[Alternative title: A camera review eight years too late...] What is your first digital camera? Mine is a Sony Mavica FD90. I still keep it; in fact it is still functioning today if not because of two things — firstly, the battery has died out and Sony is no longer selling that type of battery.

I can still take photos with it in limited environment, though, so long as I plug it into the socket to power it up.

Secondly, the camera, manufactured in 2000, has been overtaken by technological events, rendering it useless in today’s photo taking environment. This type of camera uses 1.4MB floppy disks and you can only take a maximum of five high-resolution photos for each disks.

High resolution by this camera’s standard is “interpolated” 1.6 megapixel, which, needless to say, is not high afterall.

Floppy disks are a rarity nowadays. It is becoming more difficult to find them in shops and computers no longer provide a special drive for them.

Man, we are talking about DVD drive nowadays. Who cares about them floppy disks? Haven’t you heard of blue ray high density disc yet?

Sure I’ve heard, but I’ve not seen them. You see, I still belong to the Mesopotamian era in as far as computers are concerned.

Flogging an old horse

In this era of Google, YouTube, Facebook… I can perhaps be included in IUCN’s Red List of endangered species for being among the last few remaining men who still wish that floppy disks could still be used in today’s world.

I kind of miss the times when I was still shooting with this camera — shooting blindly, that was, without regards to the composition, lighting and all. I want to put this camera to test once again now that I have some experience in photo taking.

I want to flog this old horse one last time before putting it in a glass case, but that seems no longer possible.

This beach side photo of a makeshift home of the Sea Gypsies of Borneo is among the few remaining photos I took with this camera. I lost the rest when the hard disk on my old Pentium 2 computer broke down.

Reading what other users said about the camera in ancient time never failed to give me a good laugh though. The conversation was serious at that time. Now, of course, it’s downright hilarious.

One user, for instance, says: “If you buy a camera that has media (micro drive or other) it is not warrenteed. So, the best way to go it floppy. I can fit more than 30 pictures on a disc. that as good as a roll of film. And you just throw it in your computer and copy in what you want. I don’t see why you would by anything else.”

Man, thirty pictures on a disc is for the 640 x 480 resolution. I wouldn’t say it was as good as a roll of film though, even in those ancient times.

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