New Mavica FD Cameras from Sony
updated 12:00 pm EST, Mon February 12, 2001
Sony today announced the four latest additions to its FD Mavica camera line. The new models include the MVC-FD75, MVC-FD87, MVC-FD92 and the MVC-FD97, which offer direct compatibility with both floppy disk and Memory Stick media. Its high-end MVC-FD97 has a 10X Optical Zoom, image stabilization and 2.1 Mega-pixel resolution and is due in March for $900. The $600 MVC-FD92 with a 8x optical/16x digital zoom and 1.3 megapixel resolution (with 1.6 megapixel interpolated mode) will be available in March as well for about $600. Both the MVC-FD75 (10x optical zoom, no USB) and MVC-FD87 (3x optical zoom) are due in February for $400 and $500, respectively.
The FD Mavica line uses a rechargeable InfoLithium battery, which provides a life of approximately 960 shots, or 1 1/4 hours, in still image standard mode. The MVC-FD92 and MVC-FD97 both offer USB connectivity; MPEG Movie Mode to capture up to 60 seconds of MPEG motion video and audio; uncompressed TIFF mode for enhanced image quality; and Voice Memo Mode to add narration to still images. The VC-FD87, MVC-FD92 and MVC-FD97 have a 4x HiSpeed floppy drive and options for 3:2 picture ratios, while the low-end MVC-FD75 offers a 2x floppy mechanism.
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Camera memory
...is still not very good. Having borrowed an older Mavica while in England, I can tell you it's a good camera. The pain is switching floppies and carrying 15 of them around with you. If we didn't have a laptop with, I would have taken a huge stack of floppies home. They need to start using better storage like the IBM Microdrives with 400 meg storage. I've already seen a few cameras like it, and they are nice. Soon the camcorder and camera will blend into one unit. It's just a matter of time.
Doug