A Retro Review of One of the Coolest Digital Cameras Ever Made

Today's modern digital cameras are small technological marvels, chock full of interesting and useful features. But back in the early days of digital photography, there was one camera that stood out from others, and this fun retro review takes a look at it.

Coming to you from LGR, this interesting review takes a look at the Sony Mavica line of digital cameras. Popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, these cameras were quite typical in terms of photographic capabilities, generally shooting 640x480 (0.3 MP) or similar resolution shots and offering the most basic features. What made them so wildly popular was their storage medium: the floppy disk. At that time, memory cards were constantly evolving, and different manufacturers were introducing and discontinuing proprietary formats all the time, and it made it a bit of a pain to try to keep up with them all. On the other hand, nearly every computer had a floppy disk drive, and they were comparatively cheap. This made the Mavicas enormously convenient, particularly for those who needed quick and straightforward access to their photos, and the line was highly popular for a few years. Check out the video above to see what they were like! 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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7 Comments

I worked in K-12 education and teachers loved this camera.

I have my FD-7 and just recently bought a battery for it. Now... if I could just find that external floppy disk drive I bought a few years ago...

This was the dope tech of its day. I too worked in K-12 education (like Jim Hunt) at the time. What a game changer!

I remember using one of these in the early 2000's (rented from my college) and even back then thinking it was garbage. The IQ was terrible, floppies were terrible, 3.5 mb was not enough space for anything...

Umm 1.44 not 3.5.

lol i find these suckers going for around $15 on craigslist often lol.

ahhhh yes. fond memories of this camera. my very first job had one and i used it often. direct to computer was awesome for flash videos. #thegoodoldays