The camera is convenient with the ability to store photos directly to floppy disk, and this is quite fun for a time, until you realize that:

the camera is bulky and heavy and not only do youhave to carry the camera around, but also a number of floppy disks, extra battery and any accessories.

The resolution is awful. You end up with grainy, blurry photos.

Printing a photo is just not an option. The quality is too awful. You need more MP for that.

The camera has a very long delay. You will hold your finger down for five to ten seconds to take the picture. By the time the camera takes the picture, most likely whatever you were trying to capture is gone, and if it is a posed person then you end up with a fake looking uncomfortable pose.

The colors turn out shadowy and they highlight all the bad things. If your model has dark circles under the eyes, they now look like tires.

There are simply too many faults to this camera. It may be suitable for very casual use, like snapshots of the family petsor a vacation but if you want GOOD pictures, this is not the camera.

Given camera as a gift, and as a novice is incredibly easy to use. However...I quickly discovered (after spending nearly $100 on prints) that obtaining quality 4x6 prints is not an option. In order to get decent resolution I am limited to wallet sized pictures. Bottom line??? If you prefer to thumb through a photo album years later, strongly consider a different camera with higher mega pixels.

If you are looking for easy storage of pictures without the hassle of uploading them to your PC, this is the camera for you. It is big and bulky. Pictures are terrific, cam is easy to use.

Best: Easy to use.
Worst: Big & Bulky.

I have had the FD 73 for three years now. When it was brand new, my wife got hit by a wave at the tip of Cabo San Lucas with the camera around her neck. The camera was in a case but the wave was so strong, water and sand actually got in the camera. We dried it out and it didn't affect camera function at all. That was a huge relief because three years ago this camera sold for $500. I use it at work a lot to take pictures at office functions. Everyone is amazed I can pop the disc in any computer and email or print the pictures instantly. I have used it on vacations outside the US in Internet Cafe's to email pictures home. It's best features are it's so easy to use and you can view the pictures on any computer anywhere in the world simply by inserting the floppy disc. The only problem I have had with the camera is getting consistent picture quality in very light or very dark settings. That may be operator error but after three years it still happens. I have looked at upgrading to a MVC with more megapixels but I have learned for each feature you add you lose some of the simplicity of the FD73.

This camera was a gift to me by my parents before I set off to study abroad in Japan three years ago. It was given to me with the promise that I would email photos back home on a frequent basis. Since then I have spent two years in Japan and have taken over 12,000 photos with the Mavica. It is extremely durable -- I have dropped it at least a half-dozen times from a standing height, and has been exposed to mist and humidity countless times -- and it still functions perfectly to this day. The function of the floppy disk easily makes it the most convenient camera for email and quick uploading. Though because of the size it is to accommodate the floppy disk, the camera is a little on the bulky size. And the zoom is incredible! The 10x optical zoom is still the function that has most impressed people who have seen the photos I have taken. Yes, the camera has poor picture resolution compared to most cameras on the market, and it has been the one function that has frustrated me when I wish to take detailed photos, but the camera has served me well; a great rough and tumble digital camera. Ultra convenient and superb in LCD viewing with quality and speed (most cameras have a jerky reaction to movement when viewing, not this camera), this is a perfect camera for a person new to digital cameras or needs one for quick and snappy photography. I would have rated it 5 stars, but with the plethora of cameras out there today, this camera's glory days are over.

I have used this camera since the late 1990s for mostly professional purposes. I write and edit a newsletter for a state agency and am often asked to take photos at award programs and/or to accompany job announcements, often with almost no prior notice.

Of all the cameras I looked at in the 1990s, this was the one that best suited my needs. The reasons for that follow:

1. Shooting photos on a diskette was easier than engaging software and changing documentation from the camera to a file on my PC.

2. The 10X zoom is very accurate and allowed me to do adequate work even when I could not get close to my subject.

3. The camera is flat out easy to use and has a large viewfinder, a large left hand grip, and big button to press when shooting pictures.

Before I bought this camera, I worked for three decades for newspapers and in communications offices of governmental and nonprofit agencies doing the same kind of work I do now. In all those years I never used a camera that was as easy to use as this one, nor did I use one where transmitting the product from the equipment to e-file was easier.

Having said that, this is a low resolution camera that will not always give good results. It is adequate for head shots and has always come through for me in events.

But I've taken photos of my cats at home where their eyes look more like diamonds than eyes, and I took some pictures of the Christmas tree where the lights looked more like the stars or snowflakes than lights on a tree.

So don't buy this to create award-winning photography. For all the same reasons, it doesn't produce very good hardcopy photos.

But this is a great camera for someone that needs to take pictures right now and get an adequate product online fast. That's my mission at work and this camera has always helped me achieve it.

In addition, the battery charger works fast and I've never had to pay a dime to get anything fixed in more than a half-decade of use. I don't know how this stacks up in the camera industry but it's a lot better than most of the electronic equipment I use in the office or at home.

It isn't the newest model, and it is a little bulky, but as far as the images, especially close-up, it's a nice camera. I have been trying to find something "newer" and lighter, which can do similar pictures up close, and have had no luck.

This camera worked only for a short time. The battery would never hold a charge. Went in the trash.