Why do I have this urge the shoot with a Mavica?

[jay moussy]

I have a found Mavica FD on my desk, no battery or charger, but somehow I have the urge to look for the missing bits to take pictures with it... very odd feel!

I do remember looking at Mavicas in a store, back then, and saying to spouse, "nice, but..."

The thrill of writing a picture to a floppy disk?
What else could it be?

Interestingly, the Mavica bag being small, can be repurposed to carry a TLR or such.

 

[Kino]

Mavicas... yep. They were very briefly the equivalent of a Polaroid, in my opinion. There is still on in a cabinet at work; I found it last week and it still works fine.

 

[twelvetone12]

I used a Mavica in the early 2000's and it was lots of fun, made also very nice photos! I would surely play with one if I had the chance... even if I'm not sure I will be able to read a floppy nowadays.

 

[Paul Howell]

I have a plug in floppy drive, might find one on Ebay, not sure what software would be able to read it. Were files JPEG? My wife is an author, 18 books, she wrote a few books on a 386 with DOS, 5 inch floppy, we saved the disks, Her publisher wanted to do a reprint of book, but no longer had the original WP file. A very long story to get a get an used computer with DOS, a very old copy of WP, then got Word to read the ancient WP, finally had a file, her publisher lost interest.

 

[jay moussy]

I can read the disks no problem, older HP Compaq sitting me to me!
BIL once bought a Thinkpad and with it came a USB floppy drive, which he discarded. I saved it.

There is something about the camera that is appealing, maybe the Sony design touch?
Not sure how viable the batteries of the era might be now, but I am looking for a low-cost way to get it working.

 

[Kino]

https://www.amazon.com/MVC-FD83-MVC-FD85-MVC-FD87-MVC-FD88-InfoLithium/dp/B001O3P9QW

They even have preformatted floppy discs for sale!

 

[wiltw]

I used a Mavica in the early 2000's and it was lots of fun, made also very nice photos! I would surely play with one if I had the chance... even if I'm not sure I will be able to read a floppy nowadays.

Ancient 1024x768 still images, or a bit less ancient 1280x960 JPG images?

 

[twelvetone12]

I think it was 1024x768!

 

[jay moussy]

Wait, mine, a FD90, still has its factory stickers on, and one reads 1472x1104

 

[Cholentpot]

I still use a camcorder to record life, like a diary. It's obsolete and low-fi but I get a kick out of it.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I had to google that one. I remember a colleague of mine in Japan had one.

 

[Paul Howell]

I pulled out a Kodak DC 260 I bought at a yard sale, 7 or 8 years ago. Runs on 4 AA, uses CF, a simple point and shoot, no manual override, not much of menu, no white balance options, the rear screen is starting to band, took a test shot, colors are good, resolution not bad for a 1 MP sensor.