Sony Mavica Camera Slims Down, Speeds Up

In PC World's last digital camera roundup ("Snap Judgments ," February) Sony's Mavica MVC-FD7 earned the Best Buy award for its good image quality, easy-to-use controls, and especially its ability to save photos directly to a floppy disk. The latest Mavica, the $799 MVC-FD71, is a slimmer and faster improvement over its predecessor. After testing a shipping version of the new model, I was impressed with the changes.

The original Mavica camera weighed almost 1.3 pounds and was a bulky 3 inches thick. The FD71 weighs 1.2 pounds and is 2.5 inches thick, making it a bit easier to hold and tote around. And whereas the original model took about 8 seconds to save a photo to a disk, this version averaged a more tolerable 4 seconds.

In addition, Sony has added some nifty new features. These include the ability to make copies of floppies using just the camera--very handy if you want to hand out extra disks on the spot. A new quarter-resolution (320 by 240) option also makes it faster to e-mail photographs. (The camera's full resolution is 640 by 480.) A built-in menu on the MVC-FD71's LCD screen permits you to easily take advantage of useful new options such as these.

My main complaint? The high price tag. List-priced at $799, the Mavica costs more than many high-quality 35mm cameras. And as with most digital cameras, this model fails to deliver image quality that is comparable to the quality produced by a 35mm. Still, if you've decided to go digital and want a good camera that will let you effortlessly copy files to your PC, the MVC-FD71 is hard to beat.

SUMMARY

Sony Digital Mavica MVC-FD71 PRO: Stores pictures right to a floppy disk; faster than original. CON: Smaller than original, but still not svelte; high cost. VALUE: Best attribute is convenient transfer of photos to a PC. $799 Sony 800/222-7669 www.sony.com/image