When planning the costs associated with these travels, we had to factor in costs for the pictures we would take over the course of our adventures. Basing our calculations on past travels (ie: roll of 24 exposures every three days), we worked out that at the end of purchasing film and developing film and sending film and negatives back in the mail to Australia, we would be up for about $1800.

This was obviously a matter of some concern. After all, we already own a 35mm camera (Pentax Espio 140M) that has done us more than adequately on past travels, so we had two options - take less photos to cut costs, or go to the world of digital cameras. There was, of course, one small hitch with the digital camera idea - it had to be a Sony Mavica since they are the only ones that take floppy disks.

We emailed about fifty internet cafes around the US, in cities we’d be visiting, and asked whether or not they would allow us to download driver software for digital cameras or not. Some were very well set up for travellers with digital cameras and had machines with all the relevant software on them. Others simply stated that they would not permit any software to be installed, and the computers were set up to prevent that. A few places said that they had no objections to installation of driver software, but that they had no CD-ROMs in the machines, so the software drivers would have to be on disk.

We considered going to cameras that use Clik drives, but there were so many parts involved, they would be ridiculously heavy and bulky. So, we fell back to the Sony Mavica range, because - as stated above - they are the only cameras being made that accept 3.5″ floppy disks directly into the camera unit.

Due to the prices involved, there was no way that we could afford some of the higher end models in the range. Trav tried an FD73 model and found that it would do the minimum required (ie: get pictures of website quality, but not good for printing), but that still cost $999 (Australian RRP, Nov 2000). Still, since the next model up was heavier but of no real use, and the models further up were too expensive (~$1800 - $2000), it would be cheaper to go with a film camera.

So we decided on the FD73 since we decided printing was not that big an issue, and even though it would be nice to have pictures to put on the wall at the end, it was not an incredibly major point. Finding the cheapest FD73 to be $820 retail, we checked out a few online auction sites. The first auction we found was to win one of five brand new FD73’s through www.gofish.com.au but that one was lost in the dying minute. Sadly, we actually had the same bid as three of the winners ($735), but because of the timing of the bid arrivals, we lost. A week later, another auction came to an end, but since the winning bid went over the accepted limit we’d decided on ($773), we did not win that one either.

Finally, harking back to a earlier time (pre-internet…*gasp*), we decided to check the phone book and see what stores were listed that were not found on the net in the various searches we’d done. We came up with a few new ones, although all but one of them did not stock the Sony Mavica range anyway. The one that did actually had a website and evidentally needed to work on their search engine promotion, so I’ll give them a free plug - www.camerasplus.com.au

They had the FD73, but it was not the cheapest price of the quotes we’d received. While speaking to them about other Mavica models, it came up that they had an FD91 model they might be interested in giving a discount on, as it was an older model. I went and checked the specifications on the net, and found it to be a lot better than the FD73 but since the price was open to bargaining, the smaller difference in cost made it a lot more attractive.

At the end of the day, we ended up coming out of it with the FD91 for $909 (duty free) instead of the $1320 (duty free) it had been listed as on the price tag in the shop. Given the price of the same model is still about $649-$1217 US dollars, it seems like we’ve picked it up at half price compared to the people in the place we’re intending to use it mainly. Hurrah! What a stroke of luck we lost those auctions or else we would have given up the search right there and then, and used the much lower quality FD73 instead.

You might be wondering why the price was falling so fast on the FD91. It was mainly because the FD95 had replaced it as the newer model, and the new Mavica 1000 had recently been set upon the world. The reviews for the 1000 model are not particularly good, so we are not sure why people would buy it, but it pushed down the FD95 price just by being on the shelves. Note that when we say “pushed down” the price, we don’t mean much - quotes were still scary, ranging from $2089-$2270 (duty free!). The FD95 had a few features more than the FD91, but the main one was that it took floppy disks AND Sony Memory Stick, compared to just floppy disks. However, since we only wanted the floppy disk storage option, it simply pushed the price down on the model we wanted with the features we wanted, and was generally a good thing for us.

To give some idea of the difference, an image I took with the FD73 toward the opposite corner of an intersection showed the people clearly, but the detail of some sign wording was low, due to the sharp edges being affected by JPG compression heavily. The FD91 was tested over the same distance, except that when I checked the photos to compare, not only was the lettering on the sign I focussed on clear, but the small label listing the contact details for the company that made the sign was legible (albeit just). Still, to be able to read a 4″ square label from across the street is no mean feat, and I could not even read it when I was standing there using my own eyes.

So there you go. We are roughly $900 under budget compared to film costs at the moment. This difference will diminish since we need to buy a second battery (~$90) and a protective bag (~$30), but we should still be well under budget, saving a lot of money to actually getting to see stuff worth taking a picture of.

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001