It's nice...but certainly not great
Written: Sep 05 '01
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Pros: Advantage of a digital camera, easy to use, floppy disk storage
Cons: Average picture quality, lack of features, size, floppy disk storage
The Bottom Line: In this day and age, the FD73 is not longer competitive in the marketplace. Although it is a fine product back in its day, many better offers are available today.
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| zegers330's Full Review: Sony Mavica MVC-FD73 Digital Camera |
My review will seem to have a significantly different opinion than some of the other reviews posted here...mainly due to the date of the review; such technology change at a rapid pace. Also note that this camera is extremely similar to the Sony MVC-FD75.
I brought this camera 2 years ago, because I craved the convenience of using floppy disks - nearly all computer have a floppy drive. I wanted to use the camera mainly for web pages, so the low resolution was not a big problem for me.
EASE OF USE: The FD73 is very easy to operate. You only need 2 buttons to take a picture: the power button and the shutter button. The menu is navigated using a cursor pad similar to those on a gamepad. The on screen menu is easy to understand and use. All buttons are clearly laid out below the LCD; they are well labeled and spaced well apart. The zoom rocker switch falls right under your thumb, and most hands will fit around the unit well.
FEATURES: The unit features 640x480 maximum resolution, which is the lowest you can get from a digital camera. However, it does have 10x optical zoom...optical zoom is always preferable to digital zoom, even though "digital" sounds better. A flash and a 2.5" LCD screen is standard, as are a 2x speed floppy drive and a Sony InfoLithium L series battery. The on screen menu contains options such as disk copy, disk tools, picture quality, record mode, and flash intensity. There are also a few more buttons present on the camera: an 'AE' button gives you several exposure modes (backlight, sport, sunset, etc.); a special effects button applies effects such as negative and sepia; a switch allows quick transition between record and playback modes; a flash button to set the flash to auto, on, or off; a display button to control the screen layout, and a brightness control for the LCD (this does not affect the picture). Although these might sound extensive, these can be considered basic features of any digital camera now sold (with the exception of the floppy disk features).
One advantage of a digital camera is that you can preview the pictures you have taken, delete them at will, and take another one. This is very useful, especially given the limited storage of the floppy disk. With the FD73, you can delete or protect a picture, delete or protect all pictures, and view pictures one at a time or in groups of six.
PICTURE QUALITY: To say it plainly, the FD73 takes pictures of average quality most of the time. Sometimes it might give you a good looking picture, and often times it'll give pictures with lots of noise. Color isn't very vivid, and picture sharpness is lacking...it tends to soften every aspect in every picture: just soft, not fuzzy.
One thing to take note of is that this camera dislike solid ares of white (especially white walls indoors). It's also best to use good lighting...the camera doesn't capture light too well. To end, the picture quality is average...not bad outdoors, but questionable indoors. Good lighting is a must, and large areas of light/white areas is to be avoided.
CONNECTIVITY: The use of the floppy disk as storage is both an excellent and a terrible idea. Pictures can be transferred without the camera; just take the disk out and put it into your computer. Any computer will do, since floppy drives are in nearly every computer still in use today. They are inexpensive, so you can give them to friends...the disk copy feature makes it handy to copy your pictures onto another blank disk. However, the capacity of a floppy disk is very limited...I average 20 pictures when using the camera in fine picture quality mode. Also, floppy disks aren't very durable...the access hole cover (the sliding part) can be bend, making it able to be inserted but unable to be ejected (this happened to me). Moreover, accessing a floppy disk is slow. Bottom line is that floppy disks are not recommended for digital camera, but you might find that it'll suit your needs.
CONSTRUCTION: Not too much to say here. The FD73 is pretty solid and feels sturdy.
WEIGHT AND SIZE: The Sony is a bit big for a digital camera, especially considering it's less-than-stellar capabilities. Sony needed room for a floppy drive, and that's where most of the bulk comes from. It isn't exceedingly heavy...should be fine for most users, but if you plan on using it everyday, this is NOT your camera!
BATTERY LIFE: Battery life is good for a digital camera. I tend to turn my camera on and off many times...the best estimate i can give about battery life is about 200 pictures (no flash, fine mode, jpeg format, continuous use) using the included NP-F330 battery. 200 pics isn't bad at all.
VALUE: It cost me about 600 2 years ago...to say the least, there are much better deals today. A 1+ megapixel camera, with more features than the Sony and smaller size, will cost less then 600 today. I hope that the current FD75 will be priced lower than that...otherwise Sony might never move them out of storage.
I admit that this review could be a bit more detailed, perhaps including information as to lens/light/tripod attachments and maybe more extensive picture quality information. However, since the FD73 (and the nearly identical FD75) is of an old design, I don't expect many to be interested, as there are many cameras other there now that offer superior picture quality, size, features, battery life, and connectivity all in one. So although this Sony is a good product when it first came out (this camera is based on the FD71), it isn't competitive today, and therefore I can't recommend it.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 600
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Epinions.com ID:
zegers330
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Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 0 members
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