Enjoy a Look Back at History at the Extinct Media MuseumEnjoy a Look Back at History at the Extinct Media Museum
This Tokyo museum is collecting cool old gadgets you’ll want to see.

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At a Glance
- The museum showcases obsolete technology types to remind visitors that current tech will soon be old-fashioned.
- Visitors can pick up and handle the objects to see how they feel to hold and use.
Tokyo’s Extinct Media Museum is a private collection of obsolete media and media equipment such as video cameras, photo cameras, typewriters, personal computers, recording media, music players, cell phones, and personal digital assistants.
The exhibits are not precious, factory-fresh examples, so museum visitors can pick them up and potentially be reminded of how their own example felt to use back in the day.
Home-use movie cameras are a particular focus for the museum, and its exhibits lead visitors through the evolution from 8mm film cameras (9.5mm, Double 8, Single 8, Super 8) to video cameras (Betamax, VHS, VHS-C, 8mm video, DV), and memory cameras.
Unlike some museums, photography is not only permitted, it is encouraged. The thinking is that if the collection is photographed by visitors and documented by media and blogs around the world the knowledge of these devices will last forever.
Japanese filmmakers will also appreciate that items in the collection are available for rent to help set the appropriate scene in a movie set in the past. Click through the slideshow to remember a device you remember using or wish that you had.
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