Before the SD cards commonly employed today for image storage, CompactFlash cards, memory sticks, PC Cards and even 3.5-inch floppy discs were all used. The CD400 went one better: it recorded its images on mini compact discs (CDs).

 

This is a chunky little camera measuring 14x10x9cm and incorporating a comfortable hand grip. The lens is a Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar f/2-2.5 3x optical zoom; it sports five-area multi-point autofocus, multi-pattern metering, shutter speeds to 1/1000sec and the 1x1.8-inch sensor delivers 4mp images. Flash is built in, but there’s a hot-shoe for adding an external flashgun.

 

When the mini-CD is inserted it must first be initialised and formatted through the camera’s set-up menu. Shutter and aperture priority, programme and manual settings are available; wide and tele adjustments for the zoom lens are on the back of the hand grip; shutter delay is minimal but noticeable. The lithium ion battery is hidden in the handgrip, but the charger plugs into a slot in the side of the camera body, charging the battery in situ.

 

Pictures are previewed and then viewed on the large 2.5-inch LCD screen, but before they can be seen on a computer, the disc must be finalised in the camera, again via the set-up menu. After that the mini-CD drops into the central slot of the disc drive found on older computers.

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The camera is pictured (right) from the front and from the rear with the CD fitted. The pictures (below) were taken with the camera in 2019.