surferdude7's Full Review: Sony Mavica MVC-FD95 Digital Camera
Sony has done it again, they produced a quality product that is better for the price than the leading competitors. This camera lists for $1099 and can be found for under $1000 if you shop around. This camera is loaded with so much it would cost several hundred dollars more, from another manufacture, for the same features.
The camera looks great and it feels great too. It weighs a little over two pounds and is very stable to hold. The features and buttons are at your fingertip.
What makes this camera so popular is the images are stored on regular 1.44MB floppy disk. The images are in the JPEG format and you can pop them in your floppy drive and view the pictures right away. This is very handy if you are at another computer and you want to view them on that computer. You do not have to load any software to view the pictures on a computer.
The Sony MVC-FD95 can use the higher-capacity, solid-state Memory Stick modules, with the MSAC-FD2M floppy disk adapter. This will allow you to a much larger storage of pictures.
It will capture still JPEG images and it captures up to 60 seconds of MPEG video and audio. There are two modes for video; Video Mail Mode - here you can capture up to 60 seconds at 160 x 112 resolution and Presentation Mode - here the viewing is larger at 320 x 240 but you can only record up to 15 seconds at a time.
Your controls for using the camera are on the left side of the camera. They look confusing but are simple to use once you have used it a few times. The manual is easy to understand and learn. There are 5 AE Program Modes; Auto, Night, Night , Landscape and Portrait. You can also pick Shutter Speed Priority or Aperture Priority. You can use auto focus or manual focus and there is a Steady-Shot (digital image stabilization system) that can be turned on or off. There is a little button with a flower, this is your Macro control.
There are special effects on it to change the way you want your pictures to look, black & white, Solarize, Sepia and Negative Art. There is a lot more it will do, this camera is loaded with features.
The Built-in Lens
The lens is one of the largest that you will find anywhere. Most digital cameras only come with a 3 x lens. Two other Sony cameras have larger lenses.
The FD-95 has a 10x optical lens at f = 6.0-60mm, this comes to a 35mm equivalent of 40-400mm. Now you can reach out and touch someone. It will also enhance to a 20 x in the digital zoom. It is a fast lens with an f 2.8 maximum aperture and you can add filters on it with 52mm threads.
The View
To conserve battery power, the Sony MVC-FD95 has a feature that turns on the viewfinder when your eye is pressed up against it. It turns off again when there is no pressure on the viewfinder. This is a nice feature and will save the battery.
The back of the camera there is a 2.5" color LCD, this is slightly larger than most other digital cameras. On the screen you will see icons for the battery condition, next picture numbers and how much space is left on the floppy. You can also see the Image sizes that you are using. If your Steady-Shot is on or you are in the Macro mode then there will be an icon for it.
You can adjust the LCD backlight brightness to suit your lighting conditions. You can also add a time and date to your pictures.
You can set it up to watch a slide show of what you have taken on the LCD.
The Battery
A Rechargeable Sony InfoLITHIUM 7.2 volt battery. Yes they all should have rechargeable batteries. The battery will tell you how much time you have before it needs to be recharged.
It comes with the NP-F330 rechargeable battery and you can get a higher capacity NP-F550 battery. The battery that came with it lasts about two hours before you have to recharge it again.
Other Specifications
2.1 Megapixels, Zoom Lens 10X optical and Digital Zoom 20X.
Movie Images in MPEG, 60 seconds at 160 x 112 resolution and 15 seconds at 320 x 240 resolution.
Still Images in JPEG, 640 x 480, 1024 x 768, 1600 x 1072 and 1600 x 1200.
A Focus High-speed AF or Manual with focus ring and digital readout on display with Steady-Shot image stabilizer.
The LCD Display is 2.5" TFT color with 123,000 Pixels.
The Color Viewfinder has 180,000 Pixels.
A built-in microphone and speaker. You can leave yourself a voice memo.
An AC adaptor and battery charger is supplied with the rechargeable battery.
A self-timer of 10 seconds is built in.
A tripod socket on the bottom so you can use it on a tripod.
A hot shoe - it is made for the optional HVL-F1000 flash.
Overall
This can be a simple point and shoot camera with a little learning. To get full use out of the Sony MVC-FD95 with all that it will do, it will take a little time and patient, believe me it is worth it.
Even though the floppies are nice and convenient, you would have to pack a lot with you when you go on a trip. You might consider the MSAC-FD2M floppy disk adapter for more convenience. You only get about 4 pictures on a floppy in high resolution and 25 to 30 in lower resolutions.
This is as nice of a camera that you will find for around $1000. If you are looking for convenience (Popping the floppy in the computer without software.) than you won't find a better quality digital camera than the Sony MVC-FD95. The next model up from this one does not offer the floppies.
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