G2's Blog

Adventures in Photography, c. 1998 - 2001

October 2, 2022

I recently received an old Sony Mavica digital camera for my birthday... The camera is the MVC-FD75, a digital camera from 2001 that writes to 3.5" floppy disks. I had only heard of the Mavica line of cameras in passing, so receiving one was quite exciting! Of course, fitting a meaningful number of images on a floppy disk means some significant compromises must be made, mostly in image compression. The camera shoots 640x480px images at quite high compression, even in the highest quality "fine" mode. Impressively, it's able to fit around 40 images on a floppy in standard quality, halving storage to 20 images in fine quality mode; or if you're willing to go through an absurd number of disks, it can also take images in uncompressed bitmap mode, holding a whopping 1 image in maximum quality!

MVC-FD75

A frontal view of the MVC-FD75 from an angle A back view of the MVC-FD75 with a disk half inserted

It's a pretty cute looking camera! I also think it takes pretty good images, all things considered! Its main struggle is with compression artifacts, but high compression is to be expected to fit 40 images on a floppy disk. There are some examples of images at the end of the article.

After playing with the camera for a bit, I had the desire to look up more information on it, and lo and behold I discovered that Sony, in typical fashion, had made an entire lineup of Mavica cameras! I looked for one on Ebay that would be significantly different from the FD75, and, for a good price, I found an MVC-FD91. This model is from all the way back in 1998(!) and resembles something like a conventional DSLR mixed with a camcorder. When it was released, it was Sony's top of the line digital camera, priced at $1,099 USD!! It features a higher maximum resolution of 1024x768px, and a 14X zoom lens! It also has features more commonly seen in Camcorders from the era, such as Sony's "Steadyshot" image stabilization, and the ability to record up to 60 seconds of video... at 160x112 and 24 fps. Needless to say the videos are practically unusable, and you only get 60 seconds at the lowest quality setting. However, the images it takes in still mode are quite good! See the end of the article for some examples.

MVC-FD91

A frontal view of the MVC-FD91 from a top down perspective A view of the rear of the MVC-FD91

MVC-FD75 Images:

An image of a tree by the MVC-FD75 An image of a leaf by the MVC-FD75 An image of my MZ-E707 Minidisc Walkman by the MVC-FD75

MVC-FD91 Images:

Some oak leaves taken by the MVC-FD91 A "No Right Turn" sign taken by the MVC-FD91 An alleyway taken by the MVC-FD91 A squirl on a tree taken by the MVC-FD91

For more info, check out these sources:

Wikipedia: Sony Mavica Camera Wiki: Mavica FD75 Camera Wiki: Mavica FD91 DPReview: Sony Mavica FD-91