Conclusion - Pros
- Good, comfortable ergonimics
- Fast, responsive operating system
- Manual everything controls: Aperture priority, Shutter
priority, Manual white balance, Manual focus
- Fast (if sometimes a little inaccurate) auto-focus
- Short startup / shutter lag / cycle times
- Hold-last-image after taking a shot by holding the shutter release
down
- Average-to-good LCD and with a fairly good flip-out
range
- Excellent InfoLithium battery and battery life
- Convenience of floppy disks (good in a social environment,
cheap otherwise)
- Steady shot image stabilization (very useful at
14 x...)
- Amazing 14 x zoom
Conclusion - Cons
The Final Word
This camera always generates
a lot of interest because of it's similarities with traditional
SLR cameras, the flexilibity of it's controls promise such a good
camera, but it is I'm afraid to say let down by a poor optical
and CCD system. I can imagine this camera being so much to so
many people, and if you only take photographs in bright daylight
or love to take real close ups of nature or sports events then
this camera may be for you.
I suspect that if Sony had instead
put a high quality (but less adventurous zoom) lens system and
a more up-to-date CCD in this camera they would have
been onto a true winner in every sense, unfortunately the FD-91
is not that camera (roll on DSC-D700).
At the end of the day, make up
your own mind, which side of the trade off between functionality
/ features and image quality do you stand?
UPDATE: As pointed
out to me by several FD-91 owners the FD-91 is not suitable for
low light photography and is NOT designed for that purpose.
|