just took delivery of my Ricoh RDC-i700 Image Capturing Device, the weird camera from 2000 previously mentioned
so, this is a 3.3-megapixel digital still camera with a 3× optical zoom, in a now slightly unusual ice cream sandwich form factor, and with a flip-out screen
notably, that's a pretty generously sized screen at 3.5”!
it takes some fairly reasonable photos, if you treat it right, but the real treat is what's mentioned in Japanese by the factory sticker emblazoned on the left - this thing is Internet Enabled, with an E-mail Sending/Receiving Function!
how on earth? you ask? well, in addition to the CompactFlash slot for storage expansion, this thing packs a PCMCIA slot, which is in turn compatible with a smattering of y2k-appropriate connectivity options; you can slot in a modem (in which case it can dial up, FTP, email, browse the web and fax), a cellular card (in which case you can email and browse the web), or an ethernet card (10base-T, which allows emailing and browsing the web)
I got it with a compatible TDK 10base-T ethernet card and have managed to get it on my LAN, though I have yet to get it to play nice with DHCP or DNS1 - one step at a time, though!
it can talk to my PC, and vice versa, and that is unfortunately my best way to get images off it for the moment; I don't have any CompactFlash USB adapters handy, and it uses a hateful proprietary USB/Serial connector for which I cannot find any replacement
but yes, this thing packs NetFront, the web browser by ACCESS Co., Ltd. of PSP, 🌀Dreamcast and set top box fame and I surely don't have to tell you how excited I am to mess around with it
it has an FTP function which I was initially excited for, but it appears so far that it only allows for this function over a dial-up connection. a bit of a shame as I was hoping to use this to get images off, but the camera's web interface works just fine
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If anyone has any advice on getting a Unifi Dream Machine to give me a useful log of DHCP or DNS queries, please HMU
- it came with a surprising number of photos of a Japanese home on the internal storage, which I won't be sharing but almost all of them are blurry
- they're dated January 1, 2000, but that doesn't tell me much as that's just the default date in the firmware
- they do show a fantastic looking widescreen Panasonic CRT showing a Yankees game which mentions a player trade from 2000, so they're from sometime after 2000 but probably no later than 2005ish
- the thing shipped with a battery, despite being sold as having no accessories, and photographed using a power brick? I mean it's a win, but a bit unexpected
