Sony MVC-FD83 Mavica 0.8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

by Sony

Product Details

Product Manual [745kb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 2.5 x 5.6 x 4 inches ; 1.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00001QEAI
• Item model number: MVCFD83
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,894 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

1216x912 Mega Pixel; MPEG movie mode; 4x high speed floppy disc drive; Audio/Video out; Slide show mode; 2.5" color LCD (84K pixels); Built in intelligent flash; 3x optical/6x digital zoom; Autofocus; Macro capability.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Happy with my choice!, November 26, 1999

By 

Barbara J. Ferrell (Crystal River, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony MVC-FD83 Mavica 0.8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

After buying a Sony Vaio F290 notebook, and being completely thrilled with it, my next step was to study up, and learn about digital cameras. I've been doing photography for years, but am not a professional. I have had my Mavica 83 for just one month, but the real thrill was taking it out onto the beach, two hours after bringing it home, and easily taking my first 2 floppies full of pictures! The menu is easily understandable, and the quality of the pictures I've taken, is excellent. The 6x digital zoom is also excellent for most shots. I love being able to copy the contents of one full disk onto another (to share) right in the camera's 4x drive. I'd heard negative reviews, concerning it only having the LCD, but with a bit of practice, this becomes second nature. All LCD's have some problems with & in the sun, but if you know how to set up your shot, this isn't a problem. The flash is very stark/bright in & on your photo. It's so much fun and very easy sending pictures by email! I think everyone in my family will probably be buying a digital for Christmas! I went to several stores, to pick up, handle and move around with the menu's, of all the camera's I could find. I recommend you do this too, if you're going to buy one. Some camera's just don't feel right in your hands. The controls on this camera are conveniently placed. I have a couple "newspaper" writing friends, and they tell me, they use Mavica 83's from the office too. That seemed good enough for me! The only thing I am not satisfied with, is the battery life. Yes, I'm turning off my LCD too, in hopes of extending it, but, the battery doesn't have the stated minutes life. The macro is also excellent, and can really catch some interesting views. There are cheaper cameras, and getting more powerful by the week, but for now, I highly recommend the Mavica 83. Being able to use floppies as film, is great, as you can share these with anyone, and it's the cheapest way to go. My only wish is that they had included a cap / protective cover, for the LCD.

67 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent camera if no need for large photorealistic prints, January 3, 2000

By 

Andrew N. Carpenter "philosopher" (Westminster, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony MVC-FD83 Mavica 0.8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

This is a well-engineered camera: its feature set, build quality, interface, battery life, optics, and ergonometrics are all top-notch. It is a joy to use and produces high-quality pictures for web site or small photorealistic prints, especially if you use the "fine" mode that imposes less jpeg compression.

There is also a thriving Mavican community on the 'net, and lots of useful freeware shareware, and third-party accessories. If you need to print out 8X10 photorealistic prints, buy a 2 megapixel camera; for everything short of this, the Mavica 83 is a superb camera. Unlike other reviewers, I find that this camera does a respectable job in low-light situations.

One drawback is the optical zoom, which is "only" 3X. Sony's high-quality teleconverter (~$50) will increase this to 6X. Its use of 1.4mb floppy disk storage hasn't been a drawback for me: the 4X floppy drive is quick, it is easy to change floppies, and one floppy holds a respectable number of images (around 8 in 1024X768 fine mode, around 20 in 640X480 fine mode).

The brief MPEG movies are great fun, and an easy way to create video e-mail or to add streaming video web sites.

For the price, I'd prefer this high-quality .8 megapixel camera to the "bargain" 2 megapixel cameras, which may have inferior optics.

My conclusion: Don't believe the hype about the "need" for 2 megapixel cameras. For e-mail, web, and smaller prints, the Mavica 83 occupies a great "sweet spot:" it combines many higher-end features with superior ease-of-use, convenience, and optics.

64 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Digital Camera for Dummies!, December 10, 1999

By 

hrd2pls "hrd2pls" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony MVC-FD83 Mavica 0.8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

I can't help but rave about Sony Mavica FD-83's versatility! It has auto/manual focus, digital zoom, four different picture effects including black & white, 2 image quality modes, and it can also record a short video with voice. You'd wonder if you have to be a hi-tech guru to operate a camera loaded with features. Not so! This camera is soooo easy to use that I didn't even have to read the manual to make it work the first time I got it. I just popped in a floppy disk, took pictures, took the floppy out and into my computer and presto! QUALITY pictures right before your eyes! Of course, after finally reading the manual, I found out about the other wonderful features of FD-83. My favorite is the "E-mail" setting which automatically makes a copy of the pictures you take in a much smaller file size and therefore, cuts the upload and download times of the pictures you send through email. No more playing around with your pictures to reduce the file size, it's all done for you! There's more to this camera than I have space to write about them for. Read the other reviews. I highly recommend the Sony Mavica FD-83 ... IT IS WORTH IT!