Sony Mavica CD400: Cooler than the other side of the pillow

OK, so I haven't been behaving myself lately and got my wife pregnant. But she was asking for it. Really. We have been trying to add to our family for a while, and since she is due soon, I thought it was time to upgrade my camera. I purchased the Sony Mavica MVC-CD400 after scouring online websites for information and reviews. Now I feel smarter and wiser than I am, even in dog years.

The main selling points that made me purchase the CD400 were very specific and not everyone will want or need what I did, but here's the list:

1) The Sony Mavica CD cameras record the digital pictures you take on blank 3-inch CD-R or CD-RW discs. These are the same type of blank discs that you can record music or files on in a CD-Rewritable drive in your PC, but those discs are 5&3/4 inch discs. The 3-inch discs hold approximately 138 Megabytes of data, which is HUGE in the digital camera world. Also, you can buy a stack of 50 blank CD-R discs for about $25 dollars at any electronics store. Here's the killer: At the HIGHEST resolution (approximately 2200 X 1200) you can store about 66 pictures on each disc. There are 5 different resolutions, and the LOWEST (640 X 480) allows you to store about 1300 pictures on one disc!!!

How do other digital cameras compare? A memory stick of 64 Megabytes (MB) of data sell for $50 and 128MB sticks sell for about $80. If you go out and spend $25 dollars on 3-inch CD-R's you just purchased 6,900MB of storage!!!

Now, for those who take their digital cameras and clean off their memory sticks and dump the digital pics onto a hard drive may not really need CD-R storage media. But I ask this question: What if you are on vacation and you fill up your twin sticks of 128MB storage space and you have no laptop or other means of pulling the pics off the camera and storing them on your computer's hard drive? Do you quit shooting pictures? Or do you purchase another $50 memory stick? I thought so. So would I.

Here's the final killer: If you buy a Sony Mavica CD camera, you can also buy CD-RW discs for storage. These work most like the hard drive on your computer. You can take pics, erase them or transfer them to you hard drive, and then clean off the disc and start over again. Virtually unlimited recording space like the memory sticks other digital cameras use but for a SMALL FRACTION of the price (they retail for about 3 bucks apiece). So, I bought a stack of 50 CD-R's (you record on them permanently) and 5 CD-RWs to hold me for the next 10 years. I plan on using the CD-RWs for everyday use and re-using them as necessary, and then plan on using the CD-R's while traveling.

Most lovely is the fact that you simply pop out the disc from your camera and pop it into your PC to view the pics. You can dock your camera via USB, but why bother? Heck, all those CD-R's you fill up and can't record over still make a nice way to store your pics for the long haul! For 50 cents apiece to boot. Can I get a witness here? Hello, 21st Century calling? Anyone home?

2) One of the biggest factors that will affect the price of a digital camera is how many megapixels it is rated. The more the better. Experts tell us to buy 1 megapixel cameras for sending pics via email and to view on computers. The 2 and 3 megapixel cameras can print out pictures relatively well in 3" X 5" and 4" by 6" prints respectively. The 4 megapixel cameras and up will faithfully reproduce images for printing in the 8" X 10" format. The Sony MVC-CD400 is a 4 megapixel camera. If you are unsure as to what size prints you will want to print, then this camera has you covered. If you know you only want smaller prints and never an 8X10 then stop reading and buy elsewhere and spend the money you saved on a good printer. But here is another KILLER: As of July 2002 both the Sony MVC-CD400 and the MVC-CD300 are on the shelf at the same time. The difference? The CD300 is a step down it is only 3.2 megapixels as compared with the CD400 4 megapixel camera. BUT THEY ARE THE SAME PRICE RIGHT NOW AT $799.99. Good news for those wanting to buy a Mavica CD digital camera, bad news for those that bought the MVC-CD300. Sorry.

3) This camera will also record digital movies in up to 4 minute segments. Other cameras will do the same, but only in 15 second or 30 second blocks. This is 4 minutes, man. But be warned, these are the digital movies that look good in the 2 inch by 2 inch window on your PC playing on Microsoft's Windows Media Player, these images do not have the resolution to be played in full-screen mode on a 19" monitor.

So if you're looking for a digital camera that is fun to use, records in resolutions that makes you feel like you work for the CIA as you use your editing software to zoom in on the poster on the wall to read the fine print (I'm not kidding), or if you just want to take pictures of your newborn baby, film video clips of your baby, etc...this camera does it all. The 4 megapixels gives you the ability to reproduce pictures up to 8 X 10, and the CD storage media is inexpensive, available anywhere, and stores a bunch of pics.

What's not to like?

After being a bit verbose, I'll just try to summarize the dislikes:

1) As you snap a digital pic, it takes about 3 or 4 seconds to write to the disc before the camera is ready to take the next picture. This is partly due to the CD-R format, and partly due to the 4 megapixel resolution quality. A 2 megapixel Mavica CD camera would be faster, for example. This is not your Dad's SLR camera where you snap a roll of film in 12 seconds.

2) This camera is about the size of a SLR camera. It is not a pocket camera and would require carrying around in a bag or by the shoulder trap around your neck if you want to look like the accidental tourist. It is a bit over a pound in weight, for those that weigh their cameras...

3) Battery life is always a concern for most digital camera users, especially if your camera uses Alkaline AA batteries. You might only get 30 pictures per set of batteries. The Sony MVC-CD400 uses an "M" type Lithium battery and it lasts about 2 hours. If fact after shooting 100 pics and a handful of movies I usually have half the battery left. The part I don't like is I bought an extra one. It was $60 bucks. You can buy this nifty proprietary SONY logo leather camera bag and battery combo and save about $15 off the price of each item purchased separately at some stores like Best Buy if you really want to get fancy though. I recommend the latter though. The bag is NICE and the extra battery is peace of mind.

In summary the likes FAR outweigh the dislikes. One of the areas I didn't touch on is that this camera has some manual features that users of SLR camera love to have control over. I tend to be a point and shoot man and do not use them, but for the serious amateur, this is icing on the cake.

If you are looking for a digital camera that can do it all, and do not require something that a professional would use, you might do better and can do much worse. All the accessories and extended warranty set me back about $1000 bucks, but I won't feel the need to replace my digital camera until computers stop recording on blank Compact Discs.