Sony Mavica CD350 Review

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.

AUTO record mode screen with the shutter release halfway down, the autofocus is locked (green dot icon next to battery time and AF target marks in center turn green), multi auto focus mode (MAF), battery has 130 minutes of runtime left, the flash will fire (lightning bolt icon), image size is 3.1M (2048 x 1536) and quality is Fine, enough disc space is left for 66 pictures, the aperture is F3.8 with a shutter speed of 1/40 second.

In AUTO mode you can only select the RECord mode or the Image Size.

Program AE screen display with some options enabled such as Fluorescent white balance, ISO locked at 100, exposure compensation set to "+0.3" EV. The next frame shows all possible menu options that can be set in the Program AE exposure mode.

Still image record mode options:

Metering Mode - Multi, Center or Spot
White Balance - Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Flash or One-Push custom
ISO - Auto or fixed at 100, 200 or 400
Picture Quality - Fine or Standard
Record Mode - Normal, Burst 2, Email, Voice or TIFF uncompressed
Flash Level - High, Normal or Low
Picture Effect - None, Negative Art, Sepia, B&W, Solarize
Sharpness - Minus, Normal or Plus
Saturation - Minus, Normal or Plus
Contrast - Minus, Normal or Plus

Image Size - 3.1M 2048x1536, 2.8M (2048 3:2 aspect ratio), 2.0M 1600x1200, 1.2M 1280x960, VGA 640x480

Turning the mode dial to the SCeNe position will allow you to choose one of six pre-programmed exposure modes from the MENU - see the next frame for the available options.

SCeNe mode options:

SCeNe mode - High-speed shutter, Night, Night Portrait, Landscape, Portrait, Snow, Beach
Metering Mode - Multi, Center or Spot
White Balance - Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Flash or One-Push custom
Picture Quality - Fine or Standard
Record Mode - Normal, Burst 2, Email, Voice or TIFF uncompressed
Flash Level - High, Normal or Low
Picture Effect - None, Negative Art, Sepia, B&W, Solarize

Image Size - 3.1M 2048x1536, 2.8M (2048 3:2 aspect ratio), 2.0M 1600x1200, 1.2M 1280x960, VGA 640x480

The CD350 features the MPEG VX movie mode for capturing motion video at VGA resolution (640 x 480) with audio at 16 frames per second. The length of a movie clip is limited only by available space on the CD disc and plays back full screen on the LCD or TV screen. With a fresh CD you can record up to 5 minutes 54 seconds of VGA size video. For email purposes you can also record at 160 x 112 resolution at 8 frames per second with audio.