Digital Cameras - Sony Mavica MVC-CD1000 "First Look" Camera Review

Conclusions
We said at the outset that we considered the CD-R Mavica to be "arguably the most significant digicam announcement of the last 12 months", and we stand behind that conclusion. The original floppy-based Mavicas dominated the US digicam market for the past two years, despite the high JPEG compression that the floppy format mandated. The advent of CD-R technology in the Mavica line means that all need for such compromise has been removed. Sony has proven themselves capable of creating digicams with no-excuses image quality (witness the recent CyberShots, the DSC-F505V and the DSC-S70), and the CD1000 is a fair existence proof that there's no need for Mavicas to take a back seat to anybody in the image-quality arena anymore. While the current price differential for the CD-R technology is a hefty $300 US (the MVC-CD1000 is slated to sell for a US list price of $1299 in early August, 2000), this premium will doubtless come down as the technology matures and production ramps up. It's transparently obvious that the CD1000 is only the first of a full spectrum of CD-based products from Sony, that we expect will ultimately span the performance/resolution spectrum. (Can a 3 megapixel unit be far around the corner? It'll likely require a different camera body (or a slightly trimmed 2.6 million effective pixel spec, as in the F505V), but we're completely certain one is under development and nearing prototype stage even as we write.

Certainly, the new CD-R Mavicas won't be for everyone: Even a three inch CD still imposes a size requirement on the camera body that precludes the pocket-sized portability so in demand by many digicam users today. Likewise, the CD-R based Mavicas will be even more of a premium-priced product line than current floppy-based models are, restricting them to the upper end of the price curve, and keeping them out of the hands many potential users for some time to come. Looking back at the extraordinary popularity of the original FD91 Mavica though, (which sold for the princely sum of $999 for an 800K pixel camera at a time when two megapixel models using conventional media were already shipping), it seems safe to predict that the MVC-CD1000 will be a runaway best seller, and once again reshape the digicam landscape.