Sony Mavica Digital Camera (CR-R/RW)

[Dilbert]

I was looking at digital cameras this weekend, and the CDR feature made me curious. Basically, what I want to know, is there any downside to storing images on a CDR? It seems like a good feature on the surfaceSony Mavica MVC-CD400 . Anyone have any more details on this? It just seems so handy to get all my images on a CD from the start, not having to worry about having extra memory sticks, etc.

[Photog]

The only downside I can see is the size of the camera. It is considerably larger than similar (functions, resolution, etc.) Sony cameras, particularly some in the 'Cybershot' series. Battery life will also be shorter because of the additional energy required to spin and write to the CD-R.

[EasyPhil]

The other downside is capacity, 156MB for the CD-R, 256MB or more for the memory solutions.

[yabob]

It's much bulkier, leading to a larger camera - the disk is 156 MB. The much smaller compact flash card is out past a gig now, and you can get 1/2 gig for $150 or so.

The memory cards are seen as an extra drive as soon as you plug them into your computer, so convenience isn't really that much of an issue. You are going to want to edit photos and be selective in your choices for "final" collections on a CD anyway.

THe CD disks are cheap, of course, and there may be a bit of an advantage if you expect to have to take a lot of pictures without being able to get to a computer to transfer them.

[Dilbert]

Well, I acutally like the camera being a bit bigger. I have a problem holding some of the smaller cameras because it seems so akward getting my fingers positioned properly so that they are where they are supposed to be and not where they shouldn't be.

As to the capacity, won't a couple of extra CDR's take care of that, or is there something I'm missing?

As for the battery life, anyone know where I can get info on that? It looks like it comes with rechargables, so as long as it's good for 50 or 60 pictures at a pop before recharging, I don't see that as being a problem (although I have no evidence to suggest that it is good for that many pictures).

[GaryM]

The cameras also are somewhat prone to problems due to mechanical shock, vibration and dust issues. Which would you imange would be more trouble free, a device with motors, laser diodes, head positioning devices and somewhat high battery drain or a device with no moving parts other than a dorr that covers the card slot?

[GaryM]

I can't even type correctly this morning, nor spell either.

Check www.dcresource.com for additional data on Mavica cameras.

[scr4]

Here's a review:
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2002_reviews/cd400.html

The article mentions a few disadvantages of the CD-R system:

The mini-CD technology does have its disadvantages. At power-up the disc must spin up to speed and be read to locate where to write the next image file. This took as long as 20 seconds when I had a disc that was almost full. The time it takes to write an image to disc is considerably longer than flash cards, 10 seconds on a fresh disc. The shot-to-shot time is a little above average at about 3 seconds in single mode (all shot in 2272 x 1704 Fine mode - no flash.) To take the disc out and play in your computer's CD drive you must finalize the disc first in the Setup mode. This uses up about 15MB, a bit wasteful when you consider the disc only holds 156MB. Some computers with CD-RW drives and Adaptec's DirectCD drivers may be able to read the unfinalized discs.

[istara]

Panasonic will have eeny meeny diddly little tiny memory cards at 4 GIGs later this year, IIRC.

[Dilbert]

Well, it appears that the only upside this camera has is the CDR, which seems to introduce more downsides than the single upside it introduces. Glad I didn't shell out the extra $200 (or more) for this feature. Sounds like I would have been disappointed. Thanks for your help.

Now for a sub-question:

Is there a way to find out (or get recommendations) what the best bang for the buck digital cameras are? I like the way that Sony camera focuses, but I didn't even realize it didn't have a non-LCD viewfinder. I would like to find a camera with hopefully:

3 MegaPixels
at least 3X optical zoom (I don't really care about digital zoom)
hotshoe for external flash
LCD screen and viewfinder


What other features should I look for? What should I say away from? Maybe this should go to IMHO from here, I don't know.

[Telemark]

Definately check out www.dcresource.com and www.dpreview.com, they have full reviews and decision making charts for all the current cameras. The sticking point for your critera will be the hotshoe, as most cameras for the consumer are dropping them.

You are correct to steer away from the CDR, it's not worth the small (IMO) added feature. I like a camera that has full programability, but any camera with a hotshoe will likely have that. You are also correct to ignore digital zoom, it's only an advertizing gimick.

[GaryM]

The Canon G2 and it's newer brother the G3 both have a hot shoe.

I've got two Nikon CoolPix cameras, a 950 and a 995. These cameras have the Nikon trademark twisting body. This is handy for taking high angle or low angle shots.

Some other cameras, such as the G2/G3 have a LCD screen that can be pulled out and swiveled. This is a good alternative, but the twisting body is faster. Although the swiveling screen does allow additional angles.

As Telemark said visit www.dcresource.com and you can sort the cameras and do a comparison.

If you buy on line, be careful! The lowest price is not always the best deal.