Kodak MC3 Portable Media Device from 2001 was Everything But a Smartphone

The Kodak MC3 debuted in 2001 as a compact little field that couldn’t decide which hat to put on. Kodak marketed it because the MC3 Moveable Multimedia Machine, which precisely characterised the gadget’s lofty however somewhat erratic goal. This tiny field contained digital pictures, quick video clips, and MP3 tracks, multi function neat little package deal, years earlier than solely essentially the most daring gadget customers would even take into account merging these features.

It value roughly $229 ($417 at present), a excessive value that they ultimately diminished to make it extra interesting to most people. It got here with a 16MB CompactFlash card to get you began, however many house owners rapidly upgraded to a a lot bigger 64MB or 128MB model, which was actually useful given how restricted these reminiscence playing cards had been.

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The MC3 measured round 4.1 by 2.6 inches and weighed about 5.5 ounces with batteries, or extra particularly, three tiny AAA batteries. These had been those who saved the present going, whether or not you had been taking footage, viewing movies, or listening to music.

A comparatively easy fixed-focus lens was mounted on the entrance of the MC3, with a focal size just like 37mm on a movie digital camera and an f/2.8 aperture to match. The nonetheless photographs it shot had been 640 by 480, VGA commonplace, which was first rate but in addition meant you’d rapidly refill that small reminiscence card, and sure, the pictures had been nonetheless discernible, only a contact low-resolution. The colour LCD measured 1.6 inches throughout, which was simply large enough on the time, and it featured reflective expertise that functioned effectively in robust sunshine however nearly fully disappeared in darkish settings or when seen from an uncommon angle. No backlight meant longer battery life, which was nice, but it surely additionally meant you needed to be prepared to border these images or consider them in vivid gentle.

Video recording was a little bit of a low-effort affair, capturing 320 by 240 pixels at a really modest 20 frames per second in QuickTime MOV recordsdata, with H.263 compression and fundamental mono sound. Clips had been fairly temporary, lasting only some seconds on smaller playing cards, however they may very well be stretched out to roughly 4 minutes for those who had a a lot bigger 64MB card to play with. Don’t anticipate high-quality photographs; publicity shifts had been abrupt and sluggish to reply, and low-light circumstances precipitated a slew of undesirable noise. To observe your clips, you would both use the MC3’s personal small display, or (for those who’d splurged on an AV cable) plug it as much as an NTSC or PAL tv for a significantly bigger viewing expertise.

Music playback from regular MP3 recordsdata was easy, utilizing both the top-mounted headphone port or the built-in mono speaker, nonetheless the sound was a bit of weak and harsh. Quantity controls had been conveniently situated for fast changes, eliminating the necessity to take away the gadget out of your pocket. Storage was a little bit of a difficulty as a result of it relied fully on smaller CompactFlash Sort I playing cards formatted in FAT16, which meant that bigger modern playing cards continuously wouldn’t work. To make issues worse, recordsdata need to be within the root listing to ensure that the participant to seek out them reliably.

The controls are tucked away within the again, whereas a 4-way slider dealt with enterprise for toggling between digital camera stills, film seize, video playback, and music modes. The interface was accomplished with a tiny set of shutter launch, menu, and playback controls. It additionally contained a helpful USB connector for simple file transfers, in addition to an AV jack that doubled as video out and stereo line audio, offered you had the right cable.
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