Rangefinder Magazine

February 2001

Sony Mavica CD1000
by Jane Wingate

Last August, Sony’s 2.1 megapixel Mavica CD1000 hit the shelves.

This camera has a dandy 10X optical zoom (equivalent to a 39–390mm zoom in a 35mm camera) with a Steady-Shot feature that allows you to handhold the camera with the lens at full extension. Its most innovative feature is a tiny built-in CD that uses 3-inc 156 MB discs onto which the images are burned as you take them.
Weighing 35 ounces, the CD1000, though bulky compared to most other digital cameras, is well-balanced and comfortable to hold and use. My left hand went automatically to support the long lens barrel.

This camera boasts more bells and whistles than a three-ring circus. The body is dotted with logically arranged menu and mode toggles and switches whose layout and purpose make increasing sense after a little study of the owner’s manual and a few practice sessions. For an in-depth review and set of instructions even clearer than the manual itself, there is this excellent site: www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonycd1000/page3.asp.

I don’t expect any digital camera to replace my Nikons. When I want to shoot “serious” landscapes, I’ll trudge out with full gear and do the work. However, what I want to do with the CD1000 is to have fun. Mostly, I want to be able to prowl around with the thing, unencumbered by a tripod, shooting handheld photos that I can then move quickly to computer, into Photoshop, and out on the printer. The Steady-Shot feature lets me do that.

The camera offers a range of image (file) sizes to choose from: “Normal” JPEG from 1600x1200 down to 640x480, “Movie” (MPEG) files, a low-res (320 x 240) “e-mail” file, and a “text” mode, which records in black-and-white GIF format.

And then there is the “Uncompressed TIFF” mode, which records not only the uncompressed TIFF image, but your choice of an accompanying JPEG file.

How many images you get on one CD depends, of course, on what size files you’re shooting. I have found that on a Sony CD (156MB) CD, I can get about 20 uncompressed TIFF files (which yield good-quality 8 x 10 prints), along with a chosen 640x480 JPEG companion file. If you were to shoot only 640 x 480 JPEGs, you’d be able to get a thousand images on a the mini CD.

After you shoot an uncompressed TIFF file, there’s about a 40-second wait while the image is burned onto the CD. During that time, you hold the camera reasonably still while the little beast whirs away. Meanwhile, your captured image is frozen on your LCD screen (a good, bright one), as well as on the smaller LCD screen in the viewfinder, so you can study your image while it is burning, and if you don’t like what you see, you can switch to the “Play” mode and wipe it. If you delete a file, however, you do not get back that space to use again.

When you pop in a fresh disk, you have to “initialize” it before you can burn images onto it. That process takes space. Then, after you take (for instance) those 20 TIFF files, you have to “finalize” the disk if you want to read it in your computer’s CD-ROM disk drive; otherwise, the disk is readable only in a recordable-CD drive. If you want to finalize your disks, keep in mind that you need about 14 MB to do that, so you probably ought to stop shooting at around the 17th frame (assuming you are shooting all TIFF files), including the ones you’ve wiped as you go along. (If Sony continues to make cameras with this means of image storage, they might consider coming up with an on-screen warning that tells you to stop shooting and finalize the disk.)

Some who have this camera fuss about the frozen image you get when you press the shutter part way. I found this no problem when shooting landscapes, or anything else that stays still. The frozen image lets me check the composition before recording the image, and lets me recompose the shot. Shooting moving targets might be a problem, though one that can be somewhat alleviated by pressing the shutter all the way in one action. .Still, this is probably not the best camera for capturing fast action.

Among the many features packed into this camera are a good flash whose level can be adjusted, plus an accessory shoe for an add-on flash; +2.0 EV to–-2.0 EV exposure adjustment; an excellent “one-push” white-balance feature; a spot meter, a clutch of program functions (modes): aperture priority, shutter-speed priority, twilight and twilight-plus, landscape, and panfocus mode. There is also a manual focus feature. (For what I’ve been shooting so far, I’ve kept the camera on Autofocus, sometimes fiddling with exposure values, white balance, or spot metering.) Then, there is a macro mode that lets you get to within 2 cm of your subject, and of course, the all-important Steady Shot. There’s a USB interface for connecting to most PC’s, and an A/V output so you can entertain the troops by showing them your photos on TV.

When fully charged, the “InfoLITHIUM” battery that comes with the camera lasts easily through a couple of disks, as long as you don’t overuse the battery-gobbling LCD screen. An on-screen battery symbol tells you approximately how much time you have left on your battery; when you’re just about out of juice, you get a flashing battery icon. With the camera comes a power adapter. One end plugs into the camera, the other into a wall outlet, so you can charge the battery—at any time—in camera. It makes sense to have on hand an extra battery or two (for around $50 each), and an independent charger (around $100), so you won’t tie up your camera charging the battery. And a protective lens filter is always good to have.
Sony disks, which store 156MB of information, cost $4 each when bought in packs of five. Users of this camera have discovered that there are “off-brand” disks that cost much less, and that seem to work just as well as Sony’s. (Sony might be wise to lower the price of their disks.)

After trying out Sony’s loaner, I decided I liked the camera so much, I’d get one for myself. So then, of course, I needed a good bag for the thing. Being a fan of Lowepro bags for my Nikons, I looked at several of those, ending up with a well-padded Nova 3, which nicely takes the camera, extra batteries and CDs, and maybe even a sandwich or two.

The CD1000 is a pleasure to use. It takes good photos, the high-resolution TIFF files can be fed into the computer, perhaps fooled with in Photoshop, and banged out on a printer fast enough to make the whole process rollicking good fun. And isn’t having fun what photography is all about?

Freelance writer and photographer Jane Wingate is based in Rochester, NH. She can be reached at her new web site: http://www.janewingate.com