I love photography. I love technology. But sometimes, I think that the former gets overwhelming, due to the latter. Feature creep has been slowly causing me to be less interested in the art, and I believe that knowing that I can take thousands of photos and simply scroll through to find "good" shots kills a lot of the art for me. I want to find something that will force me to breathe, to think, and to concentrate again on what I want to create, and not just snap endless photos and hope that the moment came and went.
Sure, film photography is cool, and a lot of photographers move towards this medium when they want to limit themselves, to challenge their creativity. I have done film photography, and I have my favorite cameras I like to shoot with, like my Pentax ME.
But I wanted to do something just as (or potentially more) limiting, and a little easier to access my finished photos. I have home lab chemicals, but developing and scanning is time consuming. There has to be another way...
And then it hit me. There it is. This could be my escape. Would using an old digital camera from the 1990s allow me to stop feeling overwhelmed by the plethora of features on modern digital cameras? Would the limited storage space force me to think about every time I snap the shutter?
There is only one way to find out.
However, if you know me, and if you read the title of this blog, you should know that I don't have just one Sony Mavica. In fact, this is my collection of just compact Mavica cameras:
Would I go with the original FD Mavica, the FD5? Or maybe I'd go with the largest sensor, the FD200? For some people, it might have been a hard choice. For me, only one stood out.
This is the FD71. It was my first Mavica. It has the smallest resolution sensor of any Mavica, matching the FD5 and many others, at only 0.3 megapixels, but this means more photos will fit on the storage medium.
What is the storage medium, you ask? Well, it's right in the title, after all. They don't call it an FD Mavica for nothing...
I chose this Mavica because it was my first Mavica ever. It was given to me by my friend Josh, who found it at a thrift store, played with it for a little while, and then gifted it to me because he knows how much I love old technology and photography (At the time, I ran a photo lab and was quite invested in the hobby). This, of course, kick started my love for this bizarre digital camera.
The other reasons I have chosen the FD71 are fairly clear. I get the option of manual focus, a small amount of optical zoom (controlled electronically) from a fantastic 4.2mm-42mm f1.8 lens (which is equivalent to 40-400mm and around f16 in a full frame 35mm format), and only a handful of potentially handy features accessed through various buttons on the back. This is just enough that I can get macro shots (the close focusing on this camera is about 1cm) but not enough that bloat will cause me any choice paralysis when I try to snap photos.
The FD Mavica lineup all use the same battery as well, and I have, at this moment, two functional ones. One of the lower capacity NP-F330, and the other is the NP-F550.
I don't own any of the NP-F570, which are the largest capacity that they made for these devices, but I think that the two I have will be plenty for what I'm planning to do.
After formatting my single Verbatim DataLife Colors diskette, I am greeted with the standard shooting experience. I've turned off the flash, set it to its standard Auto mode, and I'm ready to shoot.
The mission is simple: I have replaced my camera (Including the camera on my phone!) with this Sony Mavica FD71 for the entire weekend. Tomorrow is Friday, and I refuse to take any photos with a camera other than this one until Monday. If I need to take photos to show my friends something, or to check some information later, or to document something I find, it's all going to have to be done using the Mavica.
The limitation is twofold: First, I have only 0.3 megapixels (640x480 resolution) for photos. In reasonable print quality, this is really only enough resolution for a wallet-size photo print, so it's going to be hard to capture detail. Second, I have one floppy disk. Sure, I could bring more, but that starts making this less limiting, and also creates the risk of me ruining a disk if I store it improperly while transporting it.
A single disk might be great for modern cameras, or even semi-modern, with CompactFlash or SD card media. That's, at the least, hundreds of photos. For me, however, I'll be given somewhere between 15 and 40 before my simple 3.5" diskette is at capacity. I have to be very sparse with my shots or I'll be forced to play favorites when it fills to the brim. This means my storage limitation is similar to film, but I do at least get the advantage of being able to erase and replace photos if I'm desperate.
As I set my camera aside and go to bed, I'm ready for my antics to begin tomorrow. In fact, I have the perfect excuse to bring a camera with me in the morning: I'm going to buy a classic car project about an hour away from home. It is an exciting adventure that is certainly worth bringing a camera on.
From this moment onwards, all you are going to see are Mavica photos.
I woke up Friday ready to begin. I snapped a picture of my favorite stray kitten that hangs out on our front porch.
I managed to not capture him in focus very well, and this is when I realized that manual focus is going to be too difficult to use while trying to capture moving objects. I shrugged it off and moved on.
My friend and I were about to embark on a road trip to obtain a classic car that had been sitting in a field for many years, so we needed to fuel up the truck and ourselves first. We stopped for Little Caesar's, and I decided to take a picture of our food.
We ate quickly and then hit the road. It was an hour drive and a bit of Google Maps confusion to get to where we needed to be, but we would eventually make it.
And here is the car, loaded onto the trailer.
It's not much to look at, but it is mine. With the photos I took, it's hard to see how rusted the body is inside the car, but it's surprisingly solid on the outside. Some floor replacement is definitely in its future, though.
On the drive home, we stopped at a Sonic Drive-In and got some drinks, and then drove it to my friend's house for storage. It made it without issue.
Sometimes old cars can have really interesting badges. It's a nice thing to snap photos of occasionally. I can't say I was very impressed with the quality of photos I had been getting so far, and I know I've gotten better photo quality before out of this camera. Perhaps I wasn't thinking enough about what I was doing?
Either way, we left the car there and began cleaning my friend's shop building. We had other plans to work on things for the weekend, such as his Austin America or his Honda Civic.
He also has a plethora of photogenic cars himself, such as the tiny kei car Suzuki Alto Works or the 1965 AMC Ambassador.
He also runs a Youtube channel:
We toyed with the ideas we had for working on whatever project next, and called it a night. We decided to take Saturday off and come back on Sunday when the weather would be cooler.
The next day, I did nothing but homework and put a new set of strings on one of my old guitars.
I rested the remainder of the day away in anticipation of a lot of work on Sunday.
When we came back, we decided our first goal was to try and get the Austin America running.
After getting the engine to run, we decided a lunch break was in order, and we had Coney Islander while we gathered tools and parts at the local O'Reilly Auto Parts store. I saw a cool dual-sport motorcycle in the parking lot, and I snapped a photo as well.
When we returned, we continued to clean the shop and then one of his friends showed up with another project that he had bought, to deliver it directly to him. If you hadn't guessed already, his Youtube channel is named "Too Many Projects Garage", and it's quite literal.
As I snapped this photo, I was hit with large, bold text and beeping: DISK FULL. We finished our activities for the day and I went home, tired from the labor but also happy that I'd been able to abstain from using my phone or any fancy cameras from taking photos.
Riding in the car home, I wondered if I'd been able to accomplish what I'd set out to do. Did I limit myself too much by using one disk? Did I even capture any good photos? Only time would tell.
Of course, time has passed since then, it's now Monday evening. Writing this article and looking back at my photos, I certainly think that I was able to capture some decent images, but I'd personally say that only one or two of my 20+ images turned out worthwhile, or met my expectations.
Does this mean that the experiment was a success? I'm not sure. I will be more interested in using old, outdated cameras going forward, though, as I really think that the idea of putting to use technology that should have ended up in a landfill is a fun and economical way to practice a hobby.
Do I think this was better than modern photography equipment? Absolutely not. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it is some of my worst work as a photographer. I watched a lot of DigitalRev TV back in the Kai Wong era, and he'd often quote Chase Jarvis, who said "The best camera is the one you have with you." That's always stuck with me, and I think it's true today.
So maybe you don't need a fancy camera if you want to get into photography? Maybe you also don't need the nicest knitting needles, or the fanciest sewing machine, or the best hand saw and hammer. Whatever hobby it is, I think the thing this taught me the most, is that you should just get off of your seat and do it. Stop worrying about keeping up, and start pushing yourself forward.
Would I ever do this again, force myself to shoot with just a Mavica? Be forced to take mediocre photos with an archaic camera in hopes of capturing something cool?
I'm not sure. But, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pack my Mavica in my bag so that I can take it to school with me tomorrow.
Goodnight.