I have had a Mavica MVC FD95 for over 4 years now. It uses a diskette for storage. The reason I chose it was the built in flash, the universal ability to print, and the Zooming lense for those great Memphis Zoo panda and other animal pics when they are far away from the viewing area. There might be better cameras, but none are as easy to use and take GREAT pictures.

I love the two viewing areas. I look at the view scrren and see how the picture looks. You can sit at a wedding (I actually did this)and look at the screen and decide to keep or erase the picture. The diskettes are easy to keep in a dess coat at the wedding and change. My pictures looked better than the paid professional ones the couple paid big bucks for!!!! Plus, I did a brief video with the camera of the wedding march (with sound).

My buddy is a camera buff and he has a FD 75, and when I pulled my 95 out, well it psyched him out with the look and the size.

Every development studio and computer accepts diskettes, so it is easy to sent to another person. This is helpful to send by mail. You know those internet phonelines will not sent pictures very fast, and many have limits to the mail size to avoid spam. Just drop a diskette in the mail and grandma with her older clunkier hand-me-down computer can see the pics of the grandkids.

Now for the real techie, you can use the memory stick adaptor. I bought mine remanufactured and didnt get the adaptor for memory stick. It is a great add-on, but not essential. I'll stay with the diskettes, because they are cheaper, easy to get and easy to use in any computer.

One suggestion, get an extra battery. there are used ones and clone ones now that are cheaper ($15-$22.00), so it isn't the big investment it used to be of $35. to $55.00. Sony uses the same battery in numerous products. I found the battery gave out too quick (or I used it too much). Plus, when you use the camera, you will be in a place that a recharge is not possible, and the extra battery is a great help.

My only complaint is the switch from still-to-video-to-play pops too easy from one to the other. It has really played havoc with the pictures. BUT I think that is more all thumbs me and not the camera.

Suprisingly, the price of a 95 has held up well in resale. I paid maybe 60.00 more than it is re-selling for now. That is a perk, if you plan to resell after a set time of use.

I have had mine for approximately a year now and have had very excellent performance. I have experiance with many cameras, and digital is definately the way to go. The economics of it outways film cameras tremendously. I can hold over 400 photos on 100 floppy disks costing me only about $22.00 per box of 100 floppys. Try doing that with a film camera. And if you miss a shot or make a bad shot, just delete it, their's no waste. The only negitive aspects to this camera is the autofocus is quite slow for action shots, by the time it focuses and snaps the photo, the object is long gone. I have missed many shots due to this, I recommend planning action shots very carefully. The quality of the photos are very good for a 2.1 MP camera, you can make 8x10 photos with relitively good results. But if your looking for the quality like a 35mm film camera has than this isnt for you. And on occasion, you will find a floppy disk that won't format and won't hold any photos, I just ditch them and use another, the cost is very minimal. Overall this is a very good digital camera.

Super shot camera!!! Large enough to get your hands on and feel like a camera. What's more, it uses 3.5" disks to save your pictures on in low res to superhigh res. You can format the disks in the camera and after you have saved the ones to keep you can write on the disks again. I've taken pics of mountain goats and bighorns with the 10 zoom and have edited them with both corel photo and Adobe photoshop programs and have printed them to film quality 8 x 10's.

I took more than a thousand pictures with it in a month, until I gave it to my uncle. I only remember rechearching a battery every two days. That's how great it is.

I used it outside when it was hot(it was always hot though) and it never malfunctioned. The heat may have damaged a disk or two, from my bulk of 75 pack.

Let's keep things simple:
-The zoom is incredible! Sometimes you see once in a lifetime shots, but they're usually far, far away. With this camera, you'll have that chance! They say that the digital zoom reduces the quality of your pics, but I don't really care and it doesn't affect significantly enough to make it lower than excellent.
-My last review said "more than 40 pics per battery". After filling my 75 disks, it seemed to be 100 if you don't use the LCD screen too often. Why it was 40 for me? I used up a lot of juice when I was showing the pics to people. That's all.
-The weight may be an advantage if you see it differently. I might use a heavier camera for a job so a 2 pound camera is nothing. If I used a lighter camera, it was much easier shaking it and ruining the pic. I took 800 pics in a week. Did I complain? Nope.
-The slow speed can also be a good factor. If you had a slow camera, you would be careful to take any pictures. If you had a really fast one, you would take a whole lot more without being concerned about quality and also you need more memory. It made me a better photograph, simple as that.
-The size is also a good factor. The grip is perfect. You can hold up your arm as a tripod and relax. With a small camera, you'll feel some tension after a while.
-It's not a camera that can be stolen easily. If a robber grabbed it and ran away, it would slow him down and it would tire him out. A small camera, on the other hand, will be snatched and kept in a pocket. Need to say more?
-I had no problem taking pics in a bus, but in a train, things may pop up by bluring anything behind. Be sure that the window is clean since usually it's dirty(the dust or filth is usually black or disgusting).

Well if you asked me why you should buy it, I have to compare it with other models. First the zoom eliminates most of cameras so we have a few left. You must have a stable zoom, one out. Then you must tell me how many pics you have to take in 10 seconds. This one can take around 2.5 so it's nice for trips or anything else. I don't recommend this one if you must take a lot of good pics in a short time, but then you wouldn't need the zoom so it's up to you. I recommend compact flash or smart media so the price total will rise up quickly. The pics are bigger(around 2 to 10 times as much memory of sony mvc-95) so you must buy a lot of 128 mb cards. And finally you may have only one choice or two. Obviously, you'll find digital camera web sites and get full reviews. Forget film, digital is the way to go.

Found the dual capacity to be very useful as the memory cards will hold a whole vacation of shots! Using a plain floopy on max resolution makes it very easy to file and retrive archived phot's for a businees use of this well made and option rich camera. Buy an extra battery and you are set!