Sony Mavica FD75 digital camera - speed is the key

The Sony Mavica FD75 can only do 640x480 pixel images, which can be an advantage for quick, speedy and easy web work. (other cameras that do not have an option for low resolution mode can result in painful amounts of time for routine resizing images).

The method (while walking to and from work - if you have that option): take lots of wildflower, flora, fauna snaps as opportunity allows. (it helps if your workplace is in a nice woodland or nature friendly area. Many scientific laboratories have this quality.)

For quickly getting images on the web; all you need to do is i) have a webpage template titled index.html; ii) create a new subdirectory; iii) open a DOS window (using the freeware MS DOSHERE power utility which runs within the Windows explorer) and copy over the files from the floppy disk using a DOS command such as copy *.jpg; iv) use a program such as the freeware ChangeCase to change the case of the files to lower case and do the thumb-nailing with your favourite program (Paintshop Pro is very good - though does not have good scripting, batch mode on the version I use); v) copy over the index.html template and quickly edit the index.html file to describe the latest pictures and update it on the website. Done and far easier and timely than if you had tried using other digital cameras with cable connections; custom download programs; resizings, etc..

The main problem of the MVC-FD75: lack of a macro / close-up mode and lack of manual focus.

(Though possible tricks to get around this follow)

If your main aim for purchasing the Sony Mavica FD75 digital camera is to take Fauna and Flora images, the main problem is the lack of a macro / close-up mode and lack of manual focus. The FD75 tries to autofocus and for some styles of wildflower images / photographs, the FD75 focusses on the wrong thing (most likely something in the background) with the inability to intuititvely change this.

The following images and text gives you some hints on how to get around this and to be able to take photographs of wildflowers (or other small freestanding objects) where you trick the Sony Mavica FD75 to focus on the object of interest. Note that there may be better and more reliable ways of doing this but (after various trial and errors to figure out what was going on) the following gets things going for me.

Click here to see my starting set and growing collection of wild flower and wildlife webpages (ignore that starting links and scroll down for the nature stuff): USA 2001 LDEO, Columbia University, Palisades, New York, Flora and Fauna pages. (It helps being part of an ISP web service where you own a few GIG or so of the web-server hard-disk as the images start taking up significant amounts of space pretty quickly).

No problem images of wildflowers using the FD75

Description

• Wildflower in focus - Point and Click: Normally, the Sony Mavica FD 75 is very good at taking photos / images of wildflowers and getting things in focus on the first shot.

Pressing the shutter button too quickly on the FD75

• Dandelion slightly out of focus: If you press down on the Shutter Button too quickly, the image might appear slightly out of focus if it was optimising the auto-focus at the time you fully pressed the Shutter Button (rather than pressing it half way to allow it to optimise the focus - then fully down to take the image / photo of the wildflower).

• Dandelion in focus: Try again with pressing the shutter button half way down, then all the way to obtain the image: which should now be in focus

Minor problem of the FD75 focussing on the background, not the object

• In this image, the FD75 has focussed on the background instead of the wildflower, giving an out of focus image.

• A solution to this is play around with the zoom/unzoom and distance of "camera to object" and see if the FD75 can automatically now lock in on the object of interest. Here it has almost done the job.

• Try again with the zoom/unzoom and distance of "camera to object" to see if you can get a better image if the first try is not 100% acceptable. If it doesn't, you will have to use the "two fingered salute" Sony Mavica FD75 wildflower / macro / close-up focussing method described below.

Major problem of the FD75 focussing on the background, not the object

(Solution: use the "two fingered salute" Sony Mavica FD75 wildflower / macro / close-up focussing method)

• Again, in this image, the FD75 has focussed on the background instead of the wildflower, and there is no trick of zoom/unzoom and camera to object distance that will fix this situation.

• A quick, improvised solution to this is to give the camera a two fingered salute with the target wildflower / object near or within the fingers. Then use the other hand on the FD75 to now zoom and focus on the fingers (which by default also means the wild flower will come into focus). (an alternative to this could be to have an "appropriately patterned" card that is easy for the camera to focus on)

  (be careful not to damage the flower and have this on your conscience - petals on some wildflowers can be very fragile)

• Remove your fingers and the wildflower should still be in focus. Now take your picture of the in-focus wildflower.

Major problem (2nd Example) of the FD75 focussing on the background, not the object

(Again the solution: use the "two fingered salute" Sony Mavica FD75 wildflower / macro / close-up focussing method)

• Again, in this image, the FD75 has focussed on the background instead of the wildflower, and there is no trick of zoom/unzoom and camera to object distance that will fix this situation.

• Again, give the Sony Mavica FD75 camera a two fingered salute with the target wildflower / object near or within the fingers. Then use the other hand on the FD75 to now zoom and focus on the fingers (which by default also means the wild flower will come into focus). (an alternative to this could be to have an "appropriately patterned" card that is easy for the camera to focus on)

  (be careful not to damage the flower and have this on your conscience - petals on some wildflowers can be very fragile)

• Remove your fingers and the wildflower should still be in focus. Now take your image / picture of the in-focus wildflower.

Major problem (3rd Example) of the FD75 focussing on the background, not the object

(Again the solution: use the "two fingered salute" Sony Mavica FD75 wildflower / macro / close-up focussing method)

• Again, in this image, the FD75 has focussed on the background instead of the wildflower, and there is no trick of zoom/unzoom and camera to object distance that will fix this situation.

• Again, give the Sony Mavica FD75 camera a two fingered salute with the target wildflower / object near or within the fingers. Then use the other hand on the FD75 to now zoom and focus on the fingers (which by default also means the wild flower will come into focus). (an alternative to this could be to have an "appropriately patterned" card that is easy for the camera to focus on)

  (be careful not to damage the flower and have this on your conscience - petals on some wildflowers can be very fragile)

• Remove your fingers and the wildflower should still be in focus. Now take your image / picture of the in-focus wildflower. (Though it would result in a more asthetically pleasing image if you remove all of your fleshy fingers from the view of the camera)

Other Sony Mavica Digital Camera weblinks