Sony Mavica MVCCD1000 2.1MP Digital Camera

by Sony

Product Details

Product Manual [2.65mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 5.2 inches ; 2.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 6 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: B00004ZB45
• Item model number: MVC-CD1000
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,016 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 17, 2000

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Sony's Mavica line of digital cameras has been revered for its quality optics and great batteries and especially for its use of floppy discs as a storage medium. But with the advent of higher and higher resolution CCD imaging sensors, the small capacity of floppies has made them a much less practical form of storage, requiring unacceptable levels of JPEG compression to fit even a few images on a disc.

Sony has solved the floppy capacity problem with its newest Mavica--the MVC-CD1000--by using a much more forgiving storage medium: CD-R. To keep the camera's size as reasonable as possible, the CD1000 uses miniature 3-inch CD-R discs that offer 156 MB of image storage--enough space to store 160 2-megapixel images at maximum quality--as well as what is effectively instant image archiving. Additionally, the smaller CD-Rs are readable in almost every CD-ROM drive (including the slot-loading iMacs), and for those few drives that can't handle the smaller CD, the MVC-CD1000 comes with a snap-on adapter.

A high-powered storage medium is worthless without the optics to back it up, and the MVC-CD1000 comes with most of the same high-quality components used in Sony's other high-end Mavica cameras, including an f2.8 to f11 10x optical zoom lens with SteadyShot optical image stabilization. New for the Mavica line is the ability to save images as uncompressed TIFFs for maximum image quality (and huge file sizes). The MVC-CD1000 uses a less harsh compression ratio of 6:1 for its high-quality JPEGs. The camera's numerous shooting modes include: aperture priority, shutter priority, twilight, twilight plus, landscape, and panfocus. Additionally, the MVC-CD1000 can also be set for fully automatic operation. Focus is auto or manual. White balance can be set on automatic, indoor, outdoor, or one-push, which allows you to have the camera set the white balance situationally. A macro mode rounds out the package.

A quick note about the zoom lens: it has a 10x optical zoom, plus a 2x digital zoom, for a 20x total zoom. Every other digital camera manufacturer calls this "10x optical and 2x digital zoom," but Sony chooses to describe this lens as "10x optical, 20x digital."

The MVC-CD1000 uses a 2.5-inch LCD monitor on the back, and the optical viewfinder also uses an LCD to provide a through-the-lens type view, similar to what you'd get with an SLR. In another first for the Mavica line, the MVC-CD1000 includes a USB port as an alternate method to download images. Power is provided by a Sony InfoLITHIUM battery, and a readout on the monitor estimates how many minutes of energy are left in the battery, a big plus. The MVC-CD1000 also comes with an AC adapter, which plugs in to the camera and recharges the battery when the camera's not in use. The software included is Sony's Picture Gear Lite and MGI's PhotoSuite and VideoWave.

Product Description

Forget about waiting in line for your one-hour photos, take pictures with this CD-R Mavica« 2.1 effective megapixel digital camera and instantly see the masterpiece you've created. Your images are recorded onto a 3-inch CD-R disc, so downloading them to your computer has never been easier. Features 10x Optical/20x Digital zoom for flexible picture composition, as well as Intelligent Flash and 5-Mode Auto Exposure settings.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

273 of 275 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sony's hot new flagship product is almost there!, October 20, 2000

By 

JERALD E GODOLPHIN (Knoxville, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony Mavica MVCCD1000 2.1MP Digital Camera (Electronics)

I take a lot of digital pictures. I am a freelance photographer shooting a lot of drama, music and dance events during stage performances. I bought and used the earlier Sony Mavica FD-91 with the image stabelized 10x zoom. People loved the closeup and personal images I could capture with it. However, at .8 Megapixels, the FD-91 was limited to smaller prints, and the 3.5" floppy disk had to be changed every 10 shots or so.

This new Sony CD1000 has same high quality zoom, plus 2.1 Megapixel capture for larger prints, external flash ability and a 156MB CD-R mini disk to store the pictures on. I get over 160 high quality images shooting the same 3:2 aspect ratio as traditional 35mm cameras.

But Sony, if you want five star reviews, read on... You will have to shorten the 1/2 second delay and viewer blackout after pressing the shutter release until the image is captured. I have to anticipate where a subject will be, take the picture and hope. And, if miss my shot, which happens a lot, I have to wait 3 seconds until I can try again. Sony, add some RAM memory, let us take three or four fast pictures in a row, then store them. You are so close.

174 of 174 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's a still shot camera only, December 17, 2000

By 

Ken McKenzie (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony Mavica MVCCD1000 2.1MP Digital Camera (Electronics)

I've had mine for over a month and shot 4 disks full. Many of the shots are amazingly good (I'm the one amazed) and the instant feedback so you can show your subject the picture is a real plus. We took the grandkids for a Christmas tree light tour the other night and when we got back, we just connected the CD1000 cable to the TV set and there were the Christmas lights for my daughter and son in law to see, with the grandkids filling in the play by play. Grandpa and grandma got lots of points.

The after-market CD-Rs not only are more than 1/4 the price of Sony, but they hold 200MB vs the standard 156MB. A warning does come up, recommending Sony Mavica disks, but all work fine, including downloads into the PC.

The economics of CD-R photo storage is incredible. The CD-R stores about the same as 4-5 rolls of 36 exposure 35mm film, even at the highest JPEG resolution setting for the CD1000. That's about $16-$20 just for 35mm film, not counting processing or printing vs the cost of the disk which is about 80 cents.

The bad stuff:

(1)The CD1000 cannot put up with even slow motion activity shooting. Basically, when you slightly depress the shutter, a green light comes on and the image "freezes", ready for the final press of the shutter to store "that" image, right? Not so. The green light and the frozen image simply "charges" the CCD array and when you press the shutter further to actually take the shot, the CCD receives whatever image is presented through the lens. If all is still, no problem, but if the image is moving, like at a social event, you come out with part of an arm, leg, or the back of a head or two. This takes a while to adapt to and if you're planning to use the CD1000 for a sporting event camera, forget it.

(2)Associated with the above problem, is the image in the view finder and LCD screen goes to freeze or blank when the shutter is activated so any action is lost. The view finder is a small LCD and not an optical look through the lens. Sure, on 35mm cams we lose the image during the shot, but only for the shutter speed. With the CD1000, you're off for as long as the CD-R write cycle takes, about 1 to 5 seconds.

(3)The flash "hot shoe" is not. It's only a bracket to attach Sony's own CD1000 optional flash that's non-standard via their interrconnect cord. That means all those smart flashes for our 35mm won't work. BTW, the CD1000 built in flash is good for about 5 feet with lots of controls. However, when the flash is up, the CD1000 compensates it's exposure and darkens the shot for longer distance. Better to make 2 shots, one with flash, another without, just for safety.

(4)Connecting the CD1000 to USB sounds and is simple. However, in very small type on pg.32, a warning that no other device be plugged into the other USB port. So if you have an HP Scanner already plugged in to USB and want to connect the CD1000 to the other port, forget it. I've heard sometimes it works. My installation issued "the blue screen of death" under Windows 98 SE. A call to Sony Tech Support, reminded me to "read the manual", even the fine print. This goes against the industry standard USB spec, but Sony says the CD1000 must "own" the USB environment and that's the way it is.

Other than (1-4), the CD1000 is still a great camera. Flexible to a fault, lots of storage, great shot economics (except the price of the camera), and Sony quality. I'll stay with it, even with it's faults.

112 of 116 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally - a digital camera worth buying, November 20, 2000

By 

K. Mears (Clearlake, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony Mavica MVCCD1000 2.1MP Digital Camera (Electronics)

The Mavica CD1000 is as good as it sounds. The 10x optical zoom is terrific (don't bother with 'digital zoom'. If you want pixelation, you'd be using a low-res camera). The 'steady shot' works well, the 'twilight-plus' flashless function is no less than magical (although you will need a tripod). And it's just plain cool!

The best thing about it is the cost/picture. You need the battery that comes with it, (maybe a backup -I got a 4 hour for less than ...), a protective lense filter (a uv filter costs about ...), and some mini cdr discs (comes with 5). No memory cards, smart cards or equivalent! Look around and you will be able to find the mini cd's for somewhere under .../disc (don't look and you will pay about .../disc in a case). I paid ... for 50 minis on a spindle (no cases) delivered to my door. Now, you will take somewhere between 140 and 180 high res (1200 x 1600) pictures on each disc (minus whatever you useup taking mini mpegs). So, lets be conservative. Assuming the low of 140 images/disc, and the high of ... for 50 discs, that works out to less than one penny/shot. And the images are NOT low value! I took two shots, one using the tiff sorage format (taking 40 seconds to write a 5 Mb file to disc), and the other the std. High res jpeg. In plate by plate comparison, the jpeg was so close to the tiff as to make the extra time and disc space of the tiff format unnecessary. I have been in digital pre-press for 15 years, and these shots are equivalent to quality 4x5 scans.

Once you get used to the <1 second delay from first touch to shutter, you will be taking great shots, and lots of them. The delay can be eliminated in most cases by half pressing the button, allowing the auto focus to set up, then when you push, the shot is instantaneous. You'll quickly figure out where and when to turn off the auto focus and rely on distance read outs etc.

You will want to get a UV filter for this camera before you take it out of the box. Not to improve your pictures, but to protect your lense. Replacing the lense on an intgrated digital system like this will probably cost as much as the camera itself. The uv lense can be replaced for ... .

Anyway, I have used some 'high-end' Kodak DCS professional series cameras in the past, and some low end digitals as well. The Mavica CD1000 is the best all around device I have seen, and certainly the least expensive to operate.