Sony Mavica, getting better every year!

Author's Rating:

Pros: superb crispy optics, 5 meg pictures, full VGA mpeg

Cons: microphone location, programming of VGA

The Bottom Line: 
Inexpensive and foolproof recording medium. The recording on CD-R's makes it a very flexible and safe camera. Freecom's have 210 MB and cost half the price of Sony 156 MB's.

Author's Review
The CD500 is a superb camera that works very well even in severe Icelandic weather! Superb optics, 5 megapixel bright pictures and very nice full VGA mpeg movies. Improvements for me in a CD600 would be the replacement of the microphone to the front of the camera. It now picks up blieping sounds from the CD mechanism and is highly sensitive to wind noise. Secondly more programming options for movie recording. An option for a preset duration of the recording time would be very helpful if one uses the time delay for the start of the recording of a "I like me" type of movie which until now always has to end in a run back to the camera to stop the recording. Lastly I would prefer 30fps (now 15 fps) for recording VGA movies. With these three improvements the CD600 will be a winner!!!

The CD500 is very durable. My tripod tumbled in an Icelandic wind and the 10 days old camera smashed into the vulcanic rocks. Only scratches! The EXCELLENT lens cap saved my lens from cracking into pieces!