Sony has solved the floppy capacity problem with its newest Mavica--the MVC-CD1000--by using a much more forgiving storage medium: CD-R. To keep the camera's size as reasonable as possible, the CD1000 uses miniature 3-inch CD-R discs that offer 156 MB of image storage--enough space to store 160 2-megapixel images at maximum quality--as well as what is effectively instant image archiving. Additionally, the smaller CD-Rs are readable in almost every CD-ROM drive (including the slot-loading iMacs), and for those few drives that can't handle the smaller CD, the MVC-CD1000 comes with a snap-on adapter.

A high-powered storage medium is worthless without the optics to back it up, and the MVC-CD1000 comes with most of the same high-quality components used in Sony's other high-end Mavica cameras, including an f2.8 to f11 10x optical zoom lens with SteadyShot optical image stabilization. New for the Mavica line is the ability to save images as uncompressed TIFFs for maximum image quality (and huge file sizes). The MVC-CD1000 uses a less harsh compression ratio of 6:1 for its high-quality JPEGs. The camera's numerous shooting modes include: aperture priority, shutter priority, twilight, twilight plus, landscape, and panfocus. Additionally, the MVC-CD1000 can also be set for fully automatic operation. Focus is auto or manual. White balance can be set on automatic, indoor, outdoor, or one-push, which allows you to have the camera set the white balance situationally. A macro mode rounds out the package.

A quick note about the zoom lens: it has a 10x optical zoom, plus a 2x digital zoom, for a 20x total zoom. Every other digital camera manufacturer calls this "10x optical and 2x digital zoom," but Sony chooses to describe this lens as "10x optical, 20x digital."

The MVC-CD1000 uses a 2.5-inch LCD monitor on the back, and the optical viewfinder also uses an LCD to provide a through-the-lens type view, similar to what you'd get with an SLR. In another first for the Mavica line, the MVC-CD1000 includes a USB port as an alternate method to download images. Power is provided by a Sony InfoLITHIUM battery, and a readout on the monitor estimates how many minutes of energy are left in the battery, a big plus. The MVC-CD1000 also comes with an AC adapter, which plugs in to the camera and recharges the battery when the camera's not in use. The software included is Sony's Picture Gear Lite and MGI's PhotoSuite and VideoWave.