Sony MVCCD400 CD Mavica 4MP Digital Camera w/3x Optical Zoom

The MVC-CD400 is a new model of Sony's established mini-CD burning cameras, along with the MVC-CD250, replacing the CD200 and CD300 models. So why would Sony need to upgrade anything you ask? I was actually asking myself the same thing at first. I was getting ready to drop down the money for a CD300 model when I heard a new design was coming out, so I started doing some research. I found that Sony has done a nice job of directly addressing many of the failings of the CD300/CD200 units, and added some especially nice touches to boot!

The most noticeable change up front is that the built-in flash unit has moved from the upper right side of the unit to right over the barrel. This helps with avoiding shadow effects when taking up-close shots.

Additionally, they have addressed the single most commented-upon flaw of the 200/300 series: Viewing the LCD screen in bright sunlit conditions. They have added a clear 'strip' along the top of the LCD panel that allows ambient light to help back-light the LCD screen, and the results are frankly good, making the LCD significant more usable in all lighting conditions without having to buy the 'viewfinder attachment' that Sony sells for the Mavica CD model cameras.

The third significant change is the addition of a standard flash adapter, allowing one to use external flash units with this camera for better lighting when needed. It is important to note apparently it is critical to make sure you use a normal low voltage external flash instead of a studio-quality high-voltage unit, as this may damage the camera!

Like it's previous generation brothers, the CD400 includes a Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar lens for high quality (professional?) photography without the distortions you may sometimes find in the 'corners' of shots taken through some lower quality digital cameras. It also upgrades the CCD from 3.3 megapixels to 4.0 or so, which means even more detail can be captured for folks who are interested in capturing everything possible.

The other unique addition is Sony's Hologram AF system, which uses a laser emitting diode to put a crosshatch pattern on your target prior to snapping the shot, letting the autofocus get better accuracy when dealing with situations that sometimes confuse traditional autofocus routines.

Sony's batteries also are decent, giving a typical user 2+ hours of uninterrupted shooting before needing replacement, and then recharging in ~45 minutes.

And of course the mail selling feature for most folks, myself included the photos are saved on mini-CDs, rather than one of the various memory stick/card units. Mini-CDs are dirt cheap per MB compared to memory sticks, and typically store ~150-200MB worth of photos, depending on make. Sony of course recommends you use only their branded disks, but many folks are reporting no problems using other manufactured brands. Depending on CD used, this translates into ~10 photos at the absolute maximum resolution 2272x1704 at maximum quality (TIFF) through ~1300+ photos at 640x480 at standard quality (JPG).

As an added feature, you can record movies with audio with the camera also, though the image and sound quality are not comparable with a digital video camera so if video is your passion, go look for a video camera, not a digital still camera. Otherwise, this is a nice little bonus.

I had resisted the urge to purchase a digital camera for a long time, waiting both for the photo quality to start approaching that which could be found with 35mm cameras, and for the means to get the pictures into a usable format on the PC to become cheaper or easier. Mini-CDs work in nearly all modern CD drives on computers, and I have not run across one yet that failed to work, though I admittedly tend to have relatively modern equipment at home and work. (Nothing older than ~3 years old at least in terms of CD drives.) The MVC-CD400 is an answer to every criticism I've had about digital cameras for the last few years. I'm enjoying mine greatly!

ONE NOTE: Viewing 'unfinazlied' CDs on a Windows PC only works if you have DirectCD installed, which is an application that comes bundled with pretty much any CD burner on the market. 'Finalized' CDs are readable pretty much everywhere.

I've used this camera over the past several years and I remain a true believer of both it, and its updated 5MP version, which I also own. The expanse of capabilities and options with the camera allows for taking excellent pictures under nearly any conditions. The manual as well as the shutter and aperature priority imaging modes allow you complete control over the imaging process. I've taken pictures of everything including northern lights at 2 a.m., my cats in near complete darkness, portrait shots of subjects in dark rooms standing in front of bright windows, and they've all turned out wonderfully. For printing, I've used both my home printer, and a professional photo store, and prints up to 11x14 have turned out perfectly with no degredation at all.

Several recommendations if you buy this camera. Don't waste your money on Sony's cd-r disks. I've used verbatim, memorex and k-hypermedia cd-r with no problem. They're certainly much cheaper, and they all hold 185 MB while the Sony's only hold 156 MB. I would also suggest that you buy the Sony external flash for the camera. While the hot shoe will accept other brands of flash, I've been very impressed with the improvements to my pictures since buying the sony flash. I would also recommend buying a small (3-6") expandable tripod that will fit in any case. This allows you to set up longer exposure shots for dark environments, as well as for using the timer function on less than ideal surfaces.

If you're looking for huge storage (and archive) capabilities, excellent images, and complete control over your picture taking (minues the zoom limitations), then this is certainly the camera for you. Everyday I think it is worth the price I've paid, and with a new baby in the house when first purchased, being able to take several hundred pictures in the first few days and email the "best-of" off to the grandparents is certainly a plus.

Buy Sony MVCCD400 CD Mavica 4MP Digital Camera w/3x Optical Zoom Now

I am a professional radiographer and photographer (25 years now) and I used both the CD400, CD300, as well as a Nikon Coolpix for this year's field research season x-raying mummies in Peru. This means the cameras were pushed hard.....blowing sand, huge contrast ranges, high resolution radiographs needed, fast manual control of radical light conditions, etc.....essentially most of the tough conditions and imaging requirements you can imagine. Here's what I found:

The Sony Mavica CD300 beat them all. It's not the most expensive or the best resolution but we all thought it did the best job.

Mavica CD400: best resolution but extremely slow recording time made it impossible to work with most of the time....the CD300 often got 3-4 shots while the 400 was recording one.

Mavica CD300: not the best resolution, but now that I've done some prints for publication from it's highest res setting I will not be buying any more 400s....just not a significant enough difference, plus it's not as heavy or bulky.

Nikon Coolpix: not in the running by comparison with the Sonys....although it is more lightweight....we are buying mini CDs for 33 cents each in bulk... and getting 140-180 high res images per CD.....they are so easy to format, initialize, and copy on any CD burner that I can't believe we even considered using memory stiks, or USB downloads.

The best features are common to both the Sony Mavica CD300 and 400 series though.....manual control of the images, excellent close up abilities, decent wide angle (which can be enhanced with add-on lenses if necessary), and both rapid video and automatic functions with night focusing for flash, etc., etc.

Finally! There is a great digital camera.

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This is a great camera. With the CD in the camera all you have to do is take it out and pop it into the computer. No hooking up a docking station, no buying memory sticks that are tiny and easy to loose. I can use this camera and download to our computer with no help from my husband.

I am an avid scrapbooker and I have found that this camera has saved a fortune in developing pictures that I would have never used anyway. I love being able to decide weather or not I like the shot right away. No getting home from a Disney vacation and finding out everyone had their eyes closed in the great shot with Mickey. You can take several shots quickly and delete the ones that you don't like right there, and on to the next attraction. No more spending $16 to get double prints and a CD. You can take well over 100 pictures and decide from the camera what you like. Plus you have everything saved on a CD already. You can then take it to a developer and have what you want printed, or upload to Shutterfly and never have to worry about going back to the store for pick up.

This is the perfect camera for those of us who have wanted an upgraded camera with all the bells and whistles and could not, and didn't want to spend hours learding how to work everything. A quick read through the book and you are ready to go.

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I am an amateur photographer in Florida, and this camera gets incredible wildlife shots and adjusts to all light conditions with excellent color. Saving photos on CDs is SO much better than dealing with memory sticks that only hold a few photos, as I can get 170 shots on a CD at the HIGHEST RESOLTUION, and the CDs are cheap too. It comes with a CD adapter that lets you slip it into your CD drive, but frankly, the adapter is a pain as you have to put the CD in it JUST SO. I use the USB port it comes with instead, and it is much faster. The camera is a little bulkier than most, but it is so well designed, I don't care. The is the first camera I am in love with!