Sony Mavica FD51

...people have heard of the Sony Mavica. It has been around for a while and was a revolutionary digital camera because it allows the use of ordinary, cheap floppy disks! A new version is now available which writes onto CD-Rs, but that’s another story.

FLOPPIES
So why is it such an advantage that it uses floppies? Simple – price. Normal digital cameras come with 2 – 8MB RAM to store images on. New RAM costs loads, so if you want ...
...you have, you’re screwed. But with floppies, you can carry as many as you want around with you and they’re dead cheap. Granted, you’ll only get 1.44MB on each disk, but you can take loads of them – they’re hardly huge. A set back however is that it takes a while (Around 5 – 8 secs) to save each image.

THE CAMERA
The quality of pictures is excellent, although never as good as analogue photos. You can set the resolution and the ... more

Many people have heard of the Sony Mavica. It has been around for a while and was a revolutionary digital camera because it allows the use of ordinary, cheap floppy disks! A new version is now available which writes onto CD-Rs, but that’s another story.

FLOPPIES
So why is it such an advantage that it uses floppies? Simple – price. Normal digital cameras come with 2 – 8MB RAM to store images on. New RAM costs loads, so if you want to take more than pictures than the amount of RAM you have, you’re screwed. But with floppies, you can carry as many as you want around with you and they’re dead cheap. Granted, you’ll only get 1.44MB on each disk, but you can take loads of them – they’re hardly huge. A set back however is that it takes a while (Around 5 – 8 secs) to save each image.

THE CAMERA
The quality of pictures is excellent, although never as good as analogue photos. You can set the resolution and the quality of the shot, which means that you can have between around 5 to 15 shots on a disk (jpeg format ONLY). The camera is fairly large, at the same size as a small DV, but you must remember that it needs to be big enough to hold a floppy. It is not too expensive compared to other digicams, at around £450. There is a small 2inch screen on the back that lets you view your pictures and allows you to delete them if you don’t like them. Special effects are also available, exposure time can be changed and the camera has a movie feature, which can record short MPEGs with sound. The flash can be off, on or automatic and the interface is very easy to use. A 6x digital zoom is included which helps get the best of close-ups.

DOWNLOADING TO PC
Downloading is simple, just place the floppy disk into your computer and copy the files! The Mavica also creates an HTML file that lets you view the shots in your favourite web browser. The JPEGs are 100 – 350 kb in size depending on size and quality. Because of the floppy disk feature and format, the Mavica is naturally compatible with both PCs and MACs and doesn’t require ANY software beyond an OS (such as Windows).

LOOK AND FEEL
Quite simply bug and bulky. The letdown of this camera is that it’s very large and isn’t quite handy. If you’re someone you takes few, random shots while on holdiday, this camera will hurt your neck.

OVERALL
The Mavica is an excellent digicam, which due to it’s floppy disk feature is extremely versatile. However, you have to pay a price for this added versatility, and that’s the weight of the machine. In short, if you take lots of pictures for specific purposes (e.g. projects, work, school) then the camera is for you. If you’re intending on using the camera casually, this isn’t for you. As for me, I like them.

NOTE: I don't know if this is the exact model: my school has several Mavicas and I use those regularly, but I forget which model they are.
 

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