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Subject: 
The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.publish
Date: 
Tue, 2 Feb 1999 19:13:21 GMT
Viewed: 
1327 times
  
Todd Lehman writes:
[followups set to lugnet.publish]
In article lugnet.general, fredrik.glockner@bio.uio.no (Fredrik Glöckner)
writes:
I'm thinking of getting a digital camera myself, could you elaborate
slightly on the usefullness of the Mavica for taking pictures of LEGO
MOC's?

It's totally awesome (it almost doesn't let you take a bad picture!).

Absolutely!  We use ours for everything!  My wife has a tendency to take 40
gazillion pics of things (slight exageration, but not much), and she uses the
Mavica  to take 4 or 5 quick shots, picking angle/lighting/etc before taking
any shots with the 34mm - saves us a bundle on photo processing.

Lego shots turn out really well on it. - compare a Mavica shot

http://www.shades-of-night.com/lego/water.jpg

to a scanned photo

htp://www.shades-of-night.com/lego/baron1.jpg

No comparison!  Both of these shots were just "quick-snaps" without bothering
to play with lighting or anything.

I think most digital cameras today have this property because of the
instantaneous feedback on the LCD screen which lets you get the composition
right...  But we homed in on Sony's Mavica FD-7 for a lot of other reasons
as well, like the 10x zoom and the floopy disk drive and high consumer
satisfaction ratings and an almost Palm-Pilot-like fan following.

We just upgraded to the FD-81 last weekend and it is fantastic!  It only has a
3x zoom, but we've got an external zoom anyway.  What it does give is up to
1024x728 resolution on your jpgs, with a great option to take a hi-res .bmp
instead of .jpg!  - not sure how many of those it will fit on a disk, though.
Also, the BIG feature this time around is movies!  It'll take up to a minute of
movie at low res (160x120, I think), and 15 seconds at hi-res!

Also several other features which Sony can relate much more coherently than I
can.  Here's the URL if you're interested:
http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/consumer/mavica/0301_fd81.html

The only bad part is my wife won't let me play with it yet ;-)

(That was last May, BTW; things may have totally changed by now.)

Some of the other DC manufacturers are starting to pick up on the floppy
disk thing now, but Sony is still way ahead of the game.

Is the macro mode useful?

Extremely.  Couldn't live without it!  Can't do LEGO photos without it
either.

I agree.  Here is an example of a close zoom I took with our FD71

http://shades-of-night.com/lego/bomb.jpg

Do you use the flash?

Never have yet.  The light sensitivity of its CCD is amazing.  I don't think
we've even needed anything but ambient light on a sunny day, although I'll
bet that real (professional) lighting would still improve the picture
quality somewhat.

Don't use the flash much either, but our 81 apparantly has a "smart" flash that
can adjust its level depending on how high the ambient light is - of course, I
haven't had a chance to play with it yet, so no idea how well it works.


How many images go on one floppy disk?

About 20 high-quality-mode pictures -- 640x480 on the old FD-7.  I think the
new Mavica can do 1024x768, but I'm not positive about that.

yup! :)

James



Message has 3 Replies:
  Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool)
 
(...) uh, make that second one: (URL) grin> (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
  Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool)
 
James Brown wrote in message ... (...) has a (...) though. (...) minute of (...) 1024x768 at 24 bits is over 2.3MB, so none will fit on a floppy. If they use 8 bits or 16 bits, you could fit either one or (you guessed it) none respectively. 800x600 (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
  Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool)
 
(...) I'd be interested in hearing more about the FD-81 and your opinion of it. I've never quite liked the Mavicas, mainly because they've pretty much always been a year or so behind the curve in resolution, although the convenience of the floppy (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: ThrowBots elements are cool
 
[followups set to lugnet.publish] (...) It's totally awesome (it almost doesn't let you take a bad picture!). I think most digital cameras today have this property because of the instantaneous feedback on the LCD screen which lets you get the (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general, lugnet.publish)

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