Floppy disk camera: Revisiting the Sony FD85, how does it hold up nearly 20 years later?

 

 

In 2000, Sony released the MVC-FD85 digital camera. What made this camera interesting is that, like other Mavica models, it utilized a floppy disk for image storage. There was an optional adapter which accepted Memory Stick cards inside of a dummy floppy disk as well. The FD85 used a 1.3-megapixel CCD image sensor and had a built-in lens which provided a 35mm equivalent 39-117mm focal length range with an f/2.8-2.9 aperture.

YouTube user LitZippo recently revisited the FD85 and made an entertaining review of the camera, complete with video and image samples and comparisons to a much more modern Nikon D3300.

As you can see in the video, the image quality, while not particularly impressive, far outpaces the video quality of the FD85. Further, the floppy disk media does have some limitations, both in terms of physical size and capacity.

If you’d like a Sony Mavica FD85 of your own, you can purchase a used one for as little as $30 (plus shipping) from Amazon. To see full-resolution images from the Mavica, see here and here.

(Seen via Reddit)