It's unbelievable how far camcorder technology has come in the past 25 years. No one would have ever dreamed in 1983 that by 2008, people would have camcorders that fit in the palm of their hand.
I bought one of these on eBay recently to use with a 1985 Panasonic color video camera. As an artist who likes old video formats, I'll be using it for future content.
We got our first vcr in 1985. If you bought VHS movies back then, they could cost upwards of 50-70 dollars a pop. New technology. Perhaps Beta was less expensive. I started working in video stores in the mid 80s, and it was very cool. People were so excited by the idea of watching movies in their own homes. Few people owned VCRs, so they were rented out with the tapes.
Beta was MORE expensive. Sony's tight control of the format made it so, And thus killed it. VHS won out as JVC (inventors of the VHS system) had a better licensing arrangements with multiple manufactures that made VHS competitive and in the end less costly to buy.
I had a Panasonic camcorder and used it to videotape basketball games for a friend of mine who was a coach. One time the ball was headed out of bounds right toward me, I had to jerk out of the way with this behemoth on my shoulder and actually wrenched my shoulder. Good times. Now I have a camera that could fit inside the old one with room left over.
I have one of these dockable vcr's with the lead acid battery they shure did kill your shoulder in no time, aside from the battery the dang thing still works
The reason she's dancing is because she's happy to be finally free of all that weight. My family had one of those in the day and it wasn't exactly easy to lug around. In the 1980's "portable" didn't necssarily mean "light".
Y'all remember all this stuff wierd. I have one, and its not nearly as bad as y'all boomers made it sound. I'd take one of these over recording on a cellphone anyday, and i wasn't even born yet when they were making these.
Those are the early VHS based cameras. Later on (my dad used one of those) cameras had miniture sized VHS reels or something that when put into some housing for them, would automatically expand and can play in any VCR. I don't know for how long it could record, but those cameras were awesome. Pity we never technically owned one.
Yeah, that's probably it. I loved using that camcorder and I would have probably made a million videos if we actually owned it. I think my dad was testing it out for someone. It was a very memorable night, too. We played dominoes after fiddling around it... man I can't believe I remember that night so well.
"TV Pictures Simulated" LOL!! And that slow motion is even better than my current VCR - how do they do it? :-)) Under today's standards, wouldn't this rank under false advertising? But I love it!
I love that bit "almost by itself" they forgot to add "providing that you get the recorder to the place you want it, since it can't do that bit by itself. Buy Panasonic Today!"
i still have the rca portable from 1981 and is still works like its new but the only thing is its a 2 head mono recorder i also have the camera outfit with case as well
Ah.. the technology we had back then ,looked so high tech didn't it ,so lovely inside the showrooms now today we send all of this stuff to the Salvation army *sigh* .
It was most likely a single-tube vidicon camera. These didn't have the greatest color quality. Also, bright points of light would linger as a greenish streak for a few seconds. The quality of the VCR was likely as good as any '90s 4-head hifi. I think when referring to "slightly ahead of its time", they are referring mainly to the VCR portion.
Wow! I needed to see this!!! It's like seeing a caveman showing off one of his first fires!! haha THANKS FOR THE UPLOAD!!! It seems 'FlashDance' had the nation CRAZY back then ~B.Kyle~
@VideoFavorer I agree! My fiancee teases me because I have a VCR and he loves Blu Ray. I get VHS tapes for 25 cents and I always have movies! It's great and the picture is just find, so it's not HD, I can still watch it!
@SilentG20 What are you talking about my phone records vids in much better quality and in HD than most of my slightly older cameras. This panasonic is a brontosaurus and low tech by the standards of the equipment in its day. Actualy reel to reel film gave much better quality than that. All this thing is or was is that it was available to anyone willing to pay $2000 back in the day.
You mean you could actually add text to videos on the fly out in the feild? That's absolutely incredible, especially for the early days of home video recording, how many new cameras can do that today?
The music in this video reminds me of Maniac from the Flashdance Soundtrack which I have. Was the camera and the VCR available as a bundle or did you need to buy them seporately?
