Customer Reviews

Sony MVCFD200 FD Mavica 2MP Digital Still Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have had my FD200 for about 2 weeks and generally I'm very happy with it. I have used an older Mavica floppy only based camera in the past. The floppies are convenient for moving the data to different computers, but the capacity is low and they are slow. With the FD200 (and FD100), Sony has created the best of multiple worlds. Using a Memory Stick allows much faster picture storage and the ability to save a much larger number of photos, and the USB connection allows fast downloading of photos to computers that have USB. Retaining the floppy drive gives the flexibility to download photos to computers that don't have the USB capability. Although I will normally use the USB connection when I'm at home, the floppy capability has already come in handy.
Picture quality is just fine, and the basic operations of the camera are easy to use and for the most part self explanitory. Some of the menu items take a little effort to learn all that can be done with the camera.
The FD200 is one of the larger digital cameras so if you are looking for a camera that you can almost hide in your hand, this is not the camera for you. In my case, the larger size is an advantage.
There are a couple of items that I wish were different. The strobe is rather weak, and really only useful to around 10 feet (maybe less). There is no ability to connect an external flash unit. At close range, it's overpowering and I find that I partially cover the flash with my finger to block some of the light. The older Mavica camera I had used had a 10X optical zoom, and Sony has put only a 3X optical zoom on the FD200 and FD100. I really wish that the FD200 had a better optical zoom.
There are very little in the way of manual controls for exposure. If you really want to be able to engineer your photos, look for something else. In my case, for "formal" photography I will generally use a film camera which has full manual controls if I want to use them. Most of my use of the digital camera will be for taking photos that will either go onto a web page or get E-Mailed. The FD200 does a fine job for those purposes.
One of the reasons that I wanted the floppy capability is that I often go to remote locations where I have an unknown (often old) computer to which I need to download photos. This past week I was at a firecamp (for a brush fire) and the computer I needed to download the photos to had a USB port, but Windows 95 wont recognize it, so I was unable to use the USB. Because of the floppy drive, I was able to download the photos to the computer before I returned home.
Recommended if you need the floppy capability.

Working at Office Max gave me the privalige of fully trying out this camera. I was somewhat pleased.

It's resolution of 2mp is border-line ideal for printing on glossy or matte finishings. There will be some graininess however that will always be the case until you get a camera with a resolution of 4mp or higher. And it is also border-line ideal for internet usage. The file size of the pictures it takes is in the moderate range so if you e-mail them to a person who has dial-up, it won't clog up their ISP too much.

I was not at all pleased with the movie feature. Who would honestly need a 15 seccond movie clip? Unless you deal in obscene webpages, I would not recomend using the movie mode. On top of that, it's resolution is not that great for movies.

It's control functions are basic, straight forward and dummy proof. The floppy mavicas are easily the most easy to use digital cameras. They are convienient and the memory is very easily mobile as compared to compact flash or smart media.

I love the floppy disk option. In fact I own the FD-75 which I would recomend over this camera any day because you don't want to use the movie mode and the resolution is more ideal for interent. And if you want to spend that much on this camera, I would recomend buying the cd mavicas, they cost a little more but you get 3 times the results.

I am a professional radiographer and photographer (25 years now) and I used both the Sony CD400,
CD300, as well as a Nikon Coolpix for this year's field research season x-raying mummies in
Peru. Last year we used 2 of the Sony floppy disk/memory stik cameras. This means the cameras were pushed hard.....blowing sand, huge contrast ranges, high
resolution radiographs needed, fast manual control of radical light conditions, etc.....essentially
most of the tough conditions and imaging requirements you can imagine. Here's what I found:

The Sony Mavica CD300 beat them all. It's not the most expensive or the best resolution but we
all thought it did the best job.

Mavica CD400: best resolution but extremely slow recording time made it impossible to work with
most of the time....the CD300 often got 3-4 shots while the 400 was recording one.

Mavica CD300: not the best resolution, but now that I've done some prints for publication from it's
highest res setting I will not be buying any more 400s....just not a significant enough difference,
plus it's not as heavy or bulky.

Nikon Coolpix: not in the running by comparison with the Sonys....although it is more
lightweight....we are buying mini CDs for 33 cents each in bulk... and getting 140-180 high res
images per CD.....they are so easy to format, initialize, and copy on any CD burner that I can't
believe we even considered using memory stiks, or USB downloads.

The best features are common to both the Sony Mavica CD300 and 400 series though.....manual
control of the images, excellent close up abilities, decent wide angle (which can be enhanced with
add-on lenses if necessary), and both rapid video and automatic functions with night focusing for
flash, etc., etc.

Finally! There is a great digital camera, it's just not this one.....check out the CD 300 series....about the same money but I think you will be a lot happier.

I received this camera for my birthday. And after much waiting for shipping, it met my built up excitement. It takes great outdoor pictures and the flash is great in close nearly pitch-dark situations. Oddly enough, regular indoors pictures don't always turn out great, but who cares, just delete them. I strongly recommend getting addition equipment, a spare battery and at least 64Mb or Memory Stick. I've got a 128 which holds nearly 200 pictures at 2MP. The spare battery is nice, in that the one that comes with the camera has about 90 minutes of picture taking. The built-in macro zoom feature is a personal favorite because it does wonders to flowers. Kind of wish the optical zoom was stronger, maybe like x6 optical, x12 digital. I have yet to take full advantage of the Memory Stick to disk transfer feature, although I've done it a couple of times. Oh, but don't buy this camera for it's mpeg ablity, because it really doesn't have any. (I mean it does, but it's so poor that it's not worth talking about.) If Sony comes out with a FD Mavica with 3MP or more, I would strongly recommend it.

If all you want is a straight forward and simple Digital Camera with Beautiful colors, Great ease in operation and high resolution get this before they will be gone
I got mine after using my older Sony Mavica MVC-FD88 for the last 3 years.
my older mavica costed much more and served me right and it has a 16 x Zoom with 1.3 Mega Pixel and MPEG with sound only on Floppies...
but Sony improve alot with this MVCFD200
First, they got a Floppy Disk Drive that accept all 3.5" disks which is great for uploading to older PC's with no USB etc.
and the new Memory stick with a USB to PC is unreal improvement
not to mention the feature of uploading and downloading between
all these formats!!!
the Memory stick that I use is 128 MB and it lets me take hundreds of high quality photos like no other Digital camera that I tried including "other" cameras with 4 Mega Pixel !!!
this is simply a great camera with some extra features like the MPEG (no sound)and 6x Zoom and Digital effects.
to me, these features are only extras and not importent as I have a Digital Camcorder in order to make high quality movies...
Sony always make the best cameras and that is a fact.

I use this camera for work and it works very well. The only problem I have had with it is after a few months of taking 30 to 40 pictures a day it won't read a disk. I comes up with a formating error. I have had to send it out for repairs twice already. Other then that the picture quality and options are very nice.

I suppose the "little" should be re-worded. It's not the lightest, or smallest out there, by a long shot, but I really enjoy this camera. Sure, the floppy technology is going the way of the dodo, but it is still nice to have the convenience, to have it if you need it.

USB is in use in almost all facets of life these days. You would have to have one extremely old and lacking P.C. to not have the USB port available. But, there are some out there. There are those times when the USB port won't read, when something is on the fritz, and you need that digital picture downloaded NOW.

I can't say I'm a professional photographer, I don't judge the quality of photos for a living, but I do enjoy taking pictures. Between the multiple focus, lighting, and picture settings, you are allotted many options to make the next shutter sound capture a beautiful picture.

I would have to say, professionally, you can find better. Can find items with higher resolutions, with quicker data transfer rates, etc. But, for me, the camera is wonderful.

During my time in the military I was deployed overseas, and the camera was by my side. If it can make it through 14 months in a desert, in the cargo pocket of a soldier, getting slammed around and whatnot, I'm sure it's a keeper.

Overall, 4 stars from me.

We love the convienence of having a floppy disk to store photos on, the camer may not take the best quality photos but it is sufficent for what we need.

The Sony MVCFD series of cameras was our Police Department's introduction into digital cameras. They filled a specific need because they allowed photos to be taken, and the floppy disk securred as evidence, without having Officers download, transfer, or copy (Evidence) images and possibly damage/lose them.
Even though the Department has progressed to far more sophisticated cameras, the MVCFD 200 still has an important role in taking images of lesser evidential importance, applicant pictures, etc., where 2MP's is not a problem. This camera is such a work horse at our Department that they get used 24/7, without fail. An incredibly dependable camera, considering the wear and tear it recieves from a host of people. We have purchased at least four replacements over the last couple of years through sites such as Amazon, to keep this simple technology going as long as possible.

Quite heavy but a good one. If you don't have problems carrying it with you then use it! Make sure to buy the Memory Stick because it is much better than relying on a floppy alone.