The predecessors of the camcorder: Separate video cameras and portable VCRs 

So nice that you are keeping them for historical preservation reasons despite not working.

I could listen to you talk all day so relaxing 👍fab videos 😃

We had a Panasonic model like this. The vcr was a portable unit that had a matching tuner it would dock with. The camera had titling capabilities and a tube sensor. It needed SO much light to work, and would streak like mad if you pointed it by bright light sources. :D

1:41 I like how youre pointing to the VCR with a radion anntenna lol

Nice to see you still around!

I was born in 1969 and to have such a piece of equipment back in the late 1970s, early 1980s would have been a dream come true!

Panasonic NV180 is the best VCR I ever got to repair, back in 87, has 4(four) Direct drive motors, direct drive capstan motor, direct drive drum motor, direct drive FF motor, direct drive Rew motor.

Your commentary is excellent in this video!

Those where the days that you really needed some strong muscles to carry around the equipment. Picture this, having “portable” VCR attached on a carry strap, resting on your shoulder and then the camera on the other shoulder. That’s some serious weight that you have to drag around!

Oh, these bring back some memories! Unfortunately time has not been too kind to them, but they are an interesting relic in video history. Here in the UK, we also had a few JVC clones under the 'Ferguson Videostar' brand (via Thorn Consumer Electronics). Their Sony Betamax counterparts were also quite popular with enthusiasts and the like.. I recall Mitsubishi (and also Salora, via OEM) had a very nice vertical recorder that resembled a small cassette radio with the VHS tape inserted in a similar fashion. Very fancy! :-)

I have three tube cameras and all had leaky capacitors. Not all caps where leaky but around 5-10. I could easily recognize them by the turquoise rust around the pins and the underside of the caps. The cameras are: Panasonic WVP-200, WVP-100 and the ITT CAM3044 which is a rebrand of the JVC GZ-S3. The following caps where leaky: CAM3044: 47µf 6,3V 10µf 16V WVP-200: 220µf 6,3V 100µf 6,3V 47µf 10V 220µf 10V WVP-100: 330µf 10V ... and more in this cam. I'm looking for them at the moment. I replaced all leaky caps and now the cams are going again :-)

I love camcorders when i was a kid in 1990 i wanted a camcorder with VHS now i have a semiprofessional digital 4K sony handycam

Nice collection. Like you I have quite a few of these old cameras, some old broadcast cameras, and like you I also don't seem to be able to get a working VCR to go with them. So I ended up building a little device that will power the cameras and record their output digitally onto SD card. Thus replacing/bypassing the need for a VCR. Needless to say it's much smaller and lighter than a VCR too and can be mounted to the camera on the shoe or tripod mounts. It will work with any camera that has the 10 pin cable, and as one of those pins controls the record trigger, I have managed to get it so the SD card recorder is triggered by the record button on the camera. Pretty useful and a great way to bring these old analogue cameras back to life. As you say, they are the interesting part of the setup. Keep up the good work anyway. Thanks.

Interesting video. First time i met my wife she was filming using such equipment.

I have a couple of VHS Portapaks, a Panasonic and a Hitachi VT7E. The Hitachi is particularly neat as it looks like a fairly large early 80s VCR. However, the cassette deck section lifts out and away from the rest of the base unit, which is like a kind of docking station. Pics on radiomuseum! I also have a Sony Trinicon camera, which has a different connector to those two but works with my Sony c9 beta. That has all the characteristics of colour temp and motion blur that make it so typical of the time!

NICE! I just recently rebought my old set up from 1985. Panasonic AG-2400 and the matching camera, one of the first prosumer CCDs Panasonic WV-F2.. the camera comes with a breakout box so hopefully either the VCR or the box will work with the camera.

I used to film with a Panasonic F10 modular camera onto a Panasonic Ag6400 VHS which had stereo linear & HiFi. Later I used a Panasonic V3 three tube camera via an inline 14 to 10 pin cable adapter which needed a lead acid battery belt because the tubes were power hungry. Last camera I had before going S-VHS was the delightful DXC3000 , their first pro CCD camera. Loved that camera. Thanks for sharing these.How far we have come.

A friend of mine's father had a Sanyo example of this design, it must have been from around 1984 or 85. There's a piece missing from your examples I think ; the Sanyo had a control module that contained a tuner, timer, remote control etc that could be used in place of the camera. Quite a neat bit of kit actually, I recall that the connector between the controller/camera and the recorder had a quick-release mechanism.

Btw. I just remember, one really cool thing about these VCRs (the VRP30 and all identical Panasonic rebrands) is that when your battery runs out, it will physically switch its own power switch into the OFF position. Like a useless machine! Looks kinda trippy seeing the power switch move by itself.

Can you please do a video on how video cameras work…before the sensors were added…

I had a portable VCR and camera with a color view finder connected by cable to each other back in 1983. It was pretty 😍 expensive for that set up even at that time. Ray, W2CH USA 🇺🇸 Aufwiedersehen

hello, there's only one portable V2000, the VR2220, and it use the common 10 pin connector . so i don't understand this particular connector on the adaptor, maybe it was for cameras designed to be used indoor only with the first generation of V2000. was the DDR+PAL on the bauer meaning is can also record secam ? the so called mesecam in vhs world, for all countries (except france) who used secam

Nice collection! The SABA CVC-78 looks like a Panasonic camera, PK-9xx or PK-7xx. I have a similar Olympus branded camera with leaking caps, not worth repairing. The Bauer VCR might be worth a repair. I have 2 Panasonic NV-180 and both work fine, it was a pretty robust machine and at least in my 2 machines, no capacitor problems. If you come across a Trinicon camera (Sony HVC-3000/4000 or even DXC-1820), i recommend considering adding it to the collection of single-tube cameras. I have a HVC-3000 and the image quality is amaziing compared to the Newvicon/Saticon cameras.

Che meraviglia!,li conosco,telecamera e videoregistratore separati,un sistema cosi c'e la un mio amico, e' della nordmende,e' un sistema dalla qualita e fascino unici.non le fanno più apparecchiature così.video molto bello.

I have the VRP30 branded as Bosch. And as Grundig. And as Blaupunkt. They're all the same machine, with some minor color style differences, only the Grundig model has some effort put into making it match their product line at the time. Together with a Blaupunkt TVC 323 camera (same as your Bauer again) with a title generator. All of them work. I didn't do anything to them. (only the Blaupunkt VCR has some bad lubricant, the video head doesn't turn smoothly in normal orientation and the latch that holds the door shut sticks so once the door opens, you can't close it until you insert a screwdriver into a certain position) I have a few Panasonic camcorders, the older ones have all died from bad caps, the "newer" ones all have bad lubricant in their video heads. Ah and just to brag... I have a Philips VR2220. It's limping along but basically still works and makes decent recordings. It just randomly turns off every few minutes. Sometimes it runs for hours though. That DIN6 plug is just German AV before SCART existed. It's used on lots of machines and TVs, starting somewhere in the late 70s.

I have Cannon portable vcr VR-40 the problem is only take up reel work right side reel not run

I have a more rare portable vcr that my dad bought in 1985 it has hifi and 4heads. For some reason we never used it as a camera. But it plays very well and I used to take it on vacation.

I've got a couple of the JVC recorders but they are VHS-C type and a couple of saticon cameras. Still trying to track down a cable to connect them together which is proving very difficult, no surprise.

You speak of Nuvicon tubes and Saticon tubes, are those the names of the tube manufacturers or is that related to something else such as the design or type of tube or some component used in the tubes? I actually do remember seeing video cameras with outboard VCRs attached to them in use, I attended a school for blind children in the very late 80s and early 90s, and I remember the school had such a video camera at one point. I believe the school also owned a camcorder, or later on they purchased a camcorder as an upgrade from the earlier unit.

you mentions the comet trail effect. dose this effect have another name ? because i cant find nothing when i search on google.

Me. I am more interested in the vcr portions of these. I have the JVC version of that Saba unit you have. It was new in the box with case and shoulder strap. However its belts are turned to tar. I purchased it off ebay new in bix with all foam. It did not have the battery, and as a collector i want all related pieces for the vcr minus camera. So i purchased a junky jvc unit of same model on ebay jyst for its battery to put into the nicer one. I think your saba unit is from 1985 as the box on my matching jvc has a ship date yo the store which is dated 1985. Have you heard or jvc vhs c? Its a compact form of vhs same tape but in a smaller casing. I have many of the compact vhs c units. I am like you. I collect tbese and dont plan on repairing, they are just for show. Heck even when i clean and detail these got to be so careful as the plastic casing and screw posts can break very easily. I have been just cleaning and detailing the outside of the units. Dont want to mess them up. Like your collection as well. If you ever want to srll the Saba unit let me know, would look nice sitting next to my jvc one.

I noticed that the Bauer VCR has some text on the top that says DDR+PAL. Is that something to do with the GDR using a different television standard to the rest of Europe?

What's wrong with your VRP-30 exactly? I've had my hands on a dozen of NV-180 machines of different vintage (and some AG-2400, which is Panasonic's own rebadge for "professional" use) and none of those have any problems with electrolytic caps. That's quite strange, because you are right, 1st gen of compact electrolytics were pretty prone to failures and old Matsushita caps (even "full sized" one) are also prone to leak and cause damage. But not in these machines. Not a single one leaked or dry cap. I pretty like NV-180 machines, those are very compact and relatively lightweight (look at some Sharp models like VC-130 or VC-3300 that are much bigger, 3 times as heavy and have inferior tape transport). These NV-180 have full D.D. transport! Four direct drive motors for head drum, capstan and both reels. No belts, no idlers, no felt brakes. Nothing really to go bad mechanically except a pinch roller (which still can run fine on a 1984 machine). Pretty reliable machines. Full D.D. enables it to be quite fast in transitions through modes (like play - rewind - play). The machine itself doesn't say it, but it is actually 4 head one! Clean fast search and still picture made easy. I'm now making a video about repairing, maintaining and adjusting NV-180. I can help you to diagnose and repair your machine. I bet it will just need cleaning of the transport and some lubricant.

Sony had a model the Sl-f1 very similar to these but it was ßetamax format.

I like video cameras i have 2 camcorders but they are not analogue and not uses vcr cassettes its digital camcorders it uses SD cards

In early 90s I had Panasonic M7 camcorder. Comparing to portable camera + NV-180, the camcorder produced much worst results unfortunatelly.

now days your smart phone can record much better quality

Am I the only one that reflexively-asked "Where does the tape go in?" :) (7:05)

Never understood the desire of local companies to re-badge Japanese components with brands that are less reputable than the original manufacturer. Who would want a JVC camera? I want a Saba (said no-one, ever)

I'm trying to find a device like that e&m machine you've got there. What exactly should i be searching for, like if i was just searching on google for one. I've been unsuccessful so far, but itd be a huge help to me to have one