Check Out My New Digital Camera

picture of Mavica digital camera (manufactured circa 2001)

It’s a Sony Mavica. With a whopping 1.3 megapixel camera, 320×240 MPEG video capability, and stores the pictures on a 3.5 floppy. Yes, I’m into the new age now…

Okay, enough sarcasm. This is the first digital camera I worked with, probably as early as 2001 taking faculty photographs for the department website. The camera was good back then, but was ancient within three years. By 2003 my wife had bought a Canon A40, which was a great camera. It makes me wonder what is going to happen with all these manufactured digital goods. I’m keeping this one as a paperweight/discussion point, but that’s not really a good use. I suspect that many of these items will be torn apart, with capacitors and other components de-soldered and reused in other projects by hobbyists and green focused companies.