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Sony MVC-FD92 Sony adds a Memory Stick slot to a popular 1.3/1.6 megapixel (interpolated) design, for increased storage and improved image quality! Select a topic Reference: Datasheet MVC-FD92 Sample Images --------------------------------- 1. Intro and Highlights 2. Executive Overview 3. Design 4. Viewfinder 5. Optics 6. Exposure & Flash 7. Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests 8. Operation & User Interface 9. Camera Modes & Menus 10. Image Storage & Interface 11. Video, Power, Software 12. Test Results & Conclusion --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments on MVC-FD92 Review --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index <<Design :(Previous) | (Next): Optics>> Page 4:Viewfinder Review First Posted: 4/16/2001

Viewfinder
The FD92 provides a 2.5-inch, TFT color LCD monitor for composing images, but no viewfinder. The Display button, just below the LCD monitor, controls the information display, which reports the amount of Memory Stick or floppy diskette space available, the number of captured images (or available recording minutes in Movie mode), image size and quality settings, the remaining battery time, plus other variables such as flash mode, exposure mode, and Macro setting. Like many of the Mavica models, the LCD menu is called up by pressing the up arrow key on the Arrow rocker pad (pressing the down arrow turns off the menu). Once the menu is displayed, the user can scroll through each submenu and its contents using the arrow keys.

The LCD features a backlight, which can be turned on or off by a sliding switch on the top left side of the back panel. Normally, you'll leave this on all the time, as the LCD display would be very difficult to see without it. Like some other Sony digicams though, the MVC-FD92 also incorporates a "sunlight assist" window above the LCD screen. This window lets in outside light to help illuminate the back of the LCD, increasing its brightness in sunny conditions. In fact, it works well enough that you may be able to turn off the power-draining backlight entirely if the sun's directly overhead, hence the on/off switch for the backlight. There's also an LCD Bright adjustment in the Record menu, which changes the contrast of the display to lighten and darken the image.

In Playback mode, the LCD monitor offers a six-image index display mode and a playback zoom that enlarges captured images as much as 5x. Once a captured image is enlarged, the arrow keys of the Arrow rocker pad can be used to scroll around the image, allowing you to check fine details. The image information display in Playback mode reports the date and time the image was captured, the file name, image resolution, number of images saved on the memory card or floppy disk, and the amount of storage space remaining.

In our tests, the MVC-FD92's LCD monitor showed approximately 91.78 percent accuracy at both wide-angle and telephoto settings. Since we generally like to see LCD monitors as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible, the MVC-FD92 was a bit tight, but performed reasonably well in this respect.