The
new Mavica MVC-FD100 and MVC-FD200 from Sony are like two peas in a pod.
They would look completely identical were it not for their accent colour:
the 1.2 megapixel FD100 is blue, and the 2.0 megapixel FD200 is grey.
Although their resolution is different, in all other aspects these 2 cameras
are one and the same, hence this combined review.
These are the newest Mavicas in a long line of Mavica cameras. From the
beginning the Mavica cameras stood out by being able to record photos
directly to floppy disk.
Over
the years the Mavica developed greater resolutions, and greater capabilities
— such as being able to use a Sony Memory Stick in a special floppy
drive adapter.
That
particular feature offered the possibility of greater storage capacity,
but the system was slow, even slower than recording to the floppy. The
new Mavicas change that by the addition of a Memory Stick slot, making
them fully dual media capable, all the while retaining the floppy drive.
Compared
to many others, the Mavicas are bulky because of the presence of the 4X
floppy drive, yet, they are lighter than their predecessors.
Over
the evolution of the line, some of the Mavica features, such as a large
brightly illuminated 2.5 LCD screen, have remained a constant. But even
there, time has brought improvements, and some of the features found on
the high end models — the ability to use sunlight to supplement,
or replace, the screen's backlight for instance — have become standard
for all models.
Similarly, the ability to record MPEG movies is now standardized, and
only the additional capability of sound recording remains the province
of the pricier models.
The size
of the Mavica cameras has always made them easy to manipulate as there
is a generous amount of space for the controls.
The
top part of the grip area supports only the shutter release and the zoom
lever, while the back of these cameras presents all the other controls.
The Power Switch has migrated to a position near the right thumb
rest, and immediately below is the Floppy/Memory Stick selector. Everything
else is arranged beneath the LCD screen. On the right is the 4-direction
control used for the menu. Moving left from there, the closest switch
is the Mode selector for Still/Movie and Playback, while
to its left is the switch to control the LCD backlight (On or Off).
Below that
is the Flash mode button, which lights orange when the flash is
ready for use. Carrying on to the right, the next control is Focus,
which cycles through macro mode and pre-set focus distances (0.5, 1, 3,
7 metres and infinity) before returning to Autofocus.
Next
is the Program AE button, which is used to select the from Twilight
and Twilight Plus modes (slow shutter modes), Landscape, Panfocus, or
select the spot meter. Last is the Display button that turns on
or off the information overlay of the LCD screen.
In terms of ergonomics, these new FD Mavicas have subtle but noticeable
improvements over their predecessors: better grip areas, slight changes
in the position of the controls which makes these more readily accessible;
and the possibility to attach an optional hood/finder that covers the
LCD screen and allows the camera's screen to be seen at eye-level.
