Sony MVC-FD87 Great for the Beginner!
Written: Aug 23 '01 (Updated Jan 19 '03)
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Pros: Great photo quality!
Cons: No Viewfinder!
The Bottom Line: For a $400 1.3-megapixel camera it is a good deal! Great for the beginner!
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| surferdude7's Full Review: Sony Mavica MVC-FD87 Digital Camera |
A nice low priced digital camera that can use both 1.44 MB floppy discs and a memory stick card. This camera lists for $499 and can be found for a little over $400. It comes ready to use the 1.44 MB discs but you will have to purchase the optional adapter to use the memory stick.
The 1.44 floppy discs are nice because you can just take the disc out of the camera and place it in your computer to view without installing any extra software. Also with the 1.44 discs there is no downloading the pictures to the computer. The discs are cheap, the only downfall to the discs is the small amount of photos that you can get on one disc.
The Features
The Sony MVC-FD87 is a 1.3-megapixel that captures still photos and JPEG Video Clips. The still photos can be taken from 640 x 480 pixels and up to 1280 x 960 pixels. The video is in 320 x 240 in the JEPG format.
The Lens has a 3x optical zoom with an enhanced 2x digital zoom giving you a total of 6x zoom. The lens has a F2.8 - 6.1mm to 18.3mm, which is equivalent to a 35mm lens of 39mm to 117mm. This is a very good zoom range from wide angle to telephoto. Auto focus is as close as 9.8 inches to infinity. In macro you can get a close-up as close as 1.2 inches. It has 37mm filter threads for all you filter needs.
It has a nice 2.5-inch TFT color LCD in back of the camera that is used as a viewfinder and a playback screen. The is no regular viewfinder with this model, you must use the LCD to take your photos with. It has 123,000 pixels with a solar-assisted LCD screen to overcome the bright sunlight when taking photos outdoors.
The camera is powered by the Sony NP-F330 InfoLITHIUM battery pack and you can view the battery level on the LCD screen. The battery will last about 1 hour and 15 minutes of continuous use before you need to recharge it. Also included is the AC-L10 charger that is also an AC power supply.
The built-in flash has four modes, off, auto, forced and redeye with flash level adjustments of Auto, high and low with a range of 1 foot to 8.2 feet.
There is a video out that can be used to connect it to your TV set to view the images on the TV.
Sony includes a CD with MGI PhotoSuite and MGI VideoWave on it.
The 1.44 Floppy!
The down side of the floppy is limited storage space but you can pop one out and pop a new one in and start shooting again.
When taking a 1280 x 960 photo it takes somewhere between 200KB to 235KB of memory leaving you room for only about 6 photos on one disc. Lower resolution will give you several more photos on one floppy, I only use the high resolution for best photo quality.
You can get about 15 seconds of video on one floppy in the 320 x 240 mode. Not much but a lot of cameras at this price don’t even offer this.
If you don’t like swapping discs you can always purchase the optional adapter and use the memory stick.
The Menu
The menu on the LCD screen is fairly easy to use and navigate with. Here are some of the things that it will do.
1.It can format a floppy disc or memory stick.
2.It has a self-timer of ten seconds so you can jump into the photo.
3.Choose you image size, what you want to record it at. (JPEG, TIFF, GIF)
4.It shows a thumbnail index of up to 9 photos at once.
5. Pick “Effects” like Black & White photos, Solarize, Sepia and more.
6.You can manage your disc by editing and deleting.
7.You can even read it in Japanese if you wish.
8.Plus a lot more!
My Last Thoughts!
The camera has a good feel to it with a wrap around grip that makes it easy to point and shoot at what you want to take a photo of.
The 2.5-inch LCD is really nice, a lot of digital cameras have a 2-inch or less LCD, this makes viewing so much easier because it is a little larger than most. The color in the LCD is nice and even in the sunlight you can adjust it so you can see what you are viewing. The bottom side is there is no viewfinder, which would save you on battery power if you did not need the LCD to take your photos with.
All the buttons to control the camera are in the back and easy to use. I find the camera to take great photos by leaving it in the automatic mode for photo taking and flash. In the auto mode it will only flash if it needs to.
I love just pulling the 1.44 floppy disc out and placing it in the computer floppy drive. I use ACDsee for all my viewing so all I have to do is open ACDsee and click on the 3.5 floppy (A:) and there are the thumbnails of every photo on the disc. No special software needed to view the photos, just use what ever you use to view photos with.
The photos are beautiful, it takes great photos in all the resolution, though I prefer the highest of 1280 x 960. The color is just like you see it and the photos are crystal clear. Try to hold as still as possible when shooting your photos or it might cause the photo to blur a little bit.
I have only used this camera with the floppy discs, shooting a movie goes by real quick on a 1.44 floppy, about 15 seconds worth of recording. If you plan to shoot with the video part more often you might consider the optional adapter and use a memory stick for more storage. The video is fair and rather small on the computer screen at 320 x 240, this is great for a quick shot if you do not have a video camera around. If you are buying it for the video part ”Don’t” I recommend a digital or 8mm video camera.
I do recommend it for the still photo quality!
Here are some of my other camera reviews!
Canon PowerShot G1 Digital Camera
Casio QV3000EX Digital Camera
Casio QV-2300UX Digital Camera
Fuji FinePix 2800 Digital Camera
Kodak DC215 Zoom Digital Camera
Kodak DC280 Zoom Digital Camera
Kodak DC3400 Zoom Digital Camera
Kodak DX4900 Digital Camera
Minolta Dimage E-201 Digital Camera
Minolta Maxxum HTsi 35mm SLR camera
Minolta Maxxum 7
Minolta Maxxum 800si 35mm SLR camera
Olympus Camedia C-3000 Zoom Digital Camera
Olympus C-3020 Zoom Digital Camera
Olympus C-4040 Zoom Digital Camera
Olympus Camedia D-40 Zoom Digital Camera
Olympus Camedia D-380 Digital Camera
Pentax Optio 430 Digital Camera
Nikon Coolpix 900-s Digital Camera
Nikon Coolpix 3500 Digital Camera
Sony Mavica MVC-FD95 Digital Camera
Sony DSC-F717 Cyber-shot Digital Camera
Sony DSC-P2 Digital Camera
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 409
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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surferdude7
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