Like other members of the Sony Mavica FD line,
the MVC-FD87's distinguishing feature is its on-board floppy drive, which it
uses to store images. Most computers still come with floppy drives, so you
don't need a driver to transfer images to your hard drive. Those images look
pretty good, too: We got accurate exposure values and adequate flash coverage,
and colors looked attractive. JPEG artifacts and some fuzziness came through at
larger print sizes, but on-screen image and lower print sizes showed lots of
detail. The MVC-FD87's images put those of its less-expensive sibling, the
MVC-FD75, to shame.
The camera's controls are laid out logically, with lesser-used
functions placed in on-screen menus and the more important ones on buttons on
the camera. You can delete just-taken images with a simple shortcut while in
shooting mode. The LCD viewfinder is bright and easy to view indoors and out,
but you can also turn off the backlight while in sunlight to save the battery;
sunlight entering a clear-plastic opening above the LCD panel provides
backlighting, and it's almost as bright as the camera's built-in light. It's an
especially useful feature when the battery's wearing down.
This
particular Mavica highlights the floppy drive's limitations. Though good for
cheap storage, it holds only six photos at the camera's best resolution. If you
decide to clear off a couple to make room for more, the camera accesses and
deletes images slowly, and transferring them to a computer, while easy, also
takes more time than with most digital cameras, despite our largest image
coming in at only 220KB. Because the camera doesn't capture much image data, it
doesn't do well at enlargements.
Though the MVC-FD87's 3X optical zoom lens is much shorter than
the less-expensive Sony MVC-FD75's 10X version, this camera weighs even more,
at 21.3 ounces, and it's a bit thicker, too. We've tested digital video
camcorders that are smaller and lighter. The zoom operates relatively smoothly,
but Sony combines optical and digital zooms, and it's difficult to stop short
of the full digital zoom (an additional 3X).
In our lab tests, we got nearly 2 hours of
normal use, or 161 shots, out of the single rechargeable lithium battery, about
average compared with other digicams. The MVC-FD87 is somewhat more
sophisticated than the $399 MVC-FD75; it offers settings to change sharpness,
white balance, flash strength, and exposure compensation.
The menus are easy to navigate, although you must use a wobbly
wheel on the back of the camera. Hit the down button a couple of times and the
menus disappear, giving you the entire 2.7-inch LCD to frame your shot. To
focus manually, you must select from six preset focus lengths (one of which is
a macro setting) via a button on the back of the camera.
The MVC-FD87 would be useful for business
professionals who take pictures that they want to give away--for example, real
estate brokers who want to give clients a lasting image of a property they just
viewed. However, you can get a smaller camera with greater resolution for the
same money.
