Homespun Peddler Sony Mavica Digital Camera Review,

Product Reviews
The Good AND the Bad
The manufacturers and retailers will tell you the good stuff. We'll tell you the good AND the bad from a user's perspective. These are comments on our experience with various products.

Click here for our review of the new FD91.
It's the GOOD ONE!

Product Review
Sony Mavica Digital Camera - MVC-FD7

We started experimenting with digital camera's in late 1997. Of all the brands we tried, we liked the Sony Mavica best. So that's what we bought. In fact, between our companies we now have THREE of them! Many of the pictures you see on this site are now being shot with our MVC-FD7.

There are TWO FEATURES of this camera that sold us:

It has a built in diskette drive

The rechargable battery is good for almost 3 hours.

For the most part this camera does an amazing job. The MVC-FD7 is the more expensive model with all the features:

It takes great closeups,
the telephoto is amazing,
it has a number of special modes,
it's very easy to use.
The built in diskette is the real selling point! All the other cameras we tried could hold a limited number of images. When the memory was full you had to download to a computer. At least some cameras offer memory modules but most are expensive.

The Sony will store from 17 to 50 images (depending on quality) on a single, standard diskette. The camera has view, delete, and even format features built in. When we go into the field we take a pocket full of diskettes and just shoot at will. The battery is good for 180 minutes and that is a LONG TIME! There's now a new battery on the market that goes even longer.

But if you want to hear the sales pitch, you should visit the Sony site. If you're like me, what you'd REALLY like to hear from another user are the things that we DON'T like.

Now remember, our overall opinion is that this is a great camera. We've tried quite a few other cameras and we chose this one!

We gladly recommend the Sony provided you know the following:

The LCD view screen can be terrible!
This camera uses an LCD SCREEN on the back for viewing your scene prior to taking the picture. (See the right picture on the top of this page.)

In general room light the image on the screen is bright and beautiful. In a dark room it gathers so much light that it's better than your eyes.

Outside or in bright light, hoeever, the image is INVISIBLE. There's simply NO WAY to see the image in sunlight. There's an adjustment to brighten the viewer but it can never overcome sunlight. What's really bad is that you can't read ANY of the settings or other information when outside.

This camera needs an optical viewfinder to supplement the LCD screen. Or you need a black cloth over your head like the early photographers used.

Getting good pictures takes practice.
This is not a "point and shoot" camera. At least not if you want decent pictures. You have to practice and learn what will and won't work.

Lighting is everything. Difuse, even light is best. Bright sun is a disaster. Low light looks great on the LCD panel but the image will be black. Florescent lights actually work great because they provide that difuse, even light!

With practice you can take some great pictures. In most cases you'll still have to tune them up with photo editing software. We almost never get a picture good enough to publish to the web as it comes out of the camera.

What you see is NOT what you get
As mentioned, the LCD SCREEN produces a beautiful image (provided you're not outside). But that's not what the actual picture looks like! The final image is alway much darker than what the viewer shows and too often the image that's recorded comes out almost BLACK!

The crazy thing is that the image data has all been recorded. You can use photo editing software (as I did below) to warm up the image but you lose a lot of contrast.

WHAT YOU SEE
The preview image in
the LCD is great! WHAT YOU GET
But on the computer
it's very dark.

The Camera does NOT handle contrast well
Again, the LCD SCREEN produces a beautiful image in almost any lighting conditions. But if you're outside in bright sun, the final picture is often terrible.

This is a case where you can't easily clean up the image with software. The details are there but to see them washes out far too much contrast.

With practice you can learn what will and will not work. Just remember that outside you'll be shooting blind because you'll never see the image on the LCD if you're in the sun. And even if you could see it, the LCD image is not what your computer will show.

Great background.
But who's the person? Good T-shirts
But they wipe out the wearers.

Bright colors are a problem
Bright, vivid colors seem to be a problem. Reds in particular work poorly. When photographing bright flowers the image tends to look "posterized". The contrast becomes excessive and the bright colors look almost florescent.

The flash hardly helps
We've tried lots of things with the flash. It almost never works. If you're too close the image is overpowered; if you're too far the flash has no effect. We've yet to find an ideal distance.

The two images below are the same subject and the camera was mounted on a tripod about 8 feet from the subject. Some zoom was used to crop the image. The scene was illuminated by incandescent lamps as well as overhead light.

As usual, the image in the LCD was fantastic. It was better than looking with naked eyes. Almost like having night vision equipment but with perfect color, perfect contrast, perfect saturation.

WITHOUT FLASH WITH FLASH

Pressing the button moves the camera
Everyone seems to have trouble with this. Because you hold the camera away from your face to see the LCD screen, there's nothing to brace against when pressing the shutter button. Pressing always moves the camera and that can mess up an image.

We've learned two tricks. First, use a tripod when you can and use the self timer to snap the picture. That's seldom practical but it does work.

The second, and better, trick is to use the camera strap as a "sling". We put the strap around our neck then push the camera out in front of us as far as it will go. The tension on the strap stabalizes the hands when the button is pushed.

DON'T BE PUT OFF!
This is still a great camera.
Just be prepared for what you get.
The new pricing makes it a better deal.
And we've heard that the most recent
release solves some problems.

Click here for our review of the new FD91.
It's the GOOD ONE!

For more information send e-mail to the Peddler.

v210.0

HOME PAGE

CONTENTS
Site developed and maintained by MMCC, Inc.
Report problems or suggestions to support@mmcctech.com

The LCD view screen can be terrible!
	This camera uses an LCD SCREEN on the back for viewing your scene prior to taking the picture. (See the right picture on the top of this page.) In general room light the image on the screen is bright and beautiful. In a dark room it gathers so much light that it's better than your eyes. Outside or in bright light, hoeever, the image is INVISIBLE. There's simply NO WAY to see the image in sunlight. There's an adjustment to brighten the viewer but it can never overcome sunlight. What's really bad is that you can't read ANY of the settings or other information when outside. This camera needs an optical viewfinder to supplement the LCD screen. Or you need a black cloth over your head like the early photographers used.
Getting good pictures takes practice.
	This is not a "point and shoot" camera. At least not if you want decent pictures. You have to practice and learn what will and won't work. Lighting is everything. Difuse, even light is best. Bright sun is a disaster. Low light looks great on the LCD panel but the image will be black. Florescent lights actually work great because they provide that difuse, even light! With practice you can take some great pictures. In most cases you'll still have to tune them up with photo editing software. We almost never get a picture good enough to publish to the web as it comes out of the camera.
What you see is NOT what you get
	As mentioned, the LCD SCREEN produces a beautiful image (provided you're not outside). But that's not what the actual picture looks like! The final image is alway much darker than what the viewer shows and too often the image that's recorded comes out almost BLACK! The crazy thing is that the image data has all been recorded. You can use photo editing software (as I did below) to warm up the image but you lose a lot of contrast.

	WHAT YOU SEE The preview image in the LCD is great!	WHAT YOU GET But on the computer it's very dark.
The Camera does NOT handle contrast well
	Again, the LCD SCREEN produces a beautiful image in almost any lighting conditions. But if you're outside in bright sun, the final picture is often terrible. This is a case where you can't easily clean up the image with software. The details are there but to see them washes out far too much contrast. With practice you can learn what will and will not work. Just remember that outside you'll be shooting blind because you'll never see the image on the LCD if you're in the sun. And even if you could see it, the LCD image is not what your computer will show.

	Great background. But who's the person?	Good T-shirts But they wipe out the wearers.
Bright colors are a problem
	Bright, vivid colors seem to be a problem. Reds in particular work poorly. When photographing bright flowers the image tends to look "posterized". The contrast becomes excessive and the bright colors look almost florescent.

The flash hardly helps
	We've tried lots of things with the flash. It almost never works. If you're too close the image is overpowered; if you're too far the flash has no effect. We've yet to find an ideal distance. The two images below are the same subject and the camera was mounted on a tripod about 8 feet from the subject. Some zoom was used to crop the image. The scene was illuminated by incandescent lamps as well as overhead light. As usual, the image in the LCD was fantastic. It was better than looking with naked eyes. Almost like having night vision equipment but with perfect color, perfect contrast, perfect saturation.

	WITHOUT FLASH	WITH FLASH
Pressing the button moves the camera
	Everyone seems to have trouble with this. Because you hold the camera away from your face to see the LCD screen, there's nothing to brace against when pressing the shutter button. Pressing always moves the camera and that can mess up an image. We've learned two tricks. First, use a tripod when you can and use the self timer to snap the picture. That's seldom practical but it does work. The second, and better, trick is to use the camera strap as a "sling". We put the strap around our neck then push the camera out in front of us as far as it will go. The tension on the strap stabalizes the hands when the button is pushed.