John Spahr

Just when you think you've seen everything, you're gifted a still camera that saves images to compact discs . I had been aware of Sony's CD Mavica line of cameras for a while, and I had owned numerous floppy disk Mavicas, but using a CD Mavica for the first time was surreal nonetheless. There's something special about a camera with a whole optical drive in it. It reminds me a lot of a Discman. I was fortunate enough to get mine for free with all of its accessories and several blank discs. My model is the MVC-CD400, and it was one of several CD-based Mavicas in Sony's lineup. This camera, in particular, dates back to around 2002. The weird round shape is the result of cramming a whole CD mechanism in this camera. The hardware is delightfully 2000s. The entire front panel, including its surprisingly bright LCD, folds out to reveal a compact optical drive. It reads 8-centimeter "mini" CDs. These are significantly smaller than normal CDs, and while the camera ...

October is nearing its end, and that means we’ll have to contend with winter soon. With this in mind, I wanted to capture rural Indiana's fleeting autumnal beauty this weekend. I decided to do this with two cameras: My beloved Canon Rebel T7 (paired with my Canon EF-S 18-55mm lens) and my Sony Mavica FD88 ( as seen previously   on this blog). I chose to use the Canon for still shots, as per usual... The Fall Vortex Red Splash Bokeh Leaf 3000 By the time I had taken these three photos, the sun had started to set. I was ready for a break. The following afternoon, I decided to find my next subject. My cat Mocha proved to be exactly what I was looking for. Yep, I took a bunch of cat pics. Sue me. A Distinguished Gentleman A Clueless Gentleman A Distracted Gentleman Mocha's Calm Stare I'm glad Mocha cooperated, as the results are quite nice. I had a lot of fun with my fall pictures, but nothing beats photographing cats (when they're on board with it).  As for the Mavica, I u...

Hey, everyone! Yesterday, I did something incredible: I recorded a 7-minute video on a Sony Mavica. For those unaware, the Mavica is a series of digital cameras produced by Sony that saved the photos they took to 3.5-inch floppy disks. If you want to learn more, I wrote a whole post about these things (and included some truly awful photos). Anyway, it turns out that my Mavica FD88 can record videos with a duration of up to 15 seconds. It's not a whole lot to work with, but each disk can hold 4 videos at a resolution of 160x112 pixels. Alternatively, you could fit 2 videos per disk at a slightly higher resolution of 320x240. I chose to record at a lower resolution so I wouldn't risk running out of floppies. I'd like to think that adds to the charm! Recording videos definitely drained the battery fairly quickly, so I had to charge it up once or twice throughout the day. The Mavica also got a little warm when recording. Otherwise, recording the videos was pretty painless! At ...

Hey, everyone. Yesterday, I took my Sony Mavica FD-75 to the park and got some neat shots. I used standard resolution for most of these photos and captured the events of the evening, as I had some fun hanging with friends. So, what are you waiting for? Check these pictures out!

Howdy, everyone! A few days ago, I wrote a post about my recently-acquired Sony Mavica FD88 , an absolute nugget of a camera. In said post, I mentioned that I also had a slightly less capable Mavica FD75 in my collection. So, in recognition that my last post was a bit lacking in the photo sample department, here are some fun FD75 shots that I took this weekend. Enjoy! Wow, that's a lot of photos in no particular order! Anyway, I hope you found this post interesting, and thanks for stopping by.