Sony Mavica MVC-CD300

Before you can start taking pictures you need to initialize the new CD-R or CD-RW disc. These are the screens displayed during initialization which takes less than a minute.

A typical record mode screen with the shutter release halfway down, the autofocus is locked (green dot icon next to battery time), battery is near full with 108 minutes of runtime left, the flash is set to low power, the ISO is locked at 100, image size is 2048 x 1536 and quality is Fine, approximately enough space on the disc is left for 66 pictures, we're in Macro focus mode, no exposure compensation (0EV), the aperture is F2.5 with a shutter speed of 1/50 second and the cross in the center indicates that the spot metering option is enabled.

Setting the Mode Dial to the "A"perture priority position lets you adjust the aperture value (wideangle: F2, 2.2, 2.5, 2.8, 3.2, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.6, 6.3, 7.1, 8) and the camera's exposure system will match the appropriate shutter speed.

The aperture controls the depth of field (range of focus), a smaller number yields a shallow depth of field and a higher number gives you a deeper depth of field. Shallow depth of field is prefered in portraits to blur out the background and when you shoot an outdoor scenic shot you would use F8 to put everything in focus.

Setting the Mode Dial to the "S"hutter speed priority positions lets you set a given shutter speed (8 seconds to 1/800 sec in 39 steps) and the camera will match the appropriate aperture value. You would use a high shutter speed to freeze rapid-moving subjects or use a slower shutter speed to intentionally blur them.

Setting the Mode Dial to "M"anual allows you to adjust both the shutter speed and the aperture value. You press in on the jog dial and move it to the shutter speed or the aperture value and press it again and then change the setting. The "EV" readout acts as your exposure meter and lets you know if the current settings will produce a proper exposure or over- or under-exposure.

The focus can be automatic or you can press the FOCUS button and then rotate the command dial to select any one of the following preset distance values: 01.m, 0.2m, 0.3m, 0.5m, 0.8m, 1m, 1.5m, 2m, 3m, 5m, 7m, 10m, 15m or infinity

Still image record mode options:

White Balance - Automatic, Indoor, Outdoor or One-Push custom

ISO - Auto or fixed at 100, 200 or 400

Image Size - 2048x1536, 2048 3:2, 1600x1200, 1280x960, 640x480

Picture Quality - Fine or Standard

Record Mode - Normal, Burst3, Exposure Bracketing, Email, Voice, Text (monochrome GIF), TIFF uncompressed

Flash Level - High, Normal or Low

Picture Effect - None, Negative Art, Sepia, B&W, Solarize

Sharpness - Default is 0 but may be +1, +2 or -1 or -2

The CD300 features the new MPEG MovieEX recording mode. You can capture full motion sequences with audio at 15 frames per second. There are three different recording modes available: 320x240 HQ is limited to 15 second clips but it plays back full screen on the LCD or TV screen. The normal 320x240 and 160x120 movies play back in a smaller screen area, see the next page for examples.