Sony Mavica Digital Camera

[Modas]

Does anyone have one of these puppies?  I'm really interested in getting a digital camera, and I'm partial to this one as it runs off of a CD as well as a memory stick (instead of a 3.5 floppy).  

The exact model number is: MVC-CD350.

It looks like a pretty good camera, but at $368 (newegg) I want to make sure I'm not going to get stuck with something that isn't worth it.

thanks!!!

[SaburoS]

What type of photography are you wanting to do with it?

[LePaul]

I've had a Sony Mavica for 4 years now...stores them on floppy.  Bought it when I bought my BD-5 kit plane (which I later sold).

Great camera, very rugged...and floppies work great..beats habing to off load them via adaptors, etc...ANY PC can read em

[Modas]

Originally posted by SaburoS
What type of photography are you wanting to do with it?

Just general photography (family functions/outdoor shots at airshows)  I'm going to be restoring a car starting in the spring and will need to take LOTS of photos during the disassembly process so I can get it back together again...

I like the CD idea because when the mem stick is full, unless a computer is around and handy to download to, you are SOL.  With the CD, drop another one in and keep rocking.  The 3.5 inch floppy just doesn't have the capacity for my tastes

[SaburoS]

The mini cd is much cheaper than memory cards for sure, but the memory cards are much smaller.
You might consider this:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10
Because you'll want to do aerial shots at airshows (assumption here), you'll need the 12 X image stabilized optical zoom.
4 megapixels as well. MSRP $599.00 due out in Nov.
You'll have fun with this camera Worth every penny.

If you don't mind not having a big optical zoom ratio, then the Sony's a good choice.

[Westy]

Go get the latest Comsumer Reports (November issue).  It has a rundown on a lot of the digital camera's (and camcorders too) out there.

[Chairboy]

The hassles that come with floppy and CD based cameras seem to outweigh the benefits.  Severely reduced battery life, over sized, and often under-featured at the expense of cramming a drive technology designed for desktop computers into a small package.

There are some really good cameras out there.  I just got my sister this for her wedding:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00008OE6I/qid=1066164839/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-0723638-3098538?v=glance&s=photo&n=507846

Take a look at how small it is:



The pictures it takes are amazing, and the compactflash is getting real cheap.  I have a couple of devices that use Sony Memory Sticks, and they are overpriced for what you get.  There's little competition to make them, so you spend $100 for a 256 meg memory stick when you can pay $62 for an equivalent sized CF card.  And that's not on sale.

[eskimo2]

Do Not buy one of these!
They are VERY overpriced, and are Very oversized.
Floppies are totally obsolete.  
I have two of these at work (I teach computers at a K-8 school).  We have an older 640 by 480 mp version, and a newer 2 meg version.  Whenever you take a picture on the 2 meg, its got to spin the stupid floppy for 8 seconds before you can take another picture.  On a new floppy, count on 4 pictures before its full, if its an older floppy, maybe only 2.  It can take a Smartmedia type card, but they cost almost as much as a bottom line 2 meg camera.  It sometimes takes really dark pictures and I’m not sure why.  Usually it takes very good pictures, but I haven’t seen a 2 meg that doesn’t.  It can also, do some neat tricks, (black and white, solarization, etc), but any of these can be done with any picture in almost any type of photoshop program.  It’s also huge and heavy, for no good reason.  It can also take little crappy movies.

Seriously, I would rather have almost any $200 2 meg digital camera, than a 2 meg Mavica, even if the Mavica was on sale for $150.

I have a degree in photography, and have done a lot of research lately on digital cameras, and I also think that the best thing going in your price range is the Canon PowerShot S400.   Yes, the exact same camera that Chairboy suggested.  If $400 – 500 is too much, they make a 3.2 meg version for about $100 less.

New egg.com has them for $399, but you will want more memory and a card reader.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=1&submit=Go&description=canon%2Cs400

eskimo

[eskimo2]

OK,
I just saw that the one your looking at one that burns onto CDs.

That's a lot better than a floppy, but I'd much rather use a reuseable media card and $20 reader.  It takes only seconds to go from camera to on your PCs screen.  You can reuse the card thousands of times.  I can't imagine that the CD burner has made the mavica much smaller or lighter...

eskimo

[Animal]

My recomendation is a Canon Digital Elph. Try to find older models if you cant afford the newer ones. They are all excellent.

[Halo]

If I were buying one new digital camera today, I'd want at least 3.3 megapixels, 3x zoom, compact size, great ergonomics, and CompactFlash card, so my choice echos Chairboy and Eskimo2:  the Canon PowerShot S400 Digital Elph, and it even has 4.0 megapixels plus sound with its video (limited video, yes, but still impressive bonus).

I enjoyed my Sony Mavica with its floppy, very versatile, but haven't used it for years since I got the amazing Nikon 995 (swivel lens makes it the best slide copier) and more compact Nikon 775.  

I use the smaller 775 more than the 995, affirming the saying that if you don't want to carry the camera, you won't use it -- the 775 tucks nicely in a pants pocket, and so would the Canon S400.

Enjoy!

[Halo]

Animal too recommends the Canon Digital ELPH.  Is there a trend here?

However, be careful with the older elphs.  Many have only a 2x zoom and that is not enough.  

Also go into Google and research the Canon elph there.  Several reviews contend that the S400 is finally THE nearly perfect compact digital camera.  

But there are certainly many great digital cameras, so be sure to check them out at a store before you buy anything based only on others' opinions.

[Dinger]

Yeah, 995 here too.  From everything I've seen, you can't go wrong with the latest canons.  Of course, if you decide to go Nikon, that's a good call too.


And, yes: don't be fooled by the media game.  At 3.4 MP, each fine jpeg takes about 1 meg.  Spend $100 on two 256 meg CF cards, and you can go 500 shots between reloads (and a PC with a CD burner is a good way to go).

On the other hand, put a CD-burner in a camera, and you lose all the way around.  You pay extra for a rugged portable CD-burner (how much? dunno, but you could probably get a lot more out of CF cards for that), you then get the extra bulk of the burner, plus the slow write speeds.  Then you're stuck with the "MemoryStick" fall back, with Sony's impressive markups.

And fiddling with USB cables isn't _that_ rough.  I have a usb reader, and plug in all the time.

[Eagler]

the memory sticks are getting cheaper by the day

how long does the camera take to burn an image to cd?

sony memory sticks hold alot, are small, fast and cheap

[Dinger]

Okay, from http://www.newegg.com/:

256 meg Kingston CF card: $47 + 5 (+ a free NewEgg T-shirt)
256 meg sony MemoryStick: $103 + 0
2x128 sony MS: $93 + 0

Pricewatch's cheapest listings for 256 CF: $47
                                                     256 MS: $75 (go ahead and click on the sites and see if you can find it)

So $50 of flash memory will be far faster than a mini-CDR, take up less space, and give you more storage.  Just my $.02

Also, check out http://www.dpreview.com/ for the latest.  I see they have the CD300 -- note that the review there compares it against stuff of a two generations ago.