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Old 10-16-2013, 08:16 PM
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Dave A Dave A is offline
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1988 Sony Mavica MVC-C1

I saw a mention of Mavica (MAgnetic VIdeo CAmera) the other day here and I had to dig this kit out hoping you would like to see an early digital...of sorts...Sony consumer still camera that evolved later for many years in a true digital form. Hope it fits this magnetic category. It's analog, it's just still, and not moving. The MVC series had been around since 1981 or so as a pro camera but this was their first consumer camera with a very nice form factor. Like holding a pair of binoculars. $289 or so for the whole kit. 1988 for this one. I picked it up at a camera shop that went out of biz in 1989.

The sensor is 2/3" MOS that outputs in analog to a proprietary 2" disc that records the pix in analog for 50 frames. Optical VF. Flash. Timer recording. You need the playback adaptor connected to the camera to see anything which is also a battery charger. It does have a video out and the same connector is used for the common Sony RF adaptor of the day for tv viewing. Pure NTSC for viewing any way you do it. No digital after the sensor.

The disc loads in an elevator slot. The elevator died after two years or so in my first camera and I took it to Sony for repair. After a few days they called me to not repair it and buy it back from me. ??? They wanted to kill it. I kept it.

A few years later I was in NYC and went in to a camera shop on Fifth Ave. There it was with no accessories. I told the guy I was the only person on earth that would buy it with no parts. He gave in cheap so I had a spare.

The original NP-01 NiCad battery is history but I am trying to get it rebuilt as that is the only way the cam takes pix unless I can do a 6vDC wall-wart AC adaptor. I fired it up tonight on the playback adaptor after 15 years in the case. Came right up but I had no photos on my two discs so nothing to see.

The pix are cell pix and not great. The manual is at;

http://www.derrybryson.com/manuals/S...ica/MVC-C1.pdf
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File Type: jpg 20131014_203428.jpg (101.0 KB, 49 views)
File Type: jpg 20131016_194130.jpg (97.0 KB, 57 views)
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Last edited by Dave A; 10-16-2013 at 08:33 PM. Reason: typo
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Old 10-17-2013, 10:27 AM
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CoogarXR CoogarXR is offline
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Neat. The only Mavica I had heard of was the digital camera with the floppy disk drive (FDx series).
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Old 10-17-2013, 12:45 PM
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Cool! In the mid 70s, Sony was also showing around a prototype system that looked like a small U-matic recorder that played "Mavicards" that looked like large floppy disks (7-8inch?). I don't believe the system was ever marketed.
jr

Photo from "The S0ny Vision"; by Nick Lyons; 1976; Page 161.
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Last edited by jr_tech; 10-17-2013 at 01:50 PM. Reason: Add Pix
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Old 10-24-2013, 03:06 PM
NJRoadfan NJRoadfan is offline
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I have read many mentions of this camera in the Sony MPU-F100 (a rackmount TBC) promotional docs. Now I finally see what one actually looks like. Sony marketed the MPU-F100 specifically stating support for this line of cameras. I'm guessing the analog output has a lot of tape transport jitter to it!
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Old 06-03-2014, 01:46 AM
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It's alive! Andy Cuffe has had the Mavica for a while and it is back. He replaced by my count 64 surface caps. The camera is alive in it's 1988 analog glory. It does have a pixel problem across the screen on one row. The pixel count is .28megapixels and looks like that. But there is no other working version of this Sony recalled camera that I can find. 1988 introduced and recalled shortly after. The next Sony Mavica cam was 1996.

I have a few photos of the ballpark but I have to move them to a DVD via the only analog output of this cam and then screen cap them via that DVD from VLC to show them here. Andy moved forward on my battery solution to the camera battery and it is working for multiple photos. Stay tuned.

No wonder this thing died and Sony wanted it killed.
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Last edited by Dave A; 06-03-2014 at 02:03 AM.
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Old 06-03-2014, 07:14 AM
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Cool. I look forward to seeing the images. I've had a couple of the digital floppy mavicas and various other early digital cameras, but nothing analog.

I wonder if the 2 inch floppies were something of a standard? From memory Canon's still video cameras also used a 2 inch floppy.

I have a Zenith Minisport laptop that has a 2 inch floppy drive (but no disks for it) and I remember backing away from a sampler I was considering that used them as I thought they would be impossible to deal with. These were probably different though as they are digital.
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Old 06-03-2014, 10:11 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave A View Post
It's alive! Andy Cuffe has had the Mavica for a while and it is back. He replaced by my count 64 surface caps. The camera is alive in it's 1988 analog glory. It does have a pixel problem across the screen on one row. The pixel count is .28megapixels and looks like that. But there is no other working version of this Sony recalled camera that I can find. 1988 introduced and recalled shortly after. The next Sony Mavica cam was 1996.

I have a few photos of the ballpark but I have to move them to a DVD via the only analog output of this cam and then screen cap them via that DVD from VLC to show them here. Andy moved forward on my battery solution to the camera battery and it is working for multiple photos. Stay tuned.

No wonder this thing died and Sony wanted it killed.
If you can post pictures of your battery, I'll be able to tell you if it can be re-celled or not. The main concern is if it leaked or not, and how easy it will be to crack open without actually cracking it beyond reassembly. Among other things in my youthful past, I was the "technical guru" (on-site engineer/expert, un-licensed, un-regulated, un-censored, and probably un-hinged!) for a local specialty shop that did batteries and things directly related to batteries. (We did flashlights too, but they were rechargeable! Streamlight.) Re-building cordless drill batteries paid for at least one car and half a house by my count, not to mention what they paid me out of the profits. Originally we shipped the re-builds out to a company in Florida, then I came along doing odd-jobs and working miracles, and basically said to the owner "You know, this isn't rocket science, if we can find somebody to sell us the benchtop spot-welder I'm pretty sure we can pay it off in 90 days. We know what the cells cost, we know what XXXXX in Florida is charging us for the assembly, and we'll save shipping both ways." Turns out the guys in Florida were actually more than happy to sell us our very own spot-welder and all the other bits and bobs we needed. (Oh god the heat-shrink, it was GLORIOUS!) It wasn't any skin off their nose because we still bought nearly all of our cells through them anyway, and once in a while we'd still send them some particularly difficult or fiddly rebuilds. The shop I worked in closed up after a crazy flood in 2006, plus when Li-Ion went into "everything" starting around 2003/2004 it kind of put a pinch on the rebuilding end of things. Mainly because just not going to touch a multi-cell Li-Ion pack that someone else is going to use. Too much potential liability in those days. Now with protected cells it might actually be profitable, but we live in a disposable economy with planned obsolescence built in and by the time a battery needs rebuilt the device it goes into is obsolete/broken or can be replaced for $10.88 at walton-world.


The spot-welder is still operational, he's got it set up in his workshop and does odd-jobs and repeat business as an on-the-side deal, and the parts supply is still pretty deep as of last year. I'd be willing to rebuild it for you if you'd like. (With modern cells you can expect about 80% more capacity than original. You could go higher (up to 250% more!) but to do so requires some chin-scratching and napkin-math to make sure the charger will actually handle it properly.)


I just realized that if ETF ever gets their rebuild-operation going, the same spot-welding hardware could see use for gun assembly/re-assembly once that supply finally dries up.


I'll have to do some digging, I also may have a sealed box or two of the required 2" floppy diskettes, but as memory serves they were the Panasonic format, not the Sony ones. (Zenith luggable laptops had Panasonic drives in them.)
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Old 06-05-2014, 08:36 PM
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A pic from the Mavica. Xfered via Mavica video to DVD to VLC player and it's snapshot function. Who knows what the real pic looks like after these conversions. The resolution is VHS at best but the colors do look great. The bad pixel line is about 1/3 the way down. The Sylvania slide projector system had to be better.

NoPegs...the battery had wafers but they seem to be gone. I started a rebuild using AAAA 1/4 batteries pulled from 9v batteries. Andy expanded on that and it does seem to do the job. Pic would not load.

The thing is near useless but it is fun to have the working version of this obsolete and recalled camera. Sony...give me a call.
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File Type: jpg Mavica.jpg (45.1 KB, 22 views)
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Last edited by Dave A; 06-05-2014 at 09:02 PM. Reason: text
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Old 06-06-2014, 01:06 AM
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ChrisW6ATV ChrisW6ATV is offline
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Dave, I am curious. Was that specific camera recalled, or the whole analog Mavica format? I know a friend of mine had a setup of Mavica equipment in the early 1990s, but I do not remember what he did with it. He probably sold it at an electronics flea market in the late 1990s.
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Old 06-06-2014, 08:45 AM
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The buyback was just this camera. Sony came back in 1996 with the Mavica line again but now with digital recording on minidiscs.
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Old 06-12-2014, 01:54 AM
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Yes, I remember the Mavica name coming back on those boxy cameras that accepted floppy discs. My friend had the "analog still frame" Mavica equipment.
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