Slight dilemma. I like the Mavica FD91/95, but I am impressed with the versatility of the CP950. I have heard nothing but praise from owners of the FD91 and believe that the 95 will carry on the legacy. It has the Li-ion smart battery, and a thru the lense type view finder as well as a kick asp LCD. And then of coarse there is the image-stablization.

Then there is the CP950. Award winning image quality, support for various photographic hardware, and many professional features. On the other hand, rechargable batteries willbe needed, and a USB card reader.

So, which camera is it. I am now leaning towards the 950, because it can be had for Half of the current selling price of the FD95 not including the batteries, charger, and cardreader.

-- David Erskine (davide@netquest.com), April 19, 2000

Answers

Sorry I don't have an answer, but I would be very interested to be copied on any replies you get. I can't find any "real" info about the FD95 as I understand it has not but released yet, but it sounds pretty damn good! An effect 500mm zoom leans all in one camera ..... pity the CCD is only 2.1 megapixels. Sony seem to have a really myopic marketing plan. The DSC D770 which is almost the perfect camera IMHO ... all in one, reasonable zoom but pathetic 1.5 megapixel CCD.

The Sony 505 ..... great camera but with now optical viewfinder. What's with this company????

-- John McMillan (mcmillan@hcm.vnn.vn), April 21, 2000.

Personally, I don't see what is wrong with a 1.5 megapixel camera. 3&4 megapixel cams still can't get the quality of 35mm. Unless you plan to print 11x14 pictures, I don't see a need for 2 megapixel or higher. Remember, the fd95 gets that equivalent 500mm with digital zoom, which is not a true zoom, as it crops the image to the center to get that zoom affect. Here is my view on the F505. You take a superb Carl Zeis lens and a large accurate LCD and get a great camera. Most cameras use a crappy LCD with an inaccurate viewfinder. Which is why I am not big on the Coolpix 950.

-- David Erskine (davide@netquest.com), April 22, 2000.

The FD95 zoom range is 40-400mm optical with digital zoom to 800mm. It would be my choice, as I shoot mostly sports and wildlife (if I do not get the D1). The image-stablization and TTL viewfinder are worth a lot. If the lower res of the FD91 is good enough, prices will fall when the FD95 is available. It has 37-518mm optical zoom range. I assume you have read the review on this site. If you expect to shoot mostly close subjects, the 950 is a good choice for less money.

-- Dan Morris (dmorris@aol.com), April 29, 2000.

Comment/Question: I got an FD-91 from local retailer (Fry's in So. Cal) for $750 and tried it for a few weeks to compare w/ my FD-7. I LOVED the features! The zoom, the spot metering, white balance, movies and viewfinder. I saw no improvement in pix quality over my FD-7 when reduced to same size. Still see mottling of colors (I assume that's the JPEG working) and unclear edges. It wasnt worth the $ and I hated to give it back, but did. So, has anyone seen pix from the FD-95 and is it better than the 91 in basic pix quality?

-- Phil Wells (pwells@znet.com), May 10, 2000.