For much of the late 80s and 90s, I pined for a video camera. They were always far beyond my, or my family’s, affordability. Even the basic of camcorders would be £300, upwards. I have started to collect old video camera, getting the usual obsession in me for batches of time. I recently found this Sony camcorder at the local charity shop. I paid £40 for it, with no accessories, except battery cells. This is about average for this camera in the current market, but it means that I can’t start her up and check her out. I did have to reattach the handle on by removing the panels from the top of the body. With the plastic being brittle, I did create a break that will be unfixable, but still looks okay in its current state. Lessons are learned and I shall pass them on to you…DO NOT FORCE ANYTHING, ESPECIALLY OLD PLASTIC!
This unit is from 1985. At forty years old, it is now ‘beyond’ retro, with 90s in that field, right now. In general, it is immaculate, clearly being kept in the special carry case for years. This case is the premium version, which does have one extra part in it…two male-to-female coaxial cables. The design is fascinating! A cover is used on the front that covers the lense and microphone. This allows it to be carried or placed down as a Video8 player. I love the ‘tiny’ video cassette recorder look on its tail. I am now on the hunt for the accories for this. If nothing else, I want the charging unit to at least try the old cells. I was more akin to using VHS tapes, with what I deem a full-video-camera. This was at school, but there was a Video8 camera avaialble that we would use for ease of mobility.
There used to be a cool VHS sized adapter to place the Video8 tapes into. You could then watch the smaller tape on a standard VHS player or recorder. Some memories sit so far back in the head that you need them to be bumped forward to remind you of them. You can’t miss the technology that mattered, from this time. The Autofocus (AF) was a key ingredient, with White Balance of secondary importance! I want to look further into the history of this technology, so will revisit it once I have been able to get a charger and more batteries for it. Until next time…
