Have a beautiful day! – Chris
Author Chris and Carol
Timeless Tuesday – exploring early digital cameras – Sony Mavica
As the title implies, I’ve decided to take another look at some early digital cameras and to see if they can find a place in today’s photographic landscape. Here’s a look at what was essentially the first digital camera to use a 3.5-inch floppy disk as “film”. Sony used the advertising tagline “The Fun is in the Floppy” in its late 1990s ads.
The Sony Digital Mavica 1.3 model MVC-FD85 made its way to market in the late days of 1999 with an official release of February 2000. Here’s that camera.
The strength of Sony has always been the sheer size of the company and the ability to do incredible R&D.
Sony lenses in video cameras were almost beyond equal (maybe Canon would disagree) but the Mavica made good use with what it was given.
The film. A standard 3.5-inch floppy. The “MVC” in the camera’s name refers to “Magnetic Video Camera” hence the use of a floppy disk for file storage.
At its highest resolution (1280 x 960) the Mavica FD85 will record only six images on one disk. This led to photographers carrying around a box full of disks if they were expecting to record a number of images. Six disks equaled one roll of 36 exposure 35 mm film.
I acquired this Mavica from the original owner – a local guy that was downsizing his collection of “stuff”. It’s in mint condition with only a few marks indicating gentle past use. From some of the other cameras that I purchased from him, I could tell that he took excellent care of his gear. It fired up perfectly after an overnight charge of the battery and with a fresh disk inserted here’s the first batch of pics. Except for the last photo, none of these images were enhanced in any way.
After nearly 15 years of slumber here’s the first image taken with the Mavica and recorded to floppy. All things considered, the auto exposure and auto focus handled the scene perfectly. Yes, we’ve become accustomed to high def pics from our smartphones and this picture falls way off in that regard but I like it because it appears “film-like” with its softness and lack of mind-shattering contrast. This is a wide angle shot.
Using the telephoto zoom lens this image is not technically bad. Auto focus and auto exposure appear spot on and the scene is pleasing. Remember, back in 2000 the main purpose of this camera was to upload the images to your PC and for emailing them as attachments. Most people had less than cutting edge PC’s at home – remember “Y2K”?
I took the Mavica into my studio and under the harsh studio lighting (5600K) the camera did just great. This was shot using the macro setting but I believe the camera has a pretty broad focusing range. This pic was cropped a bit and I made a slight adjustment in the contrast. It looks like there’s good depth of field and overall it’s reasonably sharp. I would use this image for listings in my various online shops as it’s technically just fine for that venue.
Ads from back in the day suggest that this camera sold for around $700 to $800. That’s crazy big money then and still is today. It will be fun to give the camera a bit of a workout over the coming months – 1.3 megapixels might just be a new way of seeing things.
Thanks for stopping by! – Chris
Please respect that all content, including photos and text, are the property of this blog and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris.
Copyright © 2015-2019 Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Chris Whelan
All rights reserved.
Happy SUNday! – Toys!
The universal language of a discriminating customer – July 1979 – Yokohama, Japan
Canon F-1 with Canon FD 80-200mm zoom lens on Kodak Kodachrome.
Thanks for stopping by and have a beautiful day! – Chris
Please respect that all content, including photos and text, are the property of this blog and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris.
Copyright © 2015-2019 Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Chris Whelan
All rights reserved.
Tamiya Martini Racing 935 Porsche – 1977
High-quality 1:12 scale Tamiya model. Photographed with a Canon F-1 with Canon FD 24mm f/2.8 lens on Kodak Kodachrome. Assembled and photographed at my home in Honmoku, Yokohama in 1979.
Tamiya models were always the best! The only thing I left off was the red air dam stripe and I swapped the Martini decal for a Porsche decal above the grill.
These kits unassembled and still new in the box go for around $350 to $450 USD.
The original cover art for the model.
Thanks for stopping by! – Chris
Please respect that all content, including photos and text, are the property of this blog and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris.
Copyright © 2015-2019 Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Chris Whelan
All rights reserved.
Near Motomachi, Yokohama – 1979
Interesting street scene captured these young ladies interacting with the always helpful police. Taken near the prestigious Motomachi shopping street in central Yokohama. Canon F-1 with Canon FD 80-200mm lens on Kodachrome 64 film. It’s really hard to believe that this is now 40-years ago.
Thanks for stopping by! – Chris
Please respect that all content, including photos and text, are the property of this blog and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris.
Copyright © 2015-2019 Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Chris Whelan
All rights reserved.
Fuji Panorama Cardia – a plastic fantastic from 1991
One of the first dedicated 35 mm panorama compact cameras from Fuji Photo Film Company. It was available only in Japan and was released in December 1991. Actually a sophisticated camera a notch or two above being just a point and shoot – debateable.
There’s so little information about this wonderful camera on the web, I hope this post helps a bit for those interested in this format and camera.
It’s not as basic as it seems. This camera was released for the Japanese domestic market in December 1991 and listed for 15,800 JPY (about $123 USD).
It’s a dedicated panorama format 35 mm film camera (13 x 36 mm actual image size). The panorama setting is not adjustable.
1. Opens and closes the lens cover and when closed locks the shutter button.
2. Flash on/off switch.
3. Fujinon 28 mm f8 glass lens – 3 elements in 3 groups. The fixed focus lens focuses from 1.5 m to infinity switchable to landscape mode.
4. CdS light receiver.
5. Two position ISO selector switch.
6. Landscape Mode Switch “Far-view Mode Lever”.
7. Albada bright frame finder.
8. Shutter release button.
9. Manual strobe/flash.
The aperture is “automatically” adjusted for lower light levels and the camera will give a low-light warning in the viewfinder. It’s been reported by a Japanese blogger that the aperture was capable of f4 to f16 but that is not backed up by data from Fujifilm that I can find.
The shutter is fixed to fire at 1/100th of a second.
I’ve scanned a few pages from the instruction pamphlet (below).
Take notice of the clearly marked “CdS light receiver” vice exposure meter. It could be just a difference in the machine translation from what was meant in the original Japanese text.
Specifications from Fuji confirms that the lens is a Fujinon f8 28 mm wide angle with glass optics – 3 elements in 3 groups (you’ll find that info in line 4).
Unboxing a classic.
This camera set is available in my Etsy studio shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com
Thanks for stopping by! – Chris
Please respect that all content, including photos and text, are the property of this blog and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris.
Copyright © 2015-2019 Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Chris Whelan
All rights reserved.
In the Shop – Fun with Fuji
I’ve added these hard to find classic Fuji cameras in my camera shop recently. These are all considered to be still “new in the box” and in factory mint condition. Here’s your chance to add these totally unused (but tested) 35mm film cameras from the late 1980s and early 1990s.
These are available at http://www.ccstudio2380.com
Full descriptions and additional pictures can be found at http://www.ccstudio2380.com
Happy SUNday! – Lionel Trains
A few peeks at some of my Lionel trains from the 1950s and 1960s. These trains saw some action!
“O” gauge locomotive.
He actually moved the milk cans onto a platform. Super cool!
Some random billboard ads of the day.
The 1960s missile train car – yep, the roof opened and a missile would fire – toy armageddon!
All of my trains have been sold off to various collectors. I just have the pics and great memories of playing with them with my dad.
Camera: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W170
Have a beautiful day! – Chris
Please respect that all content, including photos and text, are the property of this blog and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris.
Copyright © 2015-2019 Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Chris Whelan
All rights reserved.
In my other Etsy Shop – CC’s Everything Else Shop
Besides my Etsy camera studio shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com, I have a smaller shop that specializes in non-photographic items from my “world travels”. Almost everything is on sale at 70% off and many items include free or reduced USA shipping. I ship worldwide too at very fair rates.
Here’s a small sample of the eclectic items in the shop which can be found at http://www.etsy.com/shop/CCsEverythingElse
Full descriptions and additional pictures can be found by visiting the shop. Believe me, there’s a crazy mix of stuff in the shop! At the moment, there’s over 40 items – check it out!
Thanks for stopping by! – Chris
Please respect that all content, including photos and text, are the property of this blog and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris.
Copyright © 2015-2019 Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Chris Whelan
All rights reserved.
Seed Raiders!
Have a beautiful day y’all! – Chris
Please respect that all content, including photos and text, are the property of this blog and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris.
Copyright © 2015-2019 Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Chris Whelan
All rights reserved.
