Sony Mavica

You can go back in time--on Amazon.  I mean, not really but sort of, by reading the reviews written by people who purchased the Sony Mavica camera back in 1999.  They are still there on the web site.   Unlike the storage media of the Sony Mavica camera (3 ½ inch floppy’s), Amazon has plenty of server space to maintain the obsolete reviews from thirteen years ago.  And the reviews are eye opening. 

In its day the Mavica was state of the art.  It had a Zeiss 14x optical Lens standard.   Combine that with the floppy storage, a great viewfinder and an LCD screen and you had a potent tool.  The ‘hi-res’ photos that Mavica shot back in the day are tiny compared to the photos you can get on any cheap digital camera today.  But even so, back then, the Mavica was considered a quantum leap in technology.  People were amazed at being able to walk around with a stack of floppys in one’s pocket and shoot the equivalent of half a dozen rolls of film.  To be able to delete shots on the fly.  No developing film.  The joy of seeing the images appear on the screen of your blazingly fast 486 PC…the floppy clicking and dumping the bits onto your hard drive…and sending the jpegs to your friends via e-mail!  It was amazing!

The Clothespin Bag

 Back in 1991 I had one (I still have it).  It seems like a boat anchor now but back then I was thrilled to carry the thing everywhere.  I bought a cordura fishing tackle box in K-mart and padded it so I could carry the camera, floppys, spare battery, charger and cord to the beach or hiking or on the back of my red, white, and blue Honda Transalp.  Everywhere I went I remember many, many people stopping me and asking me about the camera.  Asking me to snap a photo of them and giving me their e-mail address so I could send it to them.  Many, many people. 

I also took photos of the job.  Of wildlife-birds, turtle nests, chipmonks and ants-and of motorcycles, friends, my sons, no matter what I did it seemed like the camera had to be a part of the process.  The Sony was to become like a friend and I think I will never take more pleasing photos with any other camera.  I know these images are small and grainy and the Mavica is technologically out dated but when I look at the images I love them.  I have had a half dozen cameras since and none of them has given me the sense of confidence or consistently pleasing pictures the way that old Sony did.  Today I took out the tackle box and charged the batteries-each of which is about half the size of a modern cell phone-and then I popped a floppy into the ‘Beast’.

As I expected the shots of Lizzy’s Mom were very grainy but the low light shot caught her perfectly.  With a tiny bit of light this old camera could always take a nice portrait, especially very tight in.  Also, as expected, the close shots of the do-dads on the porch were nice too. It was always fantastic at extreme close-ups.  The weakest shots were scenes, and even those pleased me some.  So, despite my fairly regular urge to ‘clean house’ and ditch old technology including the Mavica, I hang on to it.  The laptop I am using right now and the one that will follow it and the iPad that will follow that will probably be in the trash (uhhhh, excuse me- be recycled!) long before the Sony Mavica hits the landfill.