Sony Mavica MVC CD500 5.0 Megapixel

The Sony Mavica MVC CD500 is an excellent camera. I bought mine new in 2003 ... bought it because it has a nice, big lens ... not a pin-hole lens like most pocket cameras have. I am a graphic artist and darkroom technician and I knew that I wanted a camera that would take a sharp picture. I also liked the idea of all pictures being permanently saved onto a CD as you make your shots (a CD that your PC can open for you)... no "memory sticks" to deal with. I was impressed with all of the program overides that give you the ability to take photos with a fixed F-Stop or a fixed shutter speed or the option to go completely manual with your choice of shutter speed and F-stop. Focus, too has several options for you to choose.

BUT ... when I got it home and started using it, I found that it's easy to take a great picture using it as just a Point & Shoot camera. It's easy to use if all you want is a great snap-shot photo. The other bells and whistles are there when you want to get serious ... compensate for backlighted subject, compensate for various artificial lighting, go into Portrait Mode for a great wedding shot or Snow Mode or Beach Mode to keep the background of your photo from looking burned-out ... but you don't need to worry about them.

It has a hot shoe for the addition of an external flash. It has a threaded tripod mounting point. The battery can run the camera for about two hours. The camera turns itself off after three minutes of non-use to save battery power. You can plug in the charger while you use the camera to give yourself unlimited studio time with your camera "on".

The only negatives about this camera are the lack of a viewfinder (you have to compose the picture as you look at the little LCD screen) and the zoom of only 3X. You can go to 10X in some photo modes ... but anything over 3X is a digital zoom. It is a large, bulky camera by today's standards, but I like the heft of it. This is a top quality piece of work.

I own Adobe Photoshop CS3 and I am constantly impressed with the photos that this camera takes. Great detail in both highlight and shadow areas. Shoot as Tiff or Jpeg ... great photos. I have owned my Mavica since 2003 ... and I have taken over 9100 pictures (!) with never a glitch or a breakdown. Great camera!

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