u/CameraFarmer

They'll never see me coming!

Details of the anti-mosaic box are here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/VIDEOENGINEERING/s/Qs9Nd80wi2

I picked this out of a junk bin at a Japanese thrift store for a couple of dollars because I'm into video tinkering and it looked... Unique. Certainly the design is very interesting for a piece of Japanese video tech.

It turns out​, as the box states, 'This is the way to satisfy your desires!!!! Mosaic removal editing machine. Unlike previous mosaic removers, removes 100% of screen mosaic!! Eliminate frustration!!!'

I didn't add the exclamation points.

So I guess this was designed to remove the mosaic effects from Japanese, adult-related video content but, if the condition is anything to go by, it wasn't used much and was therefore probably not effective. I have watched a Japanese video of some guys testing it and it didn't seem to do anything, so maybe it increased frustration?

Still, I should be able to wire it into my video camera outputs and create some unusual effects. Yes, I did clean it very thoroughly... Very, very thoroughly.

It was sold with a battery, but no charger, so I have an aftermarket one on the way with a spare battery.

The aperture actuator spring had become disconnected (this was an easy fix) and the top LCD screen was scratched to hell (although it turned out to have a screen protector fitted!) but it's all working well now.

I updated the firmware, attached a strap and mounted the handy Pentax-F 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5, which was also sold to me as junk.

Apparently a version of this camera was sold by Samsung (GX-10) and the K10D was quite well regarded for its time, picking up a couple of awards.

As always I would like to pick up the vertical grip, but no hurry.

(Picture taken with a Panasonic HDC-SD200)

Grandista Son Goku, by the way.

I also found an off-camera flash cord and remote control at the same store I bought the camera and flash. I'm up to just over $16 all in on this rig so far but would like to add a battery grip at some point.

Image taken with a Panasonic HDC-SD200 (2009).

1,600 ISO, f/5.6

While trawling the aisles of my local thrift store I saw this little fella on the shelf for $3.80. It was incredibly dirty and very sticky (the old coating Canon had applied for grip had turned into an oily residue) but when the thrifting gods throw you a bargain, you have to buy it, so in my basket it went along with a few other bits and pieces.

Back at home I tested it with a battery and it seemed to work well, so I gave it a good scrub with some IPA and a selection of brushes, toothpicks and cloths, removing the stickiness along the way. There's some fungus behind the LCD screen and the rubber port covers have fallen off (the remaining rubber has fallen inside) but I'm not going to worry about that too much as this camera is going to be my loaner / rainy-day / beater camera, so it's going to get battered. The sensor got a wipe down and I stuck on an old, fungus-filled lens for testing that I think will stay on the body for now. I attached a strap and eyepiece I had lying around, loaded in a 1GB CF card, set the ISO to 1,600 and played around with some test shots. I think the results look okay.

This camera also shares a battery with my Canon G7 and I already had the 1GB CF card, which gives me around 95 shots, and accessories, so I figure this setup has cost me just over $10 so far.

Picture taken with a Panasonic HDC-SD200 (2009).

Edit for camera year.