u/AtmanRising

The Canon Powershot SD550 Digital Elph is a 7.1 megapixel digicam that is universally beloved. Photos still look amazing to this day. The video quality is fun too, thanks to the good optics and full VGA resolution -- 640x480, which is naturally 4:3.

Keeping subjects in focus is a challenge. The only semi-reliable way is to choose between infinity versus macro mode before each shot. That's why some of this test footage is a little fuzzy. I didn't touch the colors, brightness, or contrast of any of the footage -- thanks to the built-in Vivid movie mode :)

The SD550 and its younger sibling -- the SD1000 -- are sought-after as traditional digicams, but you shouldn't ignore the video side of things. You can still have a lot of fun working around the limitations of this little "elph"!

Full quality on my YouTube channel:

https://youtu.be/XRKgFn1FRSw

A digicam is always fun to use, but you never know what you're going to get.

Yes, all of these photos were heavily edited. You can see noise, you can see artifacts... But there's something else. Something intangible.

The aging CCD sensor, 23 years later, simply refusing to die.

I'm serious. This thing was ahead of its time and I think Rocksteady learned from it to make Arkham Asylum.

Went to watch Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey on Dolby Cinema and decided to bring this little compact Sony with me.

Sit back, relax, and go back to the early 2000s with this nostalgic 4.1 megapixel digicam -- my favorite so far. Photos and videos were edited (Shotwell and Kdenlive). Video was upscaled to 1080p.

Apologies for the phone picture. Thanks!

Spoke to a few people. Supposedly someone used a 12V car battery to charge the Li-Ion battery from a scooter or bike. We're lucky the fire dept got there so fast!

For many years, this special Widescreen Edition of Raiders of the Lost Ark was the ONLY proper way to watch Indy's first outing at home. This laserdisc includes the uncompressed theatrical Dolby Surround mix (4.0), which sounds absolutely incredible to this day.

Happy 45th anniversary, Indiana Jones!

Check out some ACTUAL footage of Sony's fabled "640 Fine" mode along with stills from a recent outing at Century City! None of the video was color timed or ajusted in any way -- just the stills :)

It turns out this little Sony Cyber-shot can record video at 30 frames per second after all. Back when I owned this same digicam model in 2004, I simply had no idea. If you use a standard Memory Stick (like past me), all you'd get is stuttery, highly-compressed 16 frames a second, which you can see in previous videos on the channel.

A 512 MB Memory Stick Pro can hold about 7 minutes of footage at this higher level of picture quality and frame rate.

In the end, 640 Fine mode might as well be HD video for 2004 digicam owners. A real camcorder that shot SD footage (720X480 or 640x480) cost hundreds of dollars, almost $1K sometimes. And the video was interlaced, not progressive like the P41. If you wanted an HD camera, it was THOUSANDS of dollars. Pro or broadcast gear only.

Hope you enjoy this relaxing video along with a hot or cold beverage of choice. Let's keep making stuff with vintage hardware!

I love the commentary track on this disc. So much fun!

I love the commentary on this disc. Worth the price of admission for sure.

Our backup Xbox (OG model) has gradually stopped reading discs -- even an Audio CD earlier today -- so I fished out our first Xbox, which I bought in 2004 after arriving from Brazil.

That unit stopped opening the DVD drive so I simply bought another one from GameStop. It was in GREAT shape otherwise. I put it in the closet, and there it stayed since 2018.

Well, I pulled that first Xbox out of the closet and tested the DVD tray. It was still not sliding out, so I used a paperclip to open it. I plugged it in, opened it, closed it. Etc etc. Moved it to the living room once I was sure the console was still healthy otherwise.

Imagine my surprise when it suddenly started opening the tray on its own, just needing a push to close it. My jaw is on the floor. I was prepared to use the paperclip every time, but now I don't need to!

It's also nice that this OG Xbox is in such great condition and -- being a late 2004 model -- it doesn't suffer from the clock battery issue. I'm thrilled if you didn't notice it :)

P.S. The whole thing started with John Linneman's 007 video, which highlights EA's Agent Under Fire.