Apple QuickTake

Just venting here... I have a QuickTake 100 camera that someone gave to me (used) a number of years ago. I played with it a bit over the years - made my own cable, found the old Windows software, got the whole thing working on a Win XP image.

I finally started working on a project to write my own software for the camera to run on current Windows and Linux desktops. Sure, it's kind of a useless thing to do, but it was fun and I was learning a lot. I had progressed to the point where I have a GUI app that can talk to the camera and pull off config info (pics taken, image quality, camera name, etc.). The next step was to write the code to actually read images.

The camera suddenly decided it does not want to turn on. Batteries are fine, but when I turn the camera on, there is... nothing. I figured out how to open up the camera. I found the power leads and they are showing about 5V, so I think I'm good there. The on/off switch (behind the sliding lens cover) appears to be ok, but to to be sure I jumped the 2 wires coming off the switch. Still, nothing, nada. I'm going to assume one of the boards has gone bad somehow. Translation: I'm at the end of my electronics expertise here.

So now I have to decide: Do I just file all my code away as a fun memory, or do I hunt for a replacement camera online (will likely be close to $200 CAD) to finish my project just for reasons. #FML

APRIL 11, 2024 UPDATE: In case anyone is still following.... I got very lucky and found a fellow Canadian who had a near-mint QuickTake 150 for sale very cheap. Consequently, I am a very happy guy. I will continue to work on my dumb little software project and will update this sub once I have some full-featured code to share.

I also did mention somewhere below that I would make my existing bits of code available to anyone that wants to have a look. I'm a bit behind schedule on that effort - time got sucked up this week by a day of eclipse-watching, some minor home renos, and an unexpected car repair. Such is life. Once I get something/anything out on Github in the days ahead, I'll update this particular thread one last time.

In recent months, I've commented a few times on this sub about trying to create software that can run on 'modern' computers and talk to a vintage Apple QuickTake. I'm happy to announce that JQuickTake v1.0 is available to try out for yourself. I've created a Github repo that contains all the source/binary code as well as a Windows Installer if you want to play around with it. There's also a README that manages to stretch a little bit of info over a very long way (because sometimes I talk too much). And I'll readily admit that the JQuickTake repo is an unholy melange of 'personal website' and 'code repository'.

You can find the whole mess here: https://github.com/Crazylegstoo/JQuickTake

I truly hope this all works.

Hello all, I recently found a couple of Keyspan USA-28XG Mac serial to USB adapters. The driver for this device works on my Mac Pro 5,1 running Mojave, but I have yet to plug in my QuickTake. from what I understand I need the quicktake software for this to work. is there any way around this? does anyone have any experience with this specific device and how it shows up in Mac OS X? Can I use it with an intel Mac, or do i really need an older PowerPC machine running period software to recover the files?