helimopp

Leyton Green Towers - Shot on my Sony Mavica FD7

https://lemmy.world/post/40878456

Dec 29 at 6:53pmWeb
Show threadIMALlamaDec 30

I suspect the down votes are coming from folks not understanding what the camera is.

The FD7 was released in 1997 and records 30 images to a ~2.5"~ 3.5" floppy disk. Yes, really. Later Sony cameras had built in mini disk CD-R drives. At the typical 1.4 MB disk size you could fit 40 standard sized JPEGs. These images were captured using a 640x480 sensor that sensor was originally intended for television cameras. In order to hit 640x480 it needed to capture and interlace two different frames.

Early digital camera days were very inventive. Thankfully people bought them. If they hadn’t we probably wouldn’t have made it to where we are as quickly as we did, if at all.

Sony Mavica CD400 - Camera-wiki.org - The free camera encyclopedia

Show threadhelimoppDec 30
It’s a great camera and it really shows why Sony won the digital camera wars as even today the camera is very intuitive to use and navigating to menus is very easy, unlike other cameras of the time
Show threadIMALlamaDec 30

I do think this camera is a good example of Sony showing a willingness to go off the beaten path and push boundaries, but would not point their UX as the reason why Sony is doing fairly well in the mirrorless race, lol. The E-mount Alpha series has been plagued with folks complaining about the UX with gripes starting with the OG A7, continuing with the A7III, and people are still complaining about the A7R V. It’s basically a trope at this point. TBH I find the A7III and A9II menus much more intuitive than my old D40 and D5300, but I could be a weirdo.

IMO Sony did a few things right:

  • Purchasing Milnota’s camera division in 2006, giving them a functional DLSR system to start from
  • Developing their Single-lens translucent system, which consisted of a pellicle mirror, electronic viewfinder, and phase-detection autofocus system. Some of these ideas weren’t novel, but putting all three into a mainstream camera system certainly was and seems to have set them up well for their move to mirrorless. Micro Four Thirds was the first mainstream system (2008), but E-mount wasn’t far behind (2010)
  • Mostly^1^ opening E-mount up for third party glass (^1^ see restrictions on burst rate with autofocus)
  • Their tracking autofocus, which debuted on the a6400, A9, and A7III, made focusing on moving things super easy

    • 3 and 4 are the reasons why I shoot Sony these days. I don’t really like the way their bodies handle and spent a decent amount of time seeking alternatives (I tried the OM-1, X-H2s, and Z6ii) but the A7III and now A9II proved far more consistent in getting the shot and the back catalog of first and third party glass is very welcome.

    tips on how to use the Sony a7 series cameras [Gary Ayton's camping and photography wiki]

    Show threadSomeoneWhoIsntMeJan 3
    It’s a 3.5” floppy disk. And they were actually pretty firm. I’m mostly miffed cause for some people this is archaeology, and for me it was my childhood.
    Show threadIMALlamaJan 3

    Ha, you’re right. Thank for the catch.

    I too grew up with these and remember discovering DriveSpace, a Microsoft utility let you “compress a disk”, including floppies. This would often double their capacity.

    DriveSpace - Wikipedia

    Show threadSomeoneWhoIsntMeJan 9
    God I remember arc.exe and the first time I figured out how to write a proper command to compress some files. It feels like a million years ago.