Full Review

This is my 3rd digital camera. You can read my epinions on the Agfa 1280, and the Sony Mavica FD-83. I upgraded to the FD-90 from the FD-83 because #1 it has a big league zoom (not a rinkydink one like the 83), #2 it is memory stick ready which enables this camera to take hundreds of pictures without changing floppies (a big drawback with the standard Mavica without the 'stick'), #3 the price was right. I was able to sell my 83 for about what I paid new and the 90 cost me only $40 more!!! This is a lesson to those who don't take time to surf instead of allowing banners and home page links pull you around by the nose. While I bought this camera for around $100 less than standard store price there were people buying the 83 the same price I paid for the FD-90!!!

SURPRISE...it was not a factor in my decision to buy but this baby does up to 60 second .mpeg movies with sound with ONE TOUCH of the button! Lots of fun and just overall outrageous. This camera is SIMPLE to use and it is virtually impossible to take a bad shot. 5 levels of resolution up to 1.6 which is excellent. We use the lowest setting most of the time (640x480) and get a great shot 90% of the time. Battery time is amazing with 2-1/2 hours on the standard np-330 battery. I shopped around and bought an np-550 backup battery for $50 with a camera case and this one holds over 4 hours of charge! Macro takes a sharp picture as close as 1 inch. The flash works great. The software included is ArcSoft which appears to be a small version of Adobe Photoshop and it is marvelous.

This is a top line all purpose camera and the Mavica series is in a class by itself. You can get a better wide angle or zoom but at this price? NOT. There are 3.3 megapixel camers but again they cost a fortune and only a professional should need that. We almost never use the 1.6 and quality is just beautiful. We did not buy the memory stick adapter yet (around $50) or a memory stick (around $50 for a 8meg) because we are short of $$$ but look forward to. 8 meg is the equivalent of 5-1/2 floppies (sticks come as large as 128meg but I imagine it would be very hard to manage and edit with that many shots on one device. We change floppies pretty regular in the meantime but OfficeMax, Staples, etc run specials often for 50 floppies FREE, $9.99 with a $9.99 rebate. great camera.