Monday, November 20, 2017

A Tale of Two Sonys...

Sony Mavica FD-88, a 1999-vintage 1.3 Megapixel camera with a 1/3" CCD sensor (Actual dimensions and explanation here.) Shooting in the highest resolution mode, you got three images like the above on a 3.5" floppy drive, and it takes a couple seconds of gronking and chortling to write to the disc after each shot.

Sony A7, a 2013-vintage 24.1MP full-frame mirrorless camera, with a sensor the same size as a 35mm negative. The A7 had an MSRP of $1699* when it came out, which is considerably more than the $999 the Mavica cost, and the A7's price is just for the camera body, so figure another few hundred for even a basic 50mm prime lens. Then again, the FD-88's price was in great big 1999 dollars and not tiny little 2013 ones...

Of course, the differences amount to a lot more than just the pixel count on the sensor.

*They just released the latest A7R III, which means that new old stock A7's are about the cheapest way into full frame these days...
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