Shooting for Instagram with the Apple QuickTake 200 from 1996

20 years ago, before Apple became dominant in the world of photography thanks to the iPhone, the company sold a standalone camera called the Apple QuickTake. Released in 1996, the $600 Apple QuickTake 200 shot 0.3 megapixel photos.

But is the 20-year-old camera still compatible with the technologies of today? Matthew Pearce wanted to find out. In the 5-minute video above, Pearce attempts to transfer a photo from an Apple QuickTake 200 to an iPhone 6S in order to post it to Instagram.

The QuickTake 200 uses a SmartMedia memory card, so Pearce had to find a compatible card reader. His newer iMac wasn’t compatible with the reader, so he had to pull out an old Dell Laptop and install old drivers. Using old equipment and Dropbox to get the photo onto his iPhone, Pearce was finally able to post one of the photos to Instagram:

MacBook standing.

A photo posted by Matt Pearce (@macintoshmatt) on Mar 17, 2016 at 4:28pm PDT

This all goes to show, if you’re storing precious data on the latest and greatest technology today, don’t expect those files to be easily readable a few decades from now — you might have to jump through many hoops just to see the files again, and that’s assuming that bit rot hasn’t gotten to them first.