Submitted 1 day ago by FauxPseudo@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
This was the first digital camera I ever owned! I used it the last couple years of high school and during a short homestay in Japan. You could pick up a giant box of 3 1/4 floppies for cheap, and as long as you fed it a stead supply of batteries it worked pretty well.
Here are some photos I took that are at, I believe, the highest quality setting (1024 x 768 and about 170kb each).
Zoomed in.
And a closeup.
The 14x optical zoom was pretty amazing back then.
Oh man, that’s actually really nice!
Assume you meant 3 1/2" floppies? Seems like you’re confusing these with the 5 1/4" size.
You are correct. Sorry about that everything after 8-inch floppy is a blur.
Those things were like the perfect compromise between frisbee and throwing star.
My first job was working in a camera shop in the mid 00’s these were just about still for sale, and I hated them because people would buy them because of the floppy disk, see that at 2 megapixel they could only hold a couple of pictures so would then down the resolution to fit more on a disk and then come storming into us a week or so later because we ‘ruined’ their holiday photos or whatever because they were taking them at the lowest resolution and would be a grainy mess.
Always a tradoff
I know but that didn’t stop people screaming at me because of something I warned them about when they bought the damn thing.
These were horrible cameras that sold like crazy back then. Because a diskette only held 1.44MB and the write speed of floppies was so slow, Sony compresses the hell out of the images to that you can fit a higher number of images on a diskette and so that they write to the diskette quick enough to take the next picture.
The result was really poor quality images out of these on the settings that everyone used.
These Mavicas could become popular again now as retro tech. There’s a lo-fi aesthetic growing in photo and video that’s all about compression artefacts and old image sensors. Physical media and its inconveniences is also having a moment as a novelty and maybe even a broader movement.
Can confirm, had one on semi-perma-loan for a few years. Bought a secondhand Canon from a friend and never looked back.
My dad used one of these for work when I was a a kid and I used to play with it all the time. He hated technology so he kept using it far beyond its reasonable lifespan. I remember I was in college and he was still using it, so it was like 2006 at that point?
Eventually the something got messed up somehow and every picture was written to the disk incorrectly in a way that the right half would have fucked up color data. He finally got a normal point and shoot that took significantly higher quality images and could now store more than like 20 images without having to drag around 20 delicate floppy disks through sites filled with things very hostile to floppy disks
OP needs a floppy drive. Who has one they don’t use and can give it to OP?
I’ve still got one hooked up to a machine that’s old enough to vote. Worked last time I used it too but it’s been about 5 years since then. OP could send me the diskette like I’m one of those mail-in photo development studios from the days of ubiquitous film cameras. Gotta upgrade the printer first though and I hate dealing with printers.
I don’t have a tower to put the poppy drive in. I’d rather make sure that these end up in a good home.
I remember my 4th grade teacher having one of these and showing it off around 2000, it may have been the first digital camera I ever saw.
Blew my mind back then.
He was one of my favorite teachers, really into science, loved gadgets. He was an older guy who retired a few years later and I heard he wasn’t in the best of health, no idea if he’s still around, but I hope he at least lived long enough to appreciate how far digital cameras have come since then.
These came out in 98 And 99 so odds are they paid retail
Sony Mavica FD91 was the bomb back in the day!
camera-wiki.org/wiki/Sony_Mavica_FD91
The maximum image resolution was 1024×768 pixels, and like the pioneering Mavica FD5 and FD7 it used standard 3.5" computer floppy disks for storage. At the maximum image-quality settings, a 1.4 MB floppy can store about eight images. With its ungainly body design and image quality lagging even its 1998 peers[1], the FD91 is mostly a curiosity today.
In the times when floppies started to die out we had external USB floppy drives. I’m sure you would be able to find one if you wish.
Yes, they still make USB floppy drives.
Hey, can we see some of the picture? These look awesome.
i got floppy drives and cables, and at least a couple vintage minitowers with them here… but alas, no epic floppy disk cameras.
And now, these days my camera would require 20-30 floppies to store a single image
better upgrade to a zip drive then!
Yay, I get to store 7 photos on one 250 drive!
I just need to bring a sherpa with me to carry 215 disks for a normal outing, should only weigh 11kg
A poor musician always blames their instrument.
At this point, we are talking about the storage media, not the camera.
ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
I have a funny story about a Sony Mavica.
My family bought on when it was still relatively new, but on sale, I forget from where. We used the crap outtakes that think, and when we became internet savvy, used it as a way to upload pictures to.the computer for eBay listings. Eventually we replaced it with an digital camera that used an SD card, and in its little protective case the mavica went, to rest.
2 decades later, I find it while cleaning out old boxes, found that it still worked perfectly (thanks to using standard AA’s, and decided to sell it on eBay.
It sits up there for a while at $20, until one day I get a message about it, asking if the screen was okay or sum such. I tell them it is, and shortly after they buy it.
Out of mild curiosity, I click on the buyer’s profile, and see that he sells stuff as well, and it’s a very old account, about as old as mine.
I notice on the pictures for the items he currently has for sale are pretty grainy, and I thought… Surely not…
I download a picture of one of his items, and sure enough; it’s the same resolution as the mavica takes, 640 by something.
That crazy bastard had been steadily using his Sony Mavica floppy disk camera for over 20 years for his little eBay business.
I suspected that his camera must’ve finally given up the ghost, and he spotted my prime example and bought it so he could continue he well worn routine.
He left me positive feedback for the Mavica, and I suppose he’s still using it to this day, keeping that old equipment alive.
As a fan of the brave little toaster, it nearly brings a tear to the eye… I just really hope he switched to rechargeable batteries at some point, the little floppy drive on it chewed through them quick.
tetris11@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Its always.nice to hear your stuff goes to a nice home