I'm looking to purchase a digital camera in the 400.00 to 700.00 range..I'ts a first time user. I like the concept of the floppy disc usage as opposed to the smaller media cards. Can u suggest a camera for me to buy.

-- Dora De Michael (cpa2day@aol.com), February 28, 1999

Answers

The Sony Mavica family is the only game in town as far as having a built-in floppy disk drive. The Mavica MVC-FD51 meets your low-end price requirement, while the FD71 (with 10x zoom lens) meets the upper end of your price range. You also may want to look into cameras using "SmartMedia" cards, that can be inserted into your computer's floppy drive via an adapter.

-- Mike Henderson (mhenderson@matric.com), March 01, 1999.

Sony is the only one using standard 3.5" floppy disk (FD). I do recommend to wait a month or two for the price drop on Sony FD81. It is an excellent product with high resolution images and very nice rechargable battery. Currently FD81 is priced at $799, it will soon drop in the price range you stated. Sony will have the new DSC-D700 camera on the market very soon, and that means price drop on existing models. I have Sony FD81 & FD91 and I do recommend FD81 unless you need the 14X zoom then FD91 is your choice. I do not recommend the FD51 or FD71 since you will loose some picture quality.

-- Fred (tabarrok@ariver.com), March 02, 1999.