I've got it! Nikon QV-1000C!

Discuss Nikon E2, E3 (incl. Fujix DS-505, 515 and 56x models), the original Nikon D1 and other discontinued Nikon DSLRs. Ask questions, post general comments, anecdotes, reviews and user tips.
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I've got it! Nikon QV-1000C!

Post by NikonWeb »

With the assistance of the Norwegian Nikon distributor I've tracked down the only QV-1000C ever sold in Norway. It's now mine. Got it today.

Complete kit including both QV lenses, QV-1010T transmitter, manuals, etc.

Everything in mint condition (or very, very close). Needless to say, I'm a very happy man :D

More details later. I'm off to a REM concert.

Jarle
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CAMERA

Post by NIKON KIU »

Hi Jarle, :o
Congrads,We will wait for your review.If you come across another one let me know,I will be very much interested.
Kiu :P
Stan Disbrow
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Post by Stan Disbrow »

Hi,

Glad to hear that you finally tracked one down! I, also, am looking forward to your write-up on using the cute little critter. :)

Stan
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QV-1000C first light

Post by NikonWeb »

Thanks guys!

Oh man, this is so sweet! I've played with the camera today. Wasn't sure if I could make it work, but I did!

I 'formatted' one of the unusual 2" disks in the QE-110 Floppy Disk Eraser (only way to to it!), placed it in the camera and had it work almost immediately (after messing a bit with a few other disks and the old batteries -- I have two that probably haven't been charged for years).

Did you know that this thing can shoot 20 fps!? The camera has the smallest mirror I've ever seen, yet one of the brightest viewfinders (it obviously helps to use a f/1.4 lens, but it's still very impressive).

Made a few shots of the kids around the house and put the disk into the QV-1010T transmitter (a big card, eh diskette reader with a small monitor and transmission capabilities).

And there they were: My first QV-1000C photos!

The next challenge will be to get the shots into the PC. The transmitter includes no digital output whatsoever. Photos were transmitted over telephone lines as audio signals in the old days. I can't use that (if you know a way to do it please let me know).

The transmitter even came with a rare piece of Nikon equipment: A QA-10 Acoustic Coupler "to enable direct transmission of image signals over normal telephone lines witout a modular cable".

But there's one thing I can use: A Video Out port.

Using a regular, modern cable (don't know what they're called, it's the kind with a white, yellow and red plug) I could view the QV-1000C photos on my TV. Very cool. Quality looks surprisingly good (I know it's only a television, but still).

The easiest method is probably to use a TV card and make frame grabs on the PC. After all, it is a low-res Still Video Camera. Approx. 450 TV lines horizontal resolution, according to the manual. Some more details (I know little about TV's -- I'm only a viewer):

"The television system compatible with QV-1000C is EIAJ Standard (525 lines, 60 fields), NTSC color signal". Also (more tech stuff):

"The QV-1000C's image recording format complies with the luminance signal FM recording standard recommended by the Electronic Still Camera Conference." Like I mentioned, all (?) transmission equipment in the good old days used acoustic signals.

Jarle
Stan Disbrow
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Post by Stan Disbrow »

Hi,

I think you've used the best method of digitizing the images from the little guy. Use the yellow-ended cable, since that's the video one. The red and white are audio cables, and might not provide as clean a signal to the video capture card.

Sometime, when you get a chance, shoot a couple pix of the disk on both sides. If it's what I think it is, I have a couple hundred of the things on the shelf here. There was a time in the old IBM days when I was experimenting with a 2" diskette drive prior to the 3.5" becoming a standard. My guess is that Nikon used the same disks in the little guy, since we're talking about the same era here. :)

In case y'all haven't guessed, I tend to 'dumpster dive' and keep a lot of the bits out of the scrap heap. :P

Anyway, since the system is entirely analog, you have to add in an analog-to-digital stage on your own, and it seems to me that the video out port is a great place to grab said analog, and a decent video capture card is essentially a A-D converter. :)

Unless you managed to get a set of schematics for the system, that is. If so, scan them and pass them on and I might be able to find a better way to pull off the A-D. Now, I know that's unlikely. Since when does Nikon supply prints? It may be, since this was a special product intended for a knowledgeable customer set, that they actually stuck the prints in the back of the manual. Sort of like the way that we do with 2-way radio manuals, but we don't with cell phones......

Power cycle the batteries and they should be OK if it's a case of 'sit-itis'. They have to be NiCd cells, so just playing with the camera will serve to cycle them nicely. In the worst case, they can be rebuilt. I can't imagine that Nikon used a non-standard cell for such a low volume product. :)

20 fps, eh? That's pretty sweet! How many frames fit on the 2" diskette? Or is this a case where you can run attached to the transmission box and it has internal storage? So many questions come to mind! But, I'll stop there.

Oh, and I wonder if it'd be possible to scan the documentation and stick it online somewhere so we can all read it and be transported back in time? :)

Later - and have fun with the thing!

Stan
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QV-1000C

Post by NikonWeb »

Hi Stan,

Yes, a video capture card is probably the easiest way to get the images into the PC. The set didn't include any schematics, I'm afraid. No surprises there. Unfortunately I don't have any XP drivers for my old capture card, so I guess this is a good time to buy a new one :)

The 2" diskette looks more or less like a regular 3.5" diskette, only smaller. Since I haven't yet had the time to make my own illustrations, there's a photo of the disk in this Nikon article:

http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/portfol ... ns16_e.htm

I'll post some more photos later.

I haven't charged or tested the batteries properly yet, but they're apparently 'good enough' for testing the camera around the house. Don't know if it's a standard battery (I don't have the camera in front of me right now -- I'll post some photos and more details later). I'll let you know if I ever need to rebuild it :)

I think the diskette will hold 100 shots (again, I don't have the manual available right now). The camera will operate on its own, i.e. it's not connected to the transmitter in any way.

I'll provide the documentation for you later. Meanwhile, feel free to ask if you have any other questions. This is so much fun!

Jarle
Stan Disbrow
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Post by Stan Disbrow »

Hi,

All the rest of my questions can probably be answered from the manual and a couple of sample photos from the thing. ;)

I looked at that diskette, and it *looks* like what my wetware thinks is what I have packed away with a bunch of other ancient and oddball media.

The shot on the Nikon site isn't all that great, but it'll do to see if what I have in the way of 2" floppies is even close to what that thing uses.

Sticking 100 video frames onto a 2" diskette isn't bad at all. If I recall, the 2" diskettes held on the order of 500 kB of data using the usual soft-sectored format we used on the IBM PC's at the time. I had figured that they might hold on the order of 75 analog shots, so I wasn't far off.

As far as the batteries go, most older stuff, which for Nikon DSLRs means pretty much anything older than the D2 series. uses packs made up of standard cells. There are some 100 standard rechargeable cell packages out there, so they can look very different from what's standard for disposable cells, yet be easily obtained.

As long as what you have works well enough for your playing with the thing, there's no need to consider rebuilding the things. We'll adopt the ancient 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' attitude! ;P

Man, I want one, too, so I can have some fun! What I need to do is find one, play with it for a few days, and then pass it on to one of the more serious collectors here. I know that once I played with one for a few days, it'd lose it's novelty and I'm not into the collecting part of photography - yet. :)

Enjoy!

Stan
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QV-1000C diskettes

Post by NikonWeb »

Stan Disbrow wrote:The shot on the Nikon site isn't all that great, but it'll do to see if what I have in the way of 2" floppies is even close to what that thing uses.
If you have more than you need, I might want to buy a couple from you.

My unit came with five diskettes (both original Nikon, one with a Canon label and a couple of no brand diskettes). Apparently, at least a few of them are not working properly (the camera will display an error message). I'll try to 'format' them again and see if that helps.

The QE-110 Floppy Disk Eraser has got to be one of the strangest Nikon gadgets ever. You put the diskette in, close the cover, and manually rotate a dial below the unit. One rotation and the unit pops open, indicating that the disk is erased. That's it. It actually looks like there's a magnet or something in there, but I can't image the technology being so crude. Or perhaps it is? The eraser is completely manual. No electronics, no batteries.

For some strange reason, the diskettes cannot be erased/formatted in the camera or even in the transmitter. Imagine being in the field and losing your disk eraser. You'd be in serious trouble. As far as I know, the 2" diskettes were very hard to find, even in 1988.

Jarle
Stan Disbrow
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Post by Stan Disbrow »

Hi,

Well, I'm home and the first thing I did was go dig up one of those 2" diskettes I have and compare it to the pix on the Nikon site. Looks like mine are 'sort-of the same.'

What looks different to me is that the pix for the QV shows an arrow, which I take to mean 'insert this way', which would put the thing in with the slider to the right-hand side.

Mine are meant to be inserted slider first, just like the larger 3.5" diskettes.

That would put them 90 degress out-of-phase. Dang it all.

What I suspect is that the ones I have might be from Sony and be a small version of the 3.5", and the ones Nikon used be from a competing design. That's not at all unusual. Look at VHS vs Betamax, or the current Blu-Ray vs HD DVD situation.

I suppose it's also possible that they are different because one was meant for analog recording and the other for digital data (yes, the actual recording is analog in either case, but the magnetic material has to be more consistant for digital data bits than for pure analog signals).....

Oh, and the 'formatter' is probably a permanent magnet. Yes, it *is* as simple as you think it can't be! I'm 99.999% sure of that from the description.

That's a real common way to deal with 'formatting' analog recording media. You might want to try a garden-variety AC powered electromagnet, as in a video/audio tape eraser. That'll be more powerful than a permanent magnet, which is very likely weaker than it was when it was new.

I expect that the recording is done in a spiral fashion on the little disk, like an old analog record is, and not as a series of concentric circles, like a computer diskette is.

Later!

Stan
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drummond93
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Pictures... Must Have Pictures! Drool...

Post by drummond93 »

Jarle-
Congratulations on your find! Lets see some pictures, so that I can stop drooling and slobbering on my keyboard!

Actually, the drooling is my 2-year old son, who can't understand why daddy is not playing Sesame Street on the computer with him and instead is looking a some funny pictures and words :)

Enjoy! And, if you ever get any other replies to your search from someone who has another QV-1000, I'd be interested in one for my collection.
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Re: Pictures... Must Have Pictures! Drool...

Post by NikonWeb »

drummond93 wrote:Jarle-
Congratulations on your find! Lets see some pictures, so that I can stop drooling and slobbering on my keyboard!
Thanks Nathan!

You know, this is not only a rare digital camera -- it's actually one of the rarest Nikon cameras ever. I was extremely lucky to find one. Did I mention that's it's very nice as well? :D

I'll post a bunch of photos and more details later. Keep drooling!

Best regards,
Jarle
Brian Sweeney
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Post by Brian Sweeney »

Jarle,
Congratulations!

The Dec 1990 and Dec 1991 issue of Popular Photography lists the QV1000c in its survey of Electronic Still Cameras. They also include some others that I had forgotten about.

Fujix really made a push for the digital storage card early on.
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Re: QV-1000C diskettes

Post by NikonWeb »

Thanks Brian!

I've been told that the QV-1000C was listed by Nikon until 1993 (at least in Germany). Probably because they were unable to get rid of them all.

Unlike Canon's first Still Video Camera (RC-701 from 1986), Nikon only sold complete sets, including the two special QV-lenses and QV-1010T transmitter. Canon RC-701 sold for a modest 390.000 yen (approx. $3600) -- not sure if that included any lenses -- while the Nikon kit cost an amazing $25.000!

Stan, a correction for you:

The 2" disk doesn't hold 100 images like I mentioned earlier. I now have the manual in front of me. With a new 'video floppy disk' in S or C mode, the disk will hold 25 images. In CH mode ('high speed continuous frame mode') the number doubles to 50 shots. Sorry for the confusion.

Here's some general still video camera info I found (interesting article):

'The still-video camera uses a 2-inch video floppy disk capable of recording 50 or 25 images. The number of images that can be recorded on a floppy disk depends on whether the image is recorded in the field" or "frame" mode.

The FIELD MODE uses one track per image on the floppy disk and allows 50 images to be recorded on one disk. The field mode provides poorer resolution because there are less pixels per picture. The FRAME MODE uses two tracks per image and allows 25 images to be stored on one floppy disk. The frame mode provides higher quality because more pixels per image are recorded.'

http://www.tpub.com/content/photography ... 208_85.htm

Jarle
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Re: QV-1000C diskettes

Post by NikonWeb »

'Video floppy disk' seems to be the correct name for these things. I'm surprised to see that they're still available on eBay and elsewhere on the web.

As far as I can tell (please correct me if I'm wrong) these disks are commonly labelled 'MP-50'. I think these are the same as Canon's VF-50 and Nikon's VF-10 disks. I'll probably get some MP-50's just to make sure :)

Jarle
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QV-1000C image gallery

Post by NikonWeb »

It will still take a while before my QV-1000C review is ready, so while you're waiting you can take a look at these photos:

http://www.nikonweb.com/qv1000c/gallery/

(It's a real pretty camera, don't you think?)

I still haven't captured any photos from the QV-1010T transmitter (need to find a working video capture card first), but I've included two photos displaying actual shots from the camera: One viewed on the transmitter monitor, and another viewed on a TV screen.

I photographed myself (especially for you Kiu) and the camera in the mirror -- it's ok to admit it, we've all done it -- and then displayed the photo on the television via the QV-1010T. The TV was then photographed with my D2X. Pretty surreal, eh?

Enjoy!

Jarle
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