I looked at your sheets re: above camera and don't quite understand a lot of the technical talk. 1. Is a regular CD that you can buy at Office Depot used? 2. Can I pop that CD into a computer that doesn't have the Sony software and play it? I can do this with a floppy disk. 3. I think I understand that the CD is not editable, reuable, etc. and you just have to use a new one each time .... that the old one cannot be reused like a floppy disk.. Am I right on this?

I am eagar to see that new camera, but am worried at this time as I do not understand all that is can/cannot do.

Whatever help you can offer will be most appreciated. And please, keep the explanations simple ..... not techincal. My head just doesn't understand technical jargon.

Thanks very much.

Al Frank

-- Al Frank (kudostours@aol.com), July 20, 2000

Answers

My understanding(and I emphasise my understanding)of the camera is this.

1. This camera uses 3" (77MM also called mini-disks) CDs instead of 5" CDs. I'm not sure is Office Depot or places like that carry these but I have done some research and they are available online for about $2 per disk.

2. My understanding is that you are correct in stating that the CDs are permanent and that they are not able to be written on twice. You might consider; however, that these disks hold 156 MB vs 1.44 for a floppy. Also the CDs are a better medium for long term storage.

3. I don't think you will need any special software. It is my understanding that you will be able to access the pictures via Internet Explorer or some other browser just as you can with the floppies.

Hope this helps.

-- Rob Burch (robert.burch@cinergy.com), July 20, 2000.

Al, et al:
Regarding Rob's answer to number 2 above: Indeed the 77mm CD's are not rewritable CD's, however you can continue to add new material to the CD's until they are full - whether that takes a minute, or you fill it up over a year. You may even remove the CD as often as you like from the camera - and put it back in when you are ready to take more pictures. While doing this the CD is not readable in most standard CD drives in computers. You must first finalize the CD before it is readable on all regular CD drives. Indeed, once finalized, the 77mm CD is readable in almost any CD drive sold with computers for the past 5 years. If you look close at the CD holder in your drive you will see a small concentric circle - about 77mm in the middle of the drawer. This is the spot for these mini-CDs. These are anecdotally referred to as the coffee holder.
If you have a CD-RW drive on your PC you will be able to read both finalized and unfinalized 77mm CDs from the Mavica CD1000. This is very cool - as you would then have an opportunity to delete unwanted pictures. While this doesn't salvage the space - it supports the concept that

"The difference between a good and bad photographer is... - a good photographer doesn't show his bad pictures!"

Des

-- Dan Desjardins (dan.desjardins@avstarnews.com), July 20, 2000.

There's one VERY obvious trick they missed... It should have been a dual media camera. If they'd have given the user the option of using a smartmedia, compactflash, memory stick, or just an internal 16 or 32MB memory, it would have been so easy to take shots, discard the "Oopsies" and then write the rest to permanent storage on the mini-CDs. Now THAT would have been killer!!! It would've also meant MUCH faster shot to shot times, and bursts... Okay, maybe those oopsies only cost 2 cents each... But do you want to be faced with your mistakes for the lifetime of a CDR disk? And wouldn't it be nice to just select the images you liked to burn a ROM you could give others? ;-) With the USB connection and a bit of software, it should even be possible to write images from your hard disk back to the camera and burn CD's! Now that would be worth a few bucks!

What I'd really like to see is the long zoom, etc. of the Mavica line coupled with a smaller camera design -like their V505! Then offer that cd writer as a clip on option and let users choose whether to drag it along or not. If small enough, it'd be easy to carry, but wouldn't add to the weight of the basic unit except when needed. Of course, I suppose the new 6GB digital wallet just reviewed kind of provides similar utility for ANY digital camera...

Sorry for being a bit off topic.

About your inability to "grok the technospeak": No one is born understanding any form of language, so far as we know. In order to understand the technical stuff you just have to do enough reading to develop a background and a new vocabulary. I'll bet that anyone who sat down and read through most of the reviews on the Imaging Resource and checked topics of interest by using the search function in this forum would quickly come up to speed -probably within a couple days or weeks.

Good luck! (and happy snapping to all)

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@surferz.net), July 20, 2000.

Please keep in mind that pictures can be deleted from the CD, so the mistakes can be erased. However, space on the CD cannot be regained since it's not rewritable.

The CDs are available on the Internet and Neato and Stomper are producing labels for the too.

-- Tobias Ostlund (cup2001@hotmail.com), July 21, 2000.