Customer Reviews

Sony MVC-CD200 Mavica 2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

After spending several weeks researching the digital camera market I finally settled on the Mavica CD 1000. The only problem was it was a whole lot more camera than I really needed. So what does Sony do? They bring out the CD-200. Problem solved. Still more camera than I really needed but boy, what a camera!! I've been using my new 200 for a little over a month now and am just as impressed and excited with it as I was on the first day. It has almost all of the features of the CD1000, even the ability to take short MPEG movies, without the extra weight and size. Image quaity, ease of use, features, flexibility.... it's got it all. Much smaller than the 1000, even my 7 year old son has no problem handling it. The viewfinder screen is sharp, clear, and easy to see in almost all lighting conditions. The only exception is very dark flash conditions and the built-in twilight light takes care of that.

As with the 1000, the CD storage makes digital photography effortless. Transfering pictures using your CDR-RW drive or the USB cable is a no-brainer. Sony's CD's are a little pricy but Memorex's Pocket CD's work just as well, and their capacity is a little bigger. While on vacation I was able to get 165 large image (1600x1200) shots at high resolution on a single CD. The 5-pack of Memorex CD's cost about $1.80 ea vs 6 rolls of film at $5-6 ea plus processing. Using this camera has actually saved me money in film and developing.

As with the 1000 there is a lag time between pressing the button and taking the photo. Pressing the button to Half-Shutter and waiting for your picture pretty much solves that. Excellent zoom, the manual says the image degrades the more zoom you use but I can't tell the difference. The picture quality is still excellent. Battery life is about 2-1/2 hours of shooting time. Carrying an extra battery will keep you shooting from dusk to dawn and then some. Sony has a camera that has taken point and shoot to point, shoot and print. It's that easy.

Contrary to what geekysteve from Arkansas says it is not necessary to finalize a disc before picking photos from it. Just pop it into your CD-RW drive and you can copy over one photo, all photos or whatever you choose. I still use this camera almost every day and it's still the best camera in its class.

I have never written a review, and always wondered what kind of person would take the time to write. Here I am taking the time to write because this camera is the BEST camera I have ever owned -- bar none. Loaded with the features you need to take great shot -- its worth taking a few minutes to read the manual. This camera takes the best pictures ever. I selected the camera for the cd writing capability and have not been disappointed. You can pop the cd's in any computer anywhere for instant access; or just throw the cd's in a drawer for a rainy day. Last point: i was concerned about 2 megapixels, but have found the image quality to be more than ample. I cant say enough good things about this camera!

I researched digital cameras for six months before buying the Sony MVC-CD200. The CD is what sold me on this one. I didn't want to have to deal with USB connections and special software just to view my pictures. I was also worried that whatever digital camera I bought might become quickly outdated. I don't think that's going to happen with the Sony CD cameras. This is an absolutely incredible camera for both serious and casual photographers. I'm an artist and had wanted to be able to take daily pictures of my work in progress, as well as reference photos. For me, this is the ultimate. The 2.1 megapixels provide photos that are actually superior in many ways to the ones I've taken with my film cameras. For instance, I can see thickness of paint, brush strokes and a full range of color in my paintings. I haven't even bothered to install the software that Sony provides with the camera. All I do is finalize the CD, pop it into the CD-ROM and pull up the pictures either through Microsoft Publisher 2000 or Quark Express. One disc easily stores 70 pictures shot at maximum file size of 1600-1200. I don't think I'd really want more than that on one disc because it makes looking through all of them faster. I print them on an HP Deskjet 1220C using their premium photo paper. I've been amazed at the results I've been able to get indoors with no flash. For instance, I took one of the light from a single lamp in a room on an overcast morning. Gorgeous. The camera is very easy to use. I would recommend going through the manual at some length to take full advantage of all it can do. I really think the Sony CD cameras represent a breakthrough in digital photography for a wide range of people.

I simply cannot say enough good things about this camera.

I got it for a three-week trip to Europe (took 700+ photos without a hitch, you can't say that about other digital image storage devices) and now I find that I am taking it everywhere!

I did not find the problems one previous reviewer had with vibration during "finalization" of the cd's. I finalized on a train, and worried about the vibration of the moving vehicle, but did not have any problems at all. Maybe Kitty should be kept out of the room during the process (which takes only a couple of minutes!)

I have enjoyed all aspects of this camera in the past three months that I have had it. The ease-of-use, the relative cheap expense of the storage device (I forgot a CD on a recent junket and just bopped into a local office store to purchase a disc for about $3) and the optical quality of the camera makes this a great investment for someone who wants a good, solid camera to accompany you across town or around the world.

Okay so the price IS a bit steep, but there are plausible reasons and results. First the 2.2 meg resolution will give you a SHARPER photo that will allow you much better results and allow for much more versility in enlarging and editing. second (and this is a point that I have had one Hell of a time tracking down what is possibly the best reason, I wanted a "format" that would allow for the sharpest image to be easily transfered to my PC. now the Mavica FD series using the floppy disk was where I started, but the resolution wasn't very good,then I moved on towards memory sticks and the like, but that necessitates the use of USB 's etc. where there are the usual complications and time downloading, a slight loss(?) of image sharpness and so on. Now this camera uses a 3-inch miniCD which supposedly (as it turns out) you merely stick into you CD-ROM tray and download directlyinto your PC!!! My piece of cake. The only improvement that I can see would be the next higher model with its 3.3 meg resolution, but I simply don't need THAT much for [that much money]. (oh, make sure you get the starter bag/kit!!! And make sure you get at least another 3 disks for whatever!!!)

I purchased this camera a month ago, and at first I loved it. It does take great pictures, there's no arguing that. However, the CD "feature" can be a bit of a nightmare, especially if you take a lot of "quick" pictures and want to view them on your PC immediately.
Here's the problem: unless you install the Sony USB drivers (which are quite finicky with Windows 2000; one install corrupted my ATAPI drivers effectively disabling my DVD & CD-RW drives), you are required to "finalize" a disc before inserting it into your computer.
The finalize process takes approximately 1 minute, and "eats" 13MB of your 156MB disc. You can finalize many times, however, each finalize (even if it's only one picture) consumes 13MB of disc space. And, be sure you don't "disturb" the camera while it's finalizing the disc. ANY vibration/bump/movement will render the disc useless; I've got 2 small coasters because my cat happened to jump on the desk while the camera was finalizing itself. Mind you, the cat didn't bump the camera - just the vibration through the desk caused it to generate a fatal finalize error (and, our cat is only 7lbs).
It does have some high-points like macro mode, a relatively good f-stop range (f2.8 - f11) which makes for great low-light shooting, and it's very easy to use, hold, take along.
If Sony could build some good, reliable drivers, I wouldn't be complaining about the finalize feature, as I wouldn't use it much. However, because they don't seem to support Win2K fully (their website stinks for getting drivers from too), I'm hesitant to suggest this camera to anyone.
The drivers seem to work ok on my Win98 boxes, but my webserver runs Win2K, so I had hoped to upload the pics directly to my server.
Not a bad camera, but I'd consider flash card versioned cameras if I were to purchase again.

Wow! Leave it up to Sony to show that just as the digital camera market had just appeared to "flame-out", no, wait, there's still new directions to go. Though you may never use them all, this camera has every feature you ever wanted in a camera for a price that stays below four figures.

My one question though: Why didn't Sony just come out with these instead of the FD Mavicas? Not that there's anything really wrong with them (they seem to come from a similar philosophy, after all), but it makes you wonder.

With that out of the way: This is a great camera, well worth the price tag. I also reccommend getting the CD Mavica starter kit, primarily for the extra battery & carry case, because once you get it, you'll never want to leave it behind you.

As with all products, the use of the camera really depends on what you buy it for; as a consumer model, this is probably somewhat high end, but I wouldn't consider it professional grade. It has a rich set of features that you definitely wouldn't find on less expensive models.

The CD function sold me on the camera, since I am an avid Linux user and didn't want to fiddle with attaching a USB card reader to my system. (Support for them has gotten better in the six months since I purchased the camera, but I have to admit that I'd still stick with the CD's.) The cost to picture ratio is incredibly low--you can buy mini-CD's cheaply (CD-RW's are more expensive), and they can easily hold 300 pictures each (1024x768 resolution, fine). The camera does allow you to take uncompressed images (TIFF format) if you want.

As for endurance, the camera has done very well. I did drop it (from about three feet) once, which broke the UV filter I had on it. The camera itself sustained no damage (it was in a bag). The battery life is around two hours, depending on flash use, how often the power is cycled, and whether you spend more time taking pictures or looking at them on the LCD (which, by the way, is of excellent quality; Sony has done us the favor of allowing us to zoom in on the image while still in the camera, so you can often tell how well you've focused on a shot before you open it up on your computer).

The picture quality is good. Not perfect, but definitely good. I bought it mostly for web work rather than printing my own shots, which aren't anything to brag about. I have found that taking pictures at 1600x1200 leaves the photos a little grainy (I run my monitor at 1024x768). Its automatic adjustments for light and distance are usually pretty good, though I occasionally mangle them a little bit in manual mode. The ability to take movies has been slightly beneficial, but probably isn't a major selling point (I've used it for some analysis in the martial arts for board breaking).

Some problems can arise when taking and recording pictures, which can be a little slow. Recording to mini-CD is certainly slower than recording to a stick, and the focusing process isn't the fastest in the world. (There is a manual focus button, which is convenient.) Depressing the action button down about half way will activate the auto-focus and allow you to take the shot at the right moment, but that does take some getting used to.

For people who are going to take a lot of pictures, this is definitely a camera to consider. I've taken probably two thousand of them without any difficulty since I got the camera. The resolution may not be as high as you could get in a stick model, but smaller prints should help mask that a little bit. It's a little pricey, but comes with a plethora of options that can introduce novices (like me) to manual photography without the expense or hassle of development.

And, if you like the special side gadgets--TV out and a USB connection (if you even need to use it)--this could turn out very well.

I purchased this camera for my wife for its ease of use and find that I'm using it more than her. Great pictures, easy menu options, simple point and click. This is not a camera for extreme action pictures, but it can be used for everything else. I personally love the 3:2 ratio format as I print my own pictures and it makes it real easy to print. I also enjoy the MPEG feature at 640 resolution to send mini movies to my mother in-law of our 19 month old boy. Sony has always looked out for the consumer for ease and yet giving great performance with picture quality. I also like the feature for taking night picture with the light focus prior to taking your picture. I recommend this camera to anyone and everyone who wants to look good but really doesn't understand alot about camera's. Beware though you just can't take the cd out and put it in anyone's computer cd-rom without the software. This may be confusing to some, but once you know to bring the software with you, it's great to put the cd in and print. Great Camera!!!!

After 5 months, the flash no longer functions. Though still under parts warrantee, Sony wants (...money) just to send the camera in for repairs. This is unacceptable for such a high end camera.