The Sony Mavica CD500 is a digital camera that records images with mini CDs. The 5 megapixel camera is equipped with features such as 3x zoom, creative exposure modes and a color LCD monitor. The CD500 has a generally good reputation, however, there are a few common problems with the discontinued camera.
Exaggerated Contrast
According to Imaging Resource, the Mavica CD500 tends to add an inflammatory amount of contrast to its images while in auto mode. A "reduce contrast" setting in the camera is said to minimize this problem.
Obsolete Media
The Mavica CD500 records media on mini CDs, a memory format that is becoming more difficult to work with. CD recording does not mix well with movement, which makes moving around with the Mavica CD500 risky. The mini CDs are becoming harder to find and only select computers' CD-ROM drives will read the format. According to Steve's Digicams, the CD500 take up to 10 seconds to record one image onto the mini CD. The 156 megabyte discs also must be "finalized" before they are able to be read on the computer; a process that eats up 15 megabytes of memory.
TiFF Problems
The Mavica CD500 is designed to convert images to TIFF files; however, the camera is known to lock up during this process. Converted TIFF images also present inconveniences for CD500 users because the mini CDs only have the capacity to hold eight of them.
No Viewfinder
The CD500 has no optical viewfinder, so image composition is only viewable on the 2.5 inch LCD screen, making it difficult to decipher smaller details.
Tags: Mavica CD500, Sony Mavica