Customer Reviews

Sony Mavica MVCCD1000 2.1MP Digital Camera

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I,myself, use to take photos with 35mm film-based cameras a lot since I was 12. I had a chance to test and try several digital cameras from 1 Megapixel to 3 Megapixel but never own one. I prefer something similar to my SLR cameras not an instant camera. So I decide to buy this sony,well, I have this camera since May 2001. At first, I had to adjust myself to get along with control panel, electronic viewfinder. It took about only 20-30 minutes to learn to whole features and getting test. This camera does a really good job on most shots. Feeling like taking by SLR camera, for examples-feeling when take shots, lighting and vivid output. It has a problem with low-light situations when seeing from viewfinder or LCD panel, but doing twilight plus technique (one of nice features in this camera) I can shoot night time photo with no problems - with flash / without flash. Also lag-time wasn't any problem for me because I used to test some other digital cameras that having this delaying picture. By pressing HALF-SHUTTER and waiting for nice moment will solve problem. Excellent zoom (Optical+Digital) - very impressive image stabilizer. About the battery life, I can use it the whole day(taking photos for 2.5 hours) when I went out. It's very ok to me because other cameras that I've used consume very much battery power (one hour and that's it). Moreover, I don't have to worry about my storage for pics and don't worry about when to upload photos to my PC. They're already there and permanently stored, that's why I don't have to make some more backing up to CD Media again and again (if I use wired-memory media cam). Once again in Thailand, we can get one 3"-CD for a price only 1 US dollar. I am very happy with it then. I made my good decision on this great camera.

Conclusion: Great Picture quality, Great battery life and hugh storage. Low-light shooting + Motion may be some problem but need to adjust shutter speed and your own shooting techniques. Excellent zoom. Camera weight doesn't bother me at all, hugh but lighter than others.

I've had this camera for 4 months now and could not be more delighted. Recording photos on the 3" disc is what separates this camera from the rest. At the highest reolution you can take 150 pictures on one disc - amazing. You now have a permanent record without any need to take up any computer space. You can put it on "picture show" and look at every photo on your projection TV and they all look great. If you don't like the angle-rotate the photo. You don't like the photo, delete it. The 10x telephoto with steady shot is great. I would not buy any digital camera without a CD storage system and this is the only camera that has it, as far as I know. In the summer of 2001 Sony will be coming out with smaller CD-R cameras without the long telephoto you have on this camera. The only drawback to the 1000 is the 1 second delay between pressing the button and taking the picture. It takes planning at times and sometimes you get odd results. Just delete the photo and do it again if the photo is poor. All in all a great camera. Last Saturday I took 150 photos at a wedding in Hyannis. With film it would have been only 20-40, but for the price why not 150 - all on one permanent disc.

Welp,

I have owned a few cameras in the past couple of years and once I saw this one writing onto little compact discs, I was ready to jump all over this one.

I must admit, at first I was a little dismayed by the reviews I saw in here about it being horribly slow at recording and so on. I was also dissapointed to see the 15-60 second limit on recording time.

However, as soon as I pulled this one together and took it out, I was absolutelty thrilled. I use this one a lot for nature shots, getting pictures of the ocean, trees, cliffs and that kind of thing. Without filters this camera seems to take some of the more amazingly vivid pictures I have seen. The LCD display does little justice to the shot, but once you hook it up to your computer and wait the 30 or 40 minutes it takes to transmit all the pictures with the software included, your eyes will be pleasantly suprised. The size does not bother me at all, even though I thought it would have. I have had no problem with that other then the fact that I cannot fit this one in my coat pocket or something. The weight seems about the same as a soda can, and even standing there waiting for the perfect shot to come along with the camera to my face for a good twenty minutes did not make my arms tired. All of my friends are always very impressed, and dying to see the new pictures that I have taken. I enjoy the media, being only that its a very cool thing to be carrying the three inch cd's around. As well as the 156 meg size on them. A pack of 5 of them will cost you 20 bucks, plus the camera comes with 5. I have taken over 200 shots and I'm only halfway through my second disc. I've had it since December. No, you cannot delete the pictures, but if you're going from a film camera this will not matter too much. The case is a bit of a joke. Its a bikeseat for 50$. The battery life is about 140 minutes fully charged with the LCD off in camera mode. I have to see, taking pictures or short little movies I am thoroughly, without a doubt glad that I bought this camera.

John

You can't believe it! The looks of envy from other camera owners is just the start. Using this camera is pure joy. I've taken 293 pics so far on the 1st of 5 discs included.I've found that the 640 x 480 resolution looks perfect for emails, web site use and printing, and at that resolution I can get over 1000 pictures per disc. The manual states for email it uses a smaller resolution, but what you display on the LCD can be captured straight onto email or used on your web page. And get this...you can zoom your taken picture size with the zoom lever and print out the close up view. The slideshow feature is excellent for presentations being the time interval can be set for narrating during playback. And with audio pics you can speak about your subject for up to a minute while taking the picture. Also using the movie mode allows both action shots and sound recording of your event.For birding with a camera, the color viewfinder and 10X optical zoom is excellent for that golden-cheeked warbler in the Texas Hill Country or for hawks at the Cape May Birding Observatory with a picture to show. Pictures of photos hanging on the wall look like you took it yourself. Postcard prints do likewise. I amaze myself each time I use this camera - The SONY MVCCD1000.

I'm digitally challenged yet I opened the box and was shooting within a careful hour's worth of reading. A few more days pratice gave me the nerve to put Sony's Big Mama into the hands of my high school students. It's frustrating to see them learn in minutes what took me an hour to learn...but.. They did! And they started discovering features I hadn't yet mastered. I short, I love this camera! It's pricey, the delay on captured shots drives me up the wall, but it's the best thing I've seen. (I'm the envy of the ballcourt.. twice last week, professional photogs missed their shots while watching me wrangle this honey around.) Frankly, I waited on the technology until someone came up with adequate storage. Now I've got it. Sony-heads... get rid of the delay in capturing the shot and I'll trade this one in. You've got a great camera here!

I love this camera. This is the camera that has converted me from using standard film to "going digital."

Without the cost restraints of standard film or the space restraints that digital camera memory place upon the number of pictures I take I feel free to take as many pictures of I want at no risk. This results in far more pictures per event than I would normally have taken.

The automatic aspects of the camera work great. It is extremely rare for a shot to be out of focus or exposed improperly. Out of appx. 1000 vacation shots I took in August only 1 or 2 were inexplicably out of focus and only a handful more were too dark, and those were due to the lighting conditions themselves being far too dark for taking pictures.

The camera is large and bulky compared with almost every other digital camera but is lighter than any SLR I have ever used. The lens is big and provides a remarkably wide range (10x optical times 2 digital - total 20x zoom - excellent). Shots taken at 20x zoom are not pixelated in the least!

At the highest resolution I get somewhere between perhaps 100 and 180 images on a third party 3" CDR (less than $1 each). At the lowest resolution it looks like one could get in excess of 1000 shots onto a CD.

The single drawback I find with this camera is that during a day of really busy shooting it can really drain the rechargable batteries. I keep a spare (charged) battery on hand. We spent a 9 hour day at Disney this summer and I used 1.5 charges during the course of the day.

Although I have had my Sony Mav CD1000 for only a few months, I have learned several important things...

It is very good for stills, but action shots are left better to chance. The shutter seems to be delayed about one second, therefore, your moving object will not be in the picture as you first saw it (in "Still" mode). Email format is good, while maintaining full JPEG file sizes. Still images are wonderful and the digital zoom is incredible. The cost of CD's is worth the trade whever you consider that you can skip the film processing. If you are wanting to "GO DIGITAL" and "PAPERLESS" the CD1000 is great. Data can be read by CDR-RW drives without "Finalizing" the disk...which saves time and space. If you really want to consider buying the CD1000, find someone who owns one, and take it out for a great day of picture taking. Thanks to Sony!