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Sony Digital Mavica: The 1997 Floppy Disk Camera Experience (Patreon)

Published:
2018-03-07 17:41:37
Edited:
2018-03-08 20:59:59
Imported:
2021-03

Content

Hadn't planned to do this video for a while yet, but after another half-dozen projects crapped themselves due to old hardware being old hardware and failing... well, here it is! I'd actually planned to cover the earlier Mavica cameras before the Digital FD Mavicas since I find those a bit more unusual, but I have yet to get one that works (like the MVC-C1 shown in this episode.)

I've had a surprising number of folks asking me to cover these cameras, even though I personally figured there was enough coverage of them on YouTube by now.  So I at least tried to talk about different bits of history and some different models than you might not have seen in video form before. And if nothing else, this is now the highest-quality video about the Digital Mavica in terms of resolution. Really pushing 4K to the limit by showing those 640x480 VGA photos.

Speaking of photos, here's an album of them from the FD5!
https://imgur.com/a/I99i7

Files

Sony Digital Mavica: 1997 Floppy Disk Camera Experience

overview of the features of the 1997 sony mavica camera

Comments

Anonymous

One of the first thoughts off the top of my head was that ZIP disks would have been a great idea here. More storage with the use of easily removable and readable media. The ridiculousness of using something like 5.25 floppies or even 8" would be amusing too.

LazyGameReviews
>>10639852

While ZIP disks were never used by anyone to my knowledge, Panasonic made digital cameras with a SuperDisk drive as shown here: <a href="https://youtu.be/4J0Aw2Z-8-k?t=852" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/4J0Aw2Z-8-k?t=852</a>

Anonymous

Loving the camera coverage! I really wanted one of these back in the day but ended up getting a MiniDV camcorder instead.

Anonymous

Fantastic video once again!

Anonymous
>>10640008

If you ever get your hands on an ancient DSLR or GameBoy Camera, I'd love to see videos about those.

moosemaimer

Now I want to see a digital camera married to a Jaz drive.

Anonymous

Great video as always! Loved this camera back in the day (MVC-F5). It was so great to not deal with expensive memory cards or built in flash memory. After the FD5, I got the mini-cd based MVC-CD400, which itself was a great camera that I have not been able to part with over the years. You would think a CD based camera would be a bad idea due to skipping, but never had an issue with it.

LazyGameReviews
>>10640297

Thank you! These are still a pleasure to use these days, which is surprising to me since I expected more disk read/write errors. But nope, only had one instance where a photo didn't take - out of a hundred or so!

Anonymous

I had a friend who had a DVD Camcorder. That thing was neat. She also had the Mavica around the same time.

Anonymous

Nice video. I never got an FD-5. But as you probably know, I have an FD-7 along with many other newer models. Yet, I'm much like you. If I'm going to go out and take photos with a Mavica, I grab the FD-7. I guess if I wanted "better quality" photos I'd use a modern camera or my iPhone or something. But if I want the pleasure of using a Mavica, then I want the original!

Anonymous

I can't remember anything about this kind of camera. I wonder if it was available in the Netherlands back then (if so then my mind obviously was focused on something else).

Anonymous

I've always been on the lookout for some Mavicas, you and the 8-bit Guy made me want to collect all of them.

Anonymous

Man that triggers some nostalgia, Clint I can't tell you how many of these I sold while I worked at Office Depot in the late 90s. For a while they were the hot stuff man, Interestingly enough most of the customers who bought them ran small car lots..

Anonymous

CCD was pretty decent tech for its time.

LazyGameReviews
>>10640548

Yeah I really enjoyed revisiting your video again after making this one! The FD5 and 7 are just so much fun to use for their basic functionality. I love the 10x zoom on my FD75 so I imagine the FD7 isn't too far off :)

LazyGameReviews
>>10640667

From what I gather these were mostly a thing in NTSC regions. But yeah I do wonder what kind of reach it had over there as well!

avfusion

Loved my Mavica. I remember getting box seats at an OU (Oklahoma) game, and snapping several disks worth of pictures with the team and cheerleaders. I still have a sizable Rolodex of floppies that cover years of silly selfies-before-it-was-cool. Also, Clint, I love how well you take care of these little gadgets. The Mavica you zoom up on looks almost flawless aside from a small corner scuff. It feels like looking at a new product on QVC of the time. I like that sort of nostalgia hype. :D

LazyGameReviews
>>10640715

Nice :D I definitely recommend it if you find one in good shape, they're a lot of fun. Very easy to get photos on a modern PC as well with a USB floppy drive.

LazyGameReviews
>>10640877

That makes a lot of sense! I've read many stories of car salesmen, realtors, and construction and remodeling companies using these for their ability to quickly get photos to clients.

LazyGameReviews
>>10640920

Hehe, thanks! I also take care to only buy these when I find them in good shape. These were thrift store finds and I got lucky I guess!

Anonymous

My high school's FFA chapter had one of these and I spent a year serving as the official chapter historian, so my job was basically to tag along to events and competitions and take tons of photos with this thing.

Kris Asick

I think I'd get really nervous "FEELING" a floppy drive running in my hands... like if I pressed on the casing too hard I might push the head into the disk film or something... I HAVE HAD THIS HAPPEN with a CD-ROM drive on one of those super-thin Macbook laptops from the early 2000s, thus why I get paranoid about that sort of thing! &gt;_

LazyGameReviews
>>10641678

It's a bit unsettling at first, yeah! You get a small gyroscopic effect when you move it around while it's spinning the disk as well.

Anonymous

I used one in my High School in 2001. I was i the robot club. We would use it to take photos of the events.

evistre

Neeeeat. My family was really big on pictures and home video when I was growing up, but I don't recall us having any of these.

BastetFurry

Mavica is love! We have our quarterly company party at G DATA next friday and i will, as it is tradition by now, have the MVC-FD83 with me. The pictures taken there are non-public, but you can find some that are public and made by me at a German retro computing party, the DoReCo, over here: <a href="http://lionscade.de/bastetfurry%20bilder%20doreco%202017.7z" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://lionscade.de/bastetfurry%20bilder%20doreco%202017.7z</a> I reduced the resolution to 1024x786 because it gives a nice tradeoff in quality versus size on disk and it is still good enough for a retro event to take pictures on. And if any of you is interested in the party itself, check out doreco.de. ;)

Peter Metzger

Our computer lab had a bunch of these in the late 90s and we could even check them out to take home, which I did as often as possible. *memories*

David E. Blankenship

We bought a Mavica back in 2002 at my old workplace on my recommendation because not every computer had one of those new fangled "USB" connectors back then. They were still using it occasionally 6 years ago when I left because of its exceptional macro mode.

Anonymous

This was the obvious choice for a digital camera when I was growing up. Everyone had a floppy drive and a box of floppy disks really wasn't that expensive especially since you could reuse them. I found some old photos that might be a little interesting if only to see some genuine 2001 photos. Most of the other pictures were just my cousins when were were kids so I didn't want to go throwing up a bunch of mediocre pictures of kids without telling them. lol. Also, any pics of people are from a new years party. <a href="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gNittT6BU9s5YDq-xjr79BJ_u-vbGLjB?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gNittT6BU9s5YDq-xjr79BJ_u-vbGLjB?usp=sharing</a>

Anonymous

The usefulness of a digital camera that used a standard file and disk format in the days before USB and memory cards can't be overstated, it was the real killer feature for this camera. Sure there are other videos around on these cameras but few express the same sheer excitement and joy you do when you're using and explaining old technology!

Anonymous

Man I am super digging these early digital camera retrospectives. The elementary school I went to got a couple of the FD5s in 97 when they released and I got to use them a few times. It was like magic to me.

Anonymous

These Cameras are still used regularly at my last job. I always chuckled when I saw someone with them.

Anonymous

I'm pretty sure I used a Mavica in a computer class back in 2001 or 2002. I thought floppy disk storage was the coolest shit.

Anonymous

We had a Mavica at my church back in the day. Such memories.

Anonymous

I'd love to see older digital video cameras covered as well...I'd watch the crap out of those videos. Digital-8, Mini-DV. Mmmmmm.

Anonymous

I picked up an FD7 for taking snapshots at Wasteland Weekend last year, and LOVE IT. I've continued to use it throughout the year, and it's just so fun to use. One thing of note is that the FD7 also had the weird artistic filters, and it's a nice added feature for that retro charm.

Anonymous

I know linking to Facebook is kind of a mess, but here is a gallery of my shots from WW17 <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10211886472971350.1073741845.1056840083&amp;type=1&amp;l=0c4d8110d3" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10211886472971350.1073741845.1056840083&amp;type=1&amp;l=0c4d8110d3</a>

Lindsay Michelle

This reminds me of a combination of my first digital camera from the mid-00s and my Walkman from the 90s. Except without the whole floppy drive thing. :P I think I would have totally dug this if I was using digital cameras in the late 90s. You seem to be on a vintage camera spree lately; you buying all of these online? :)

Carey Brown

Man, my Dad had the FD87 and the "Memrica" adapter to go with it. He used that thing until the drive gave out on it before he finally upgraded.

Anonymous

My dad used these when he used to work for the government. Tell you what, I have fond memories of using the camera on vacations!

Anonymous

At the time they were new i didn’t had one, only now i gotten two of them: one is actually the FD7 and another, which i don’t have the number of right now, but it’s a later one with mpeg recording and quadspeed drive. That later one tho has that drive problem

Anonymous

I was able to find the later mavica‘s model number: It’s an FD-91

LazyGameReviews
>>10652009

I've mentioned where I've gotten them in each episode: all have been thrift finds from the past however many years!

Anonymous

We had a FD Mavica at secondary school in the UK early 2000s. It pretty was good and raised my expectations of what a digital camera should be like. That bar wasn't met for a good while on the cameras I got to use.

Anonymous

That floppy adapter! What!

Anonymous

Thank you for creating these awesome early digital camera experience series. As a videographer, it always intigues me looking back at these cameras. Keep up the great work

Anonymous

Meh, I'll stick with film :D

Anonymous

Been really enjoying these episodes diving into your classic digital cameras - as someone who was never going to afford on back then (if one had had a photography interest), seeing the evolution is interesting. Plus, it's oh-so-ingenous to use floppies to write onto as well!

Anonymous

Really enjoyable. These cameras still have some magic in them. And their design is attractive to the eye. The FD5 is the most 'bulky yet cute' looking one to me.

Ezydenias

3:10 I love those words optical zoom and those weird mm specs of those cameras to adept to their small sensors. The first one can be so faced since it only means by which factor you increase the focal length and the second one is just bizarre kinda since yeah I mean we have 50mm but find a camera with that big of a sensor, still if you look trough a 50mm lense on a DSLR and have your other eye open it looks totally normal. So you have some factors that make the picture different. often if you go under 50mm and photograph a person it can look weird and uncanny, well if you are going to close with your camera. Probably why portrait fotographes use 100-200mm lenses. But if you are used to work with 50-1000mm lenses and now you have acamera with what was it 4-35mm lense? it just sounds awkward.^^

Evan B

That was so cool .. That whole memory-stick/floppy combination was wild.. I had no idea that was a thing that existed!

Anonymous

Its so cool that you don't need license plate in front of your car in the US :)

LazyGameReviews (edited)

Comment edits

2021-07-21 23:30:26 I also just found out there are MicroSD card to Memory Stick adapters, so that makes me wonder if I can get floppy disk -&gt; memory stick -&gt; microsd, haha
2018-03-12 21:43:55 I also just found out there are MicroSD card to Memory Stick adapters, so that makes me wonder if I can get floppy disk -> memory stick -> microsd, haha
>>10705285

I also just found out there are MicroSD card to Memory Stick adapters, so that makes me wonder if I can get floppy disk -> memory stick -> microsd, haha

Anonymous
>>10712746

Do you have to put it on when you visit these states with your car? :o