts. While SONY has improved their compression quality, it still suffers from significantly lower image quality than do other memory card based cameras. Additionally, since no more than 10 images may be saved to a single disk in it's best quality mode, the quantity of disks does become quite cumbersome. Basically, the floppy disk idea is both a benefit and a hinderance. If you're looking at getting a digital camera, make sure you weigh out the benefits in your application.

Pros:	Inexpensive, convenient storage media Easy to use controls (especially focus) Well sized Light-weight Long-life Lithium Ion rechargable batteries Standard 37mm filter size
Cons:	LCD is washed-out on moderate to bright days LCD is not fine enough resolution to focus manually Lacks image quality of other digital cameras Floppies become cumbersome No external flash support Lack of exposure control Plastic body is easily marked/damaged

Some other benefits of this camera make it an excellent choice for both the experienced photographer and the novice. The rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries are fabulous. Using their Stamina batteries from the camcorder line, SONY has a great power source which lasts significantly longer than any of the alternate sources I have found. It also makes the camera extremely inexpensive to operate since the batteries are recharged with a couple of pennies worth of electricity back at you home or office (and even in the car if you're willing to spend the money on the charger). Another of my favorite features is the focus ring. I know this may seem odd, but you'll soon learn that auto focus and moving objects do not get-along. The manual focus switch is quick and easy to access, with the focus ring right on the lens (as it would be on most traditional film cameras). It's fast and easy to switch in to manual focus allowing for shots which would have otherwise been lost. The flash has three power levels. While I wish that it would be able to detect which level would work best for a particular image, at least it does offer the levels and you could shoot three images and judge for yourself which level worked best. This is vital though in that objects closer to the camera would become washed out with higher power and object further from the camera would not get enough power with the lower power. The light weight of the camera also makes carrying the camera around for an entire day to be almost plesant. For the user creating content for web sites, the floppy disk and JPEG compression could not be easier. Since the images are already in the browser supported format, there's little more that must be done to the photos than crop, resize and post. For example, most of the Mavica supplied images on this site were prepped in less than a minute each through a series of scripts. This is a significant improvement over the long, cumbersome process of scanning in photos, removing the dust/scratches/moires/etc. then prepping them for the web page. Together, these features make the Mavica a pleasure to use.

After shooting the Mavica FD-81 for 6 months, I rule that it is not a good camera for trainwatchers. More than anything other reason, it has problems out doors. Even with the light window added to the LCD and the backlight which can be turned off, the FD-81's LCD (the sole viewfinder on the camera) is too frequently washed out to permit viewing. Several of the images I have shot in daylight on this camera have come out completely unusable because I was basically guessing at both the composition and alignment. Also, most trainwatchers I know would like to be able to check out the finer details of a locomotive they shot. The XGA resolution and JPEG compression do not provide enough detail for this. For the price, there are better digital cameras for the trainwatcher.