Sony MVC-FD97Sony adds a Memory Stick and USB to the FD95 - No more file-compression blues!<<Viewfinder :(Previous) | (Next): Exposure & Flash>> Page 5:OpticsReview First Posted: 2/9/2001 |
OpticsThe MVC-FD97 features a 10x, 6 to 60mm lens (equivalent to a 39 to 390mm lens on a 35mm camera). The FD97 also boasts the surprisingly effective "Steady Shot" anti-vibration system, which increases your chances of being able to handhold exposures with such a long telephoto. (The rule of thumb in the film camera world has always been that you should use a shutter speed of one divided by the focal length of your lens in millimeters, to avoid blur from camera shake. Thus, for a 400mm lens, you should normally use a shutter speed of at least 1/400 of a second to avoid motion blur in your photos.) As we found with the earlier FD91 and FD95, the Steady Shot system really does an excellent job of steadying the image in the viewfinder when working at the maximum telephoto setting. While we don't have any objective way to measure how effective the Steady Shot system is, our distinct impression was that it provides an amazing reduction in the amount of camera shake that makes it through to the CCD. (Our rough estimate is that it relaxes the shutter speed rule of thumb by at least a factor of four, meaning that 1/100 of a second is a fast enough shutter speed to capture sharp images with the FD97's zoom at maximum telephoto.)
With a maximum aperture of f/2.8, the FD97's lens is quite "fast," great for sports and other action shots (the larger aperture letting in more light, and permitting a shorter shutter speed), as well as providing an option for isolating your subjects with shallower depth of field. The lens has 52mm filter threads, which allow you to attach specialty filters and auxiliary lenses. The 2x digital telephoto can be turned on and off through the record menu, and effectively extends the camera's zoom range to 20x. However, quality is always an issue with digital telephoto, as the camera is simply enlarging the central portion of the image and thereby decreasing the image quality (resulting in higher noise levels and lower resolution). Focus ranges from 9.8 inches (25 cm) to infinity in normal mode and from 0.8 to 9.8 inches (2.0 to 25 cm) in macro mode. Macro mode is controlled by the Macro button on the left side of the camera (when looking at the back).
Focus control offers manual or automatic options, accessed by sliding the Focus switch, also on the same side of the camera (next to the Macro button). Once in manual focus mode, you control focus by turning the ridged focus ring at the end of the lens. When you do so, the LCD viewfinder immediately switches to a 2x enlarged view, which helps you determine whether you've achieved proper focus or not. When in autofocus mode, the camera continuously sets the focus. The camera lets you know when images are in focus and when the exposure is locked through indicators on the display. When the green circle is solid, the camera is ready to snap the picture.
One of the quirks of the FD95 that we also observed in the FD97 is that the camera momentarily "freezes" the viewfinder display whenever the shutter button is halfway pressed, or when the manual focus bezel is initially turned. This is a significant issue when shooting action subjects, as a lot can happen in the few tenths of a second while the display is either frozen or transitioning between modes. Without special handling, this makes the camera decidedly less valuable in shooting sports action and other fast-changing subjects. There is somewhat of a workaround to this problem though: It turns out if you just hold the shutter button half-pressed in manual focus mode, the display will revert to normal size, yet you can continue to operate the focus ring manually to follow the action. The on-screen distance display continues to show the distance in real-time, which can help you get the right focus in spite of the smaller screen display. This is still a trifle inconvenient (you have to keep your finger gently pressing the shutter button), but it does seem workable. Similarly, if you're shooting in autofocus mode, you can half-press and hold the shutter button prior to the action you want to capture, then fire the shutter when the moment arrives. Focus and exposure are locked at the moment the shutter button is initially depressed, but the response time is much faster when you actually take the picture. As a note to the Sony engineers, it'd be nice to have a setup menu option to disable the jump to 2x size when you twiddle with the manual focus adjustment. Likewise, why must the display freeze when you push the shutter button? Perhaps not a fatal flaw, but one we'd very much like to see corrected.
The camera's Aperture Priority mode allows you to manually select the lens aperture from f/2.8 to f/11 in 1/2-stop increments, while the camera selects the appropriate corresponding shutter speed. Two quick focus modes, Landscape and Panfocus, allow you to preset specific focusing distances for fast shooting situations. Landscape sets focus at infinity for far away subjects, while Panfocus apparently sets the lens to a smaller aperture and the focal distance to the lens' "hyperfocal" distance, where everything beyond a given distance is in focus. (The Sony manuals haven't been too clear on exactly what "Panfocus" does: This is the best interpretation we've been able to come up with.) We can see how these modes would be helpful at kids' soccer games and other sporting events, when the fast paced action doesn't give you much time to fool with focus.
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