remember these?

realspeed

realspeed

Suspended / Banned
Messages
8,827
Name
Bazza
Edit My Images
No
MY first venture into vidoes
P1001548.jpgaa.jpg

did you ever use one ? this one of mine(bought new) still works. Have the remote and cables for it. the tapes are worn out but still have them. Bought new so many years ago I have forgotton
must be at least a collectors item now but no one is interested so it sits in a camea bag under a desk
 
Last edited:
We have a couple of old Sony ones, and a number of hardly used tapes. One certainly still works but no software to copy video off the tapes now I don't think. Ours are stored similarly to yours.
 
I have a Sony though cannot recall the model.

Not used for years but did take it SA in 2006 and installed a FireWire card in my PC at the time to transfer the footage.

Initially used Adobe Premiere Pro which made me feel like a Beta Tester....... switched to Ulead Studio Pro which was trouble free.

PS I doubt the battery is any good now :(. Oh, and I think I have 2 or 3 unopened tapes.
 
I am constantly surprised at the resale value in small handycams - especially given the quality of phones. Even the big ones sell well if they still work.
 
I used to sell camcorders like that, maybe not that exact model, but same vintage and style. They were very popular.

There has been a resurgence of interest in them following on from interest in other analogue formats, film, LPs, Cassette tapes and now it seems camcorders. A number of YouTube videos are around showing how to record onto a small digital video recorder with an SD card.
 
I've a Sony Digital8 handycam. It's 20 + years old, other than the annoying habit of capturing the motor noise on the audio, the output is surprisingly good.

I last dragged it out when I needed to do a 'talking-head' piece to camera. The flip-out LCD made that quite simple as I could see myself. None of my DSLRs have that.

Another one I was gifted, uses a small hard drive internally. I've repurposed that into a CCTV camera though.
 
I bought a Panasonic tape camcorder in about 2001, I think it cost about £1000. I used it for producing video tutorials, and the quality was pretty much perfect for my needs, the only limitation was the horrible software, which from memory was U-Lead. I always used a separate microphone, which was essential. It eventually stopped working and I threw it away.

Much later, we used a FF Canon DSLR at work to make videos, with pretty stunning image quality.

Now retired, I want to make some simple videos about my hobby/sport, clay pigeon shooting. The image quality of my iPhone is pretty good, but very awkward to use, so I've now (just) bought myself a Samsung Digital Full HD Camcorder HMX-F80, in very good condition. Image quality isn't great because of the tiny sensor, but if it turns out to be good enough I'll get another 2 or 3 of them, the other option is to get a cheap cropped-frame DLSR, time will tell, but the point is that even at about 10 years old, this camera is surprisingly good.
 
I tried out video in the early 1990s but quickly realised I was rubbish at it.

All was not lost, however, because I got a contract to write scripts for training packages and that recouped the not inconsiderable cost of setting up this experiment. The only bit of the kit I've got left, is the early model dedicated editing system, which was based on the morherboard from an Amiga computer, which I haven't tried to boot for years.
 
I’m rubbish too:)

I did have a bit of a head start, about 60 years ago the firm I worked for shot weddings on 16mm, I have no idea how much they charged but I do remember that the film cost alone was about £400, over £7K today, and that was per camera, and sometimes we shot with 2 of them. At that cost, we had to do a really good job.

My boss was great, he taught me to measure twice and cut once, which I’ve stuck to in my professional still photography life, so although the technology has changed beyond measure, the principles still hold true:)

The only trouble with my boss is that he had a serious drink problem, and we were at weddings . . . – so I had to learn quickly.

A few years ago my youngest son, who is a highly-skilled agricultural mechanic, started a project, which was going to make him rich on YouTube, completely overhauling specialised machinery, starting with an old drott that hadn’t run for years. We started off with a single iPhone, ended up with 5, and I learned a lot, and especially about editing, from that.

The biggest single problem (for me) was lack of continuity, weeks or months would pass between shooting days, and the weather, his overalls, hair length, background and everything else would change with it.

Sadly (or not, depending on viewpoint and priorities) he then became too busy to continue, but I live in hope that we may go back to it one day
 
I had an old Sony and captured many videos of my children when they were young. At the time I digitised and transferred to my computer then copied to CD's. I was well aware that CD's were not a reliable long term storage media and, after about 12 years, the CD's were all unreadable. By this time I have changed PC at least once and had not transferred the original digital files. Fortunately, I was able to go back to the analogue and digitise again but this time I produces several copies on memory sticks which I gave to my children now married with their own. In those days, you could photograph your children at events.

Dave
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top