Q&A

The Floppy Adaptor uses 2 small batteries to power itself. These batteries do go bad over time. If the batteries are bad, you will get strange things happening. Change the batteries and give it another try. If the stick is empty at the time of battery changout, it would be a good idea to reformat the stick at this time. Remember to place a piece of Scotch Tape across both battery compartment doors. Make the tape contact the adaptor body on both sides while crossing over both doors. These doors are not really that tight to begin with and if you loose one, that is the end of the adaptor. Sony does not make these doors available as a parts item.

Good questions never end. These are some interesting ones that have been asked. Hopefully, you will find some good answers to them.

I saw your entry to the guest book at www.MavicaService.homestead.com and would like to answer the best I can. First, the CD-1000 is an awesome camera. It is my personal camera of choice. My wife will not agree with that though. She still loves her FD-88 and 85. It is my understanding in talking with Sony that the 1000 was discontinued because people were shying away from the camera due to it's bulkiness. Also, the cost of building the camera was pretty high and competition was hurting them with their small, cheaper cameras. People buy cameras nowadays driven by price. I guess it is OK with them now that instead of 20X zooms, they have 6X with much less quality lens elements. The bottom line is the price and competition. It seems as though the new CD cameras are acceptable to the masses. I still like my CD-1000 and will continue to keep it in service till it just wont go another shot.

As far as the Mavica CD-R's, unless you just have to have the original Sony brand, you can use about any of the small CD-R's for use in the camera. Original Sony brand is available a lot of places or through Sony direct. I have seen Sony disks at Wal-Mart for 88 cents or less each. Although they are branded Sony, your camera will still suggest Mavica brand disks. Only the Mavica brand have the tracks pre-written to not put this message up on the screen. I have tried all sorts of 3rd party disks and have had 100% success rate so far.

Any idea why they quit making the CD-1000 and do you sell the CD's?

What about the colored CD-R disks? Do they work in the cameras?

Yes, they do and work well. This question was posted on the MIE board and everyone that responded reported success in using them. A few people even reported that the bulk spindle, colored disks work great too. They would be good to color code your library by subject. I have heard that Comp USA has the bulk spindles of colored disks at a very good price.

My LCD is black with no image displayed. Is the LCD bad?

Not necessarily. I would say that out of all of the cameras sent to me for this problem, 99% of them don't require a new LCD. Generally, the only LCD's I replace are physically cracked. No option there... The drive circuit for the display is usually the problem area.

Do I really need an LCD protector?

Yes, you bet you do. Here is why. For the price, you are protecting a nearly $200 LCD. You can't get better insurance than that. Don't be convinced that a piece of thin plastic or PDA screen protectors will do it. You need impact protection and the Lexan protectors provide that with the material used, the cushion that the Velcro attachment provides and the space between the protector and the LCD. I have seen these save many a display during those unplanned bumps and drops. I know, they don't look pretty but neither does a broken LCD. I hope to soon offer these to customers that send cameras to me for service.

I have found another good charger that works great on the Mavica. I know, it isnt an original Sony OEM charger but it is compact, set up for the Info-Lith battery and is a fraction of the Sony price. No, I dont sell them but can suggest that you go to eBay and search for "Mavica Charger". You are looking for one that looks like the photo below. Dont pay more than $30 for one. I have seen them go for as low as $17 so unless you need one really bad, hold off for the best price. It looks like this...

Some cool things about this charger is that the male plug prongs nest into the charger body making this thing real thin. It is light weight. No power wires to roll up and store in the camera bag. It is half the size of an OEM charger. Set up for InfoLITHIUM smart batteries. Charges the battery pretty fast.

Help. I have lost case screws and some are loose!

Due to vibrations and thermal changes, the case screws do loosen up. I have seen quite a few cameras come in with some missing and loose. These screws can cost $6.50 for one ordering them through Sony. Take a # " 0 " Philips screwdriver and tighten them a couple of times a year. Dont crank them to the point of case cracking but just verify that they are snug in their holes. Dont use torque seal or thread lock on them because I may need to remove them some day. Just a snug up will do.

I am using a Floppy Adaptor with a Memory Stick in my drive. I get weird things happening when I save or format the stick. Sometimes I even get the dreaded C:13:01 error. Whats up with that?

My OEM charger is on the fritz. What do I do next other than pay the big bucks for a new one?

Like Wal-Mart needs more of our money... I have seen one there that is much like the Ambico but is black, charges all of the Sony batteries and is either powered by the wall or the 12 volts from your cigarette lighter in the car. It cost $30 here and looks well built. It is built by a popular manufacturer.

Man, something went wrong. My CD is full of images and the disk wont read, finalize or anything. Is this disk scrap? What about my images?

I have some custom written software made especially for recovering images from floppy, CD and Memory Stick. Because of the price paid for this program, it is not for sale but I am willing to recover as many images as I can for a small fee. This program recovers more than 95% of the images from the media I have tried it with. I recover the images, burn them to a CD-R and mail the original media with the new CD-R back to you. Email for details.

My image counter is in the hundreds. It is set to "Series" now. How do I reset it to zero again?

This proedure will cause the OS to reload the numbering sequence. To do this, switch the camera to "STILL", function over to "FILE", scroll up to "FILE NUMBER". From there you switch from "SERIES" to "NORMAL". Function out of this like you are going to take some photos. Put in a blank disk and take a shot. Remove the disk and do the above sequence again only this time choose "SERIES". This will reset the counter and the sequential counting begins again.

I have a 707 with a blacked out screen. It is like the lens cap is still on the unit. It plays back images that it took before it started doing this. Got any ideas?

Yes, the problem has been identified. I have a fix for this that costs a fraction of the price Sony quotes. See the MS Models page for some details.

I understand that replacement drives for the cameras are being sold on eBay and through user forums. Is this something that I should attempt myself?

In the last couple of months, I have seen cameras come to me where people have attempted to change the drives. They usually arrive in zip bags full of parts. The cameras have been taken apart and broken either in the process of disassembly or reassembly. Torn flex cables, motherboard connectors torn off the PC board, lost parts, bent metal and the list goes on. The last one came in with an LCD that had 2 nasty cracks across it.

I would not suggest anyone do this to their camera. It hurts to have to tell someone they ruined their camera. There is no graceful way to tell someone that. If you have to do it this way, go ahead, buy the drive and send it along with the camera for me to change out, clean, test and ship back to you. I will make you a good price on the labor and you don't risk ruining your camera. I cannot warranty a drive I don't sell because I don't know where it came from but you can rest assured the unit will be properly handled. Don't risk it.

The battery door on my HVL-F1000 strobe flash keeps flying off. Is there a fix for this?

Not only is this a problem, it is more serious than you may think. The door, when lost is not a replacement item offered through Sony. When you loose this, the flash has to be replaced! You got it, Sony does not support parts or service for the flash! After being asked several times about a way to secure the door I thought of a tether and all sorts of ways from screws to Duct Tape. An MIE member came up with this one, which I think is a wonderful idea. I have tried it and it works. I do suggest that everyone with this flash do this simple modification. Here is the post from him on the idea.

Tim, Two little strips of sticky velcro cut 1/8 to 1/4 inch wide, about an inch long and put parallel to each other, one across the door and one on the body just under the door and the other part of the velcro about 1/2 wide or wide or wide enough to fit over the two parallel strips should do the trick. You will just have to pull the 1/2 inch strip off to open the door, change the batteries and reapply the 1/2 inch velcro strip. I haven't actually done this to mine but see no reason why it will not work if you get the right thickness velcro and cut and place the pieces properly.

You could also place the strips on the top of the door and body if you are careful to cut the strips to the proper size and shape.

Bill H

Mississippi

Thanks for the tip Bill. This one works like a champ.

The subject of dust inside the camera came up.

Yes, there is dust and dirt in all cameras with FD models leading the pack. Every time you insert a disk, dust, skin and all sorts of things enter the camera. Dust should be cleaned out periodocally. Dust can even enter the interior of the lens and get between the elements. Airline travel can make this happen even faster. Being outside in the wind will also cause dust to enter and move around inside. Here is a mail I received from a MIE member about dust. I thought it would make for interesting reading. Here it is...

I am a retired Command Pilot and flew for USAF for 28 years and commerically for another 20. One problem with air travel that most people are not familiar with is the expanding and contracting of air due to differential pressure that your camera is subjected to when you fly. As the aircraft climbs to cruising altitude the air inside the camera expands and some of it escapes due to the reduced outside pressure. Then when the aircraft descends for landing the higher pressure air outside the camera forces itself back into the camera cavities (just like a vacuum cleaner). Any dirt or dust particles near the camera will be forced or sucked inside the camera. Also, the air inside any pressurized aircraft is very, very dry in relation to normal ground level air. As air excapes from the camera as you ascend, it will be replaced by more humid and dirtier air when you descend and/or remove the camera from its case or luggage. Now how can you help prevent or minimize this problem.

1. Be sure you keep your camera and its case or container as clean of lint, dust and dirt particles as possible. I actually use a vacuum cleaner hose (hold it an inch or so from the camera) and suck the dirt, lint, etc from all the crevices and cracks you find on your camera. Also, be sure you vacuum out your camera bag often to remove all the loose lint, fiber and etc. You will be amazed at how dirt and lint collects in your camera bag.

2. Keep your camera bag containing your camera closed as much as possible when not in use.... an open bag will collect all kinds of dust.... just awaiting to be sucked inside your camera due to temperture and pressure changes. Remember, as pressure and temperature changes on the ground or in a room, the air inside you camera is also changing back and forth. As you are aware, dust and lint particles will collect and adhere to all the electronic parts inside the camera.

3. Putting your camera (or camera case with the camera inside) inside a Zip-lock bag when you travel by air or when going from different temperatures will help help with the above problems.

Bill H.

A door from a floppy disk came off inside the drive of my camera. What should I do about it?

First thing to do is remove the main battery. More than likely some parts of the floppy have come off and are still in the camera. These parts can short the PC boards out and make the repair a lot more expensive. If you have this happen, remove the main battery as soon as possible then attempt to shake the parts out, holding the door of the camera open. Dont use pliers or tweezers to grab anythng. If it wont fall out, dont pull on it. Get the camera to me as soon as you can and I will disassemble the camera and the drive and remove the foreign objects.

I received this huge question mail about some of the functions of the CD1000. Here they are with my answers. Some of all of this applies to all cameras. Questions are in RED. Answers in BLUE.

CD1000

1) Are any discs ok to use? Yes, go to Wal-Mart and get the disks. They sell a 10 pack of Sony disks for $8.88. Remember that even though you buy the Sony disks, the "Mavica Disks Recomennded" message will come up when the camera reads the disk. This is not an error. If you bought the much more expensive Mavica disks, the message wont show. This is a sales gimick Sony has to sell their Mavica disks.

2) Is it okay to charge the battery with my FD71 charger and not in the camera? Yes it is. The battery will charge the proper way through either charging methods.

3) Do all discs have a blue side? Page 14 No, not all have the blue side. Some of the colored disks even have the colored surfaces.

4) Any special instructions on initializing a disc? Not really. Just be sure to set the camera horizontal and avoid any vibration during the process. You can initialize a disk on battery power but never finalize a disk on any power but power supply hook up. The manual will instruct as to how to do the initialize.

5) Do I only finalize a disc if I will playing it on a computer or TV. Do I need to finalize the disc before viewing thru the LCD? An UNfinalized disk will always play when viewing through the LCD or through the TV hook up. The only time you have to finalize is when putting the disk in a computer burner drive or reader that wont accept it otherwise. Some burners accept an unfinalized disk and some dont. You can still view an unfinalized disk on a computer through the USB cable. When you finalize a disk, it allows the thing to be played on any CD drive.

6) Am I correct that I MUST finalize the disc with the AC Adapter and not the battery only? You bet. I would never finalize a disk on battery power. The process takes a lot longer and requires more power to do this so never trust a battery to finalize. If the battery fails during this process, it will render the disk unviewable. I would need to recover the files from the disk for you at that point.

7) Is it better to view an image before shooting with the LCD or the viewfinder and should I turn off whichever one I do not use? This is interesting. It is just what is more comfortable for you. Some people prefer to have the 35 mm viewfinder feel and some prefer to use the LCD to frame their shots. It is whatever you feel better with. If you do elect to use the viewfinder only, do turn off the LCD and you will save a lot of power. The battery will last longer. The viewfinder has sensors that look for your head and eye to be up against the camera. THe viewfinder will turn on automatically when you look through it so expect a very slight delay when you first look through it.

8) Do I need to turn the digital zoom off to save battery? Page 21 Personally I leave my Digital Zoom on all the time. I dont see much difference at all and consider it not worht the effort. I just leave it turned on.

9) Keep steady shot on? Page 21 I always leave Steady Shot on. This helps when zoomed in shots are taken.

10) Leave flash open and on auto? Page 22 If the flash indicator is telling you to use the flash, just pop it up using the side button. I think leaving the flash deployed will just increase the chance of getting it snagged on something and damaging the camera. It keeps it out of the way until needed.

If you would like to have the flash go off even if it isnt needed, use the forced flash mode. Sometimes the forced flash will work better for you, otherwise just leave it in the auto mode.

11) Do I leave the image size on the highest resolution? If you plan on printing any of the photos, yes. If you are going to burn them to a CD for TV viewing, you can get by with less resolution. For the sake of image quality, I leave mine in the maximum resolution at all times.

12) When do I use the spot meter? Page 52 When say you are taking a photo of something or someone that has a lot of light behind them. The spot meter will set the brightness of the image on where the + symbol is. This will keep the subject from blacking out. It is a great feature.

13) When should I adjust exposure? Page 53 I wouldnt bother with this. Use the automatic mode and adjust them later with a photo editor program. This is a failry advanced feature and a short course in photography is needed to learn about this one.

14) Should I record the date and time on the pictures? Page 54 I dont suggest this since it is an eye sore on a quality photograph. When the camera writes the image to the disk, it already records the date and time based on your camera internal clock. If you have it record to the image and dont want it later, you will have to scrub the clock from the image.

15) Please explain page 57...Enlarging a part of the still image. While in the playback mode, you use the zoom button to enlarge the image on the LCD. It will zoom in on the image. You can use the function ball to move around the image when zoomed up. Use the zoom button to go back to normal and the function automatically turns off. This is a cool feature to have since you can inspect the expressions on people's faces to make sure you have a keeper shot.

16) Should I keep the protect feature on? Page 60 No.

17) What is a print mark and should I do it? Page 62 I had to look this one up since I dont remember ever using it. This feature electronically marks an image that you would like to have printed by a print shop that has equipment that can look for a print mark. Say you have 100 images on the disk but you only have 25 of them marked. You can tell them to print the marked images and their equipment will find the marks and print just those. If you dont have them marked of their equipment wont read marks, you just give them the file number and they will print it for you. I never mark images.

Last Update: 19 May, 2010

My camera wont read disks. No matter what I do, it just wont read. The disks are new too.

This one came to my attention recently. It ended up that the disks were formatted for a Mac. They were on sale for a really good price but in a Mac format instead of PC or IMB. The disks must be in an IMB or PC format since Mac formatted disks just wont work in an FD camera.

If you have these, try formatting them in your computer and try them again in the camera.

I'm trying to learn how to take pictures of dogs running inside an arena and am having trouble freezing the dogs at a fast shutter speed (no flash allowed). The pictures are way too dark. Any suggestion how to learn the correct techniques?

You have a rather unique situation here.

First try to increase the ambient light in the area if you can.

Next you will need to practice "panning". This means moving the camera,

keeping the subject in the viewfinder, at the same speed the subject is

moving. This will help "stop action" the subject.

Remember to put your camera in the ISO "Auto" mode so it will adjust for the

lowest lighting conditions. Not all cameras have this option.

Put the camera in the "spot" focus mode too and this might help some since

the spot meter adjusts to the lighting on the subject rather than in the entire frame.

I am about to send my camera to you for service. Is it possible for you to add an LCD protector to my camera when you do the repairs?

It sure is. I stock a supply of the protectors and can install one for you at the point of repair or routine cleaning. Mention this to me in your email and I will let you know the details of having one installed at that point.

This is weird. When my camera is in the manual focus mode and I turn the focus ring, the zoom jumps in real close the jumps back wide. Do I need service?

No you dont. This is a normal function of the camera. This is designed into the camera to allow for better focus. You would set the zoom level, turn the manual focus ring, the camera will magnify the image for fine focus and after the focus ring isnt moved for about 1 second, the camera returns to the original frame. This is normal and a great function for fine focus of a shot.

My camera just doesnt display the last photo taken long enough to see it before it is ready for the next shot. I dont want to press the review button every time to see the last shot. Is there another way around this?

Yes there is. The way around this is to continue pressing the shutter button even after taking the photo. The image will remain on the display as long as the shutter button is pressed and held. When you let go of the button, the camera will set up for the next shot. This works well on most models. I have tested it on most CyberShot and Mavica models and it works great.

What is underburn and what is your opinion as to what causes it?

Underburn is when the laser does not burn the data to a CD with enough power to get a good read from the disk. You might experience a read problem and it will look as though you have lost the photos on that disk.

I have done a lot of research about this problem and have interviewed enough customers to come to a conclusion.

I believe this would happen if... You take a lot of photos in rapid sequence. This puts a strain on the battery causing it to not burn the data to the disk with enough power to get a good clean burn.

A fresh, new or charged battery is the best to use if you are going to take several or more rapid shots.

Weddings seem to bring out the worst in a battery that cannot handle this demand. Since shots are usually real time and done fast, it will cause a marginal battery to do an underburn to a disk.

One other thought is the life of the battery. I think batteries that go through a rapid fire sequence should be replaced every 2 years or so. A battery may show good on the minutes counter but not have enough current to do a good clean burn if rapid shots are taken.

Well isnt this just great... The battery door is lost on my HVL-F1000 strobe flash. Now what do I do, buy another flash?

Help has finally arrived. I can now purchase the battery doors for the HVL-F1000 strobe flash.

Contact me for details as I normally stock 2 or more of these at all times.

The mounting shoe on my HVL-F1000 is broken. Is the strobe flash trash now?

No. Not anymore. Through a special arrangement, I can supply the mounting shoe or as some call it, hot shoe for the HVL-F1000 flash. Contact me for details as this is usually a normal stock item.