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The original Sony Mavica became one of the most popular digital camera models because it saved images to cheap, ubiquitous floppy disks that you could pop into any computer and use, with no need for cables or special adapters. The images had to be highly compressed to fit on floppies, however, which significantly reduced their quality. Sony's new, $1299 Mavica MVC-CD1000 Digital Still Camera tries to get around that compression obstacle by saving pictures to CD-Recordable discs.

Fortunately, the new Mavica doesn't use ordinary CD-Rs and instead depends on smaller, 3-inch discs, which are available from Sony for $5 apiece (the Mavica ships with five discs). One 156MB disc holds up to 160 2.1-megapixel images; as a result, this Mavica is capable of holding a great number of still shots and video clips. The camera remains quite large, though, and it's priced up to $650 more than other 2-megapixel cameras.

The Mavica performed quite well in our tests, producing sharp, detailed images with bright, realistic colors. We also saw considerable detail in the shadows and highlights. All in all, our test images looked excellent.

Bulky but Fetching

Pictures shot with the MVC-CD1000 show a clear improvement over those done by previous Mavicas. We took indoor and outdoor shots, using both available light and the flash; macros and landscapes; a couple of people; and a half-dozen videos at 320 by 240.

The Mavica is bulkier than many camcorders, but even at about 34 ounces, it's surprisingly light and easy to handle, even one-handed. The buttons and controls are logically placed and well marked, although the shutter button and zoom lever would be easier to operate if they were placed farther forward. The camera sports a 2.5-inch LCD viewfinder (larger than those on most digital cameras), supplemented by a camcorder-like electronic eyepiece. The eyepiece features a diopter that can adjust the focus for glasses wearers, as well as a rubber cup, which is especially useful when you're trying to focus manually or view subjects in sunlit and low-lit settings. The MVC-CD1000 is one of a handful of digital cameras that allow manual focusing, and it provides a ring for precise focus when you disengage autofocus. The camera pairs a built-in pop-up flash with a hot shoe for more-powerful external flashes and accessories.

The Mavica's large size is necessary to accommodate the CD-R mechanism and a 10X motor-driven optical zoom lens, which can be combined with a digital (software) zoom. The camera's back opens to expose a spindle onto which you place the 3-inch CD-R disc. The laser lens that burns the CD-R is exposed when the cover is opened, and the lens must be cleaned frequently. A switch on the side of the zoom lens helps to stabilize the image so you can shoot at extreme telephoto or magnification, or in low light without the flash, with minimal or no blurring of the image. In our tests, the stabilizer worked well, with little quality loss on the pixel level.

The Mavica's lithium-ion battery can be charged in the camera in less than 2.5 hours. Whereas most cameras provide only a rudimentary battery icon, the Mavica has a smart battery that reports how much power is left.

The Mavica's 2.2-megapixel CCD image-capturing device operates at resolutions of 1600 by 1200, 1024 by 768, and 640 by 480. It can save images, short videos, and audio, in JPEG, TIFF, MPEG, and GIF formats. A single, 3-inch CD-R can hold up to 60 video clips, with .wav sound, at resolutions of 320 by 240, 320 by 240 at high quality, or 160 by 120, at frame rates of up to 25 frames per second.