Sony MVC-FD95Sony takes the Mavica line to 2.1 megapixels, and 12-bit digitization!<<Viewfinder :(Previous) | (Next): Exposure & Flash>> Page 5:OpticsReview First Posted: 7/13/2000 |
Optics
The MVC-FD95 is equipped with a 10x, 6 to 60 mm lens (equivalent to
a 39 to 390mm lens on a 35mm camera). The FD95 also boasts the surprisingly
effective "Steady Shot" anti-vibration system, which increases your chances
of being able to hand-hold 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 400 mm lens, you should use a shutter speed
of at least 1/400 of a second.) As we discovered with the FD91, the Steady Shot
system 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 the
FD95's Steady Shot system is significantly improved over that of the earlier
FD91: It really does provide an amazing reduction in the amount of camera shake
that makes it through to the CCD!
With a maximum aperture of f/2.8, the FD95'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 allows 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 center portion
of the image and thereby decreasing the image quality (which shows up as higher
noise levels or softer 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). The MVC-FD95 does an excellent job in the macro
category, capturing a minimum area of 1.42 x 1.06 inches (35.96 x 26.97mm) at
its closest setting (there appears to be a "sweet spot," where the lens lets
you zoom in just a little in Macro mode).
Focus can be manually or automatically controlled, simply by sliding the Focus
switch on the same side of the camera (next to the Macro button). Once in manual
focus, 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.
In the time between our first testing of the FD95 and writing this review, we've
heard from a number of early purchasers of the camera. A complaint many have
voiced is the cameras tendency to "freeze" the viewfinder display whenever the
shutter button is pressed, or when the manual focus bezel is moved. This is
in fact a significant issue when shooting action subjects, as a lot can happen
while the display is either frozen or transitioning between modes. Without special
handling, this makes the camera of decidedly less value in shooting sports action
and other fast-changing subjects. We did find a bit 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. In 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 the
manual focus adjustment. Likewise, why must the display freeze when you
push the shutter button? - It sure would be nice if it could stay "live"...
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 focal distances for fast shooting situations. Landscape
sets focus at infinity for far away subjects and Panfocus allows you to change
focus quickly from close-up to far away subjects. 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.
In our testing, we found optical distortion a little high at the wide angle
end of the lens range, as we measured about 0.9 percent barrel distortion. However,
we found virtually no pincushion distortion at the telephoto end (at least none
that we could effectively measure). Chromatic aberration was moderate, showing
about two pixels of coloration on each side of the black resolution target corner
elements. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around
the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target). There
is also some lens flare in the corners of the image in telephoto mode. Overall,
a very good performance for a lens with such a wide zoom ratio.
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