Dr David Mills

New #Camera!

It uses tiny-tiny #floppydisks

It's a Cannon RC260 from 1990/1991

I wonder if the disk works? I'll have a play later. #retro

Mar 6 at 5:05pmWeb
Show threadKris\SlykaMar 6
@dtl ohhhh, very cool! Is that one of the ones that records a single frame of analogue video per floppy track?
Show threadDr David MillsMar 6
@slyka I'm not sure, I know almost nothing about this camera or the disks. I plan to learn.
Show threadLinker3000Mar 6
It is. I have one... somewhere...
Show threadBen CMar 6
@dtl oooh coool. My school had one of those in 1992, it seemed like incredible witchcraft at the time.
Show threadDr David MillsMar 6
@bencc Until I saw this one for sale, I only knew of the Sony camera that saved to disks.
Show threadBen CMar 6
@dtl ah yes the mavica? Those are also cool. The ion is weirder, it’s not a digital recording istr.
Show threadBen A L JemmettMar 7
@bencc @dtl It's not, no, but then neither was the original Sony Mavica which used the same 2" 'video floppy' format as the Canons. It wasn't until the later Digital Mavicas that Sony moved to using 3.5" floppies and files.
Show threadBen CMar 7
@baljemmett @dtl ahhh, TIL. I’ve only seen the 3.5” version.
Show threadRC2014Mar 6
@dtl Can you use a pencil in the floppy disc hole to rewind it when you get to the end?
Show threadgroff 🇺🇦Mar 6

@dtl I'm guessing you haven't got a head cleaning disc for that. :)

I normally use 'out of date' sterile dry swabs with isopropyl to clean the heads.

EEVblog does a teardown of one.

Show threadpaulrickardsMar 6
@dtl I have two of them and they're both inoperable. One worked for about 5 minutes then stopped. I'd say, have something ready to record what it displays in case it works because it might not work again. Good luck!
Show threadDr David MillsMar 6
@paulrickards that's good to know, thank you. Ive got a video capture card somewhere.
Show threadAlfred Chow - Maker of ThingsMar 6

@dtl
At college in 2004 we had a photography module.
We weren't allowed to download our own digital camera, or phone, photos to the college computers so had to take turn on the college camera.
It used a floppy disk!

[Click!]
Whurrrrrrrr.... whurrrr... clack clack clack.
Beep [saved].

It only took two images per disk.

I have no idea what we were supposed to learn from it.

Show threadDr David MillsMar 6
@Maker_of_Things Patience?
Show threadAlfred Chow - Maker of ThingsMar 6

@dtl
Also, downloading the camera to a Mac, transferring to a memory stick, and then uploading to a Windows PC before we could view the image.

So, yeah, maybe.

Show threadSteampunk_ProfMar 6
@Maker_of_Things @dtl
Patience 😁
Show threadKimMar 6
@Maker_of_Things @dtl My school had one like that, back when it was still cool.

A couple of years later, I went to a university open day, where the E&EE department tried to impress us with a commercial digital camera, the only thing about which was vaguely impressive was that it used some sort of flash memory for storage.

(They had a research group with a van full of computers that could drive itself on an empty stretch of motorway. Which was proper Knight Rider science fiction type stuff at the time, but somehow failed to try to impress us with that. Weird. )
Show threadjamesb (MW1CGG)Mar 6
@dtl
Those disks barely worked when they were new!
Show threadPhilMar 6
@dtl - why are the disks not square? Presumably they're still disc shaped inside?
Show threadF4GRX SébastienMar 8
@philcowans @dtl because there is a hole on the right side