I find it funny how when you were recording your studio with the older camera, that's exactly what someone probably would have used to record a TH-cam video back when TH-cam started in 2005.
@@EddieBurke Oh it really doesn't, most videos were 240p back then and even now its amazing how many people upload old footage to TH-cam without deinterlacing it first.
Forget "OFF", this is ON POINT with your channel. It was over and I was bummed, I wanted to see more. Also, I would TOTALLY watch all those images being printed out. Put them to music and make a bonus video...
Looks like a dye sublimation printer. The three-pass process is pretty indicative. They're very compact and the consumables are generally very stable which explains why it still works. I used to have a small dye-sub printer made by Canon that I kept in my camera bag for printing out photos on the spot to give to people.
I would agree, hands down that's a die sublimation printer. The three passes and still viable ink are hallmarks of the tech. Tektronix did do some dye sublimation printers like this, although the vast majority of their printers I've see in the wild are technically wax thermal printers. The giveaway for wax thermal is a visible grain, you can feel the ink on the paper, and if you're around the printer it smells like melted crayons.
I still have my early-mid 2000s Canon Selphy dye sub printer. Makes post card sized prints and the common paper was a little thick and had la place to write from/to addresses on the back, and a box where to put the stamp! The one I got at Sam’s Club a few years back has an lcd screen for previews and seeing what is on a memory card. The Canon PowerShot cameras hook right up.
@@petertheisphotography1198 There were a lot of companies in the 90s that produced thermo-sublimation printers. The process itself is a bit like the thermo printer head in a receipt printer. The better ones had 4 colors (CMYK) and would print a full tabloid size at 300 - 400 dpi. The Tektronix Phaser 480 is a typical machine of that time. 3M/Imation made a similar printer series (Rainbow color Models 27x0 and 4700). The technology is very expensive when it comes to bigger sheets. A print of a full tabloid sheet would cost around $5 for the paper and around $6 for the color typically at least $10 for a print. Dye Sublimation printers are used for photo-prints as well. The paper has to have a polyester coating to work with the sublimation process. T-shirts containing polyester (at least 50-50 mix or coated) can be used to transfer the prints with heat (small prints can be transferred by ironing).
Really impressed at how small that photo printer is. We had a Sony Photo Printer at the hospital for sonogram photos. It’s was about the size of a loaf of bread.
My high school job was at a CompUSA selling this type of stuff circa 2004-2006. It's odd to see stuff I could have sold on a vintage tech channel. Thanks for the wakeup call that I'm old! :)
We're not old, technology is just moving too fast... I felt old with 8 years old when the gameboy color came out and I was still rocking the old classic brick.
My brother got this camera when he was 10 years old and i was 7 and we filmed so many movies (garbage sci-fi plots and all) back then on this. Alot of great memories
Lmao it was being discounted if I remember correctly and it was ~$800 at circuit city. It was his birthday and Christmas gift for the year. Dude was obsessed with film making back then. So my parents were very okay with giving him something he would really want
But the footage looks awful. "features" are at the cost of other things. I think you possibly have "grass is greener" syndrome which just means you are bad at analytical thought and have low emotional intelligence. Would have modern cameras that use less waste, less power and look better... Its like the display... The picture is so bad you need a bigger display. On modern you can view in 1080p on a much nicer screen... So can be smaller yet more legible. Its like with smart watches... Smaller screen than the Dot Matrix on a Gameboy (DMG) but one can be OLED and high res and the other is a dot matrix display from the 80s... Which do you think is more legible? The gameboy that struggles with graphics on a 2.5" screen whilst a smart watch can display high res at under 1"
@@razerow3391 It's not contradictory to want a camera that is modern-quality but also has features like digital-to-audio and a mini printer. Not sure why you think they're exclusive somehow.
@@razerow3391 “which just means you are bad at analytical thought and have low emotional intelligence” Wow, if you could take all of that from a single comment, that’s amazing. But seriously, you could’ve made your otherwise valid thoughts without no such presumptuous, asinine remarks.
@@razerow3391 thats not the point thousands of us have VHS tapes that would be nice to digitize, but most modern digitizers are kinda well crap and quite limited, this thing would be wonderful, no one said to bring back these 480p devices, it kinda shows you have no emotional maturity for calling him out for saying that a modern version of a very good digitizer should exist, of course screens are better thats the march of progress, but no one cares when your talking about a camcorder thats 20 years old or a DMG gameboy thats over 30, of course the gameboys screen is rubbish now, but back then it was actually the 1080p screen of its day meaning it was bleeding ass edge for a tiny device running on AA batteries if you were talking about a movie that came out on VHS and on BluRay of course youd buy the high def version, but theres no high version of the VHS tape of me at disneyland in 1992, thats the bloody point of a good quality digitizer oh one final thing, are you sure your on the right channel, you flame old tech for being old and justify it by saying modern tech does it better, but this is a retro tech channel people here get enamored by a camcorder that can print and digitize, even though they are watching it on computers and phone with so much more power.
When David does these throwaway videos it usually means he's working on a large project but wants to keep new content coming so people stay engaged with the channel. Can't wait to see what he's cooking up for the coming months.
This one feels like a Techmoan or an LGR video :) Those screenshots look amazing! Back in 2001 it was possible to do fine screenshots but imagine having something like this in the 80's, some video game related print magazines would have loved something like this.
Matt Taylor driving on the wrong side of the car, of the road, etc..! :D And also it is expectable that the price of a second-hand camera like this would suffer from the "Techmoan effect"!
Techmoan did a video on the technology used in the printer, interesting stuff - got a modern one myself, glad to know the cartridge lasts for decades 😁
In 2001, I would have been shocked by this level of technology. But in 2021 it still looks vintage and nice. And most importantly, it does not hurt the eye! A wonderful device!
That looks and acts like a dye sublimation printer. They are some of the most colorful printers out there because they literally generate colors vs dithering CMYK patterns like conventional printers. They are fantastic for photos, but horrible for text and line art. The other down side is dye sublimation uses a full sheet of each color of ink per pass making them one of the most expensive to operate per sheet, and if little of one color is use very wasteful.
@@ailivac yes and no. The dye sheets are still CMY and some times K, and each pass is a transparent negative like images for each color, but the dye sheets couldn't be reused. The colors form from a dye combination reaction that I don't believe scanning them and recombine them as channels later would result in a true accurate negative of the printer version of the image; however, if one just wanted the color film transparencies, even though they are often very thin, it could probably be done, and I suppose one could turn them into something like a transparent triptych/polyptych pop art variant if they chose to do so.
I admit my favorite intro is yours! Ah the 80s but I went a different path after highschool away from computers despite my love for them, now watching your videos years later as I study to do network engineering (career change at 52!) I can't put in words how much I love your videos. please keep them coming!
Wow this camera really captures the "80s" feeling of that era, yet the photos themselves are really high detail. What an impressive little piece of equipment.
I really like these "shorter" videos too, videos with around 10 minutes are just the perfect length in between longer ones where I usually kind of lose focus for a bit in between.
I have heard somewhere on TV (specifically they were talking about children; let alone adults) that the mind has the best concentration for about *15 minutes* in a row... after that, it does tend to wander a bit with other thoughts.
@@MonoChorMe How true, thats why Cartoons were 10, 15 minutes youtube algorithms like longer videos, they sell more advertising, and it makes it more like Television
Ahh the era of cramming as many functions into a single device as possible. I remember being impressed with my neighbour's phone/fax/printer/scanner/copyer, as well as my father's dismissal of it, since "if one thing breaks, all of it breaks." Good times.
@@brentfisher902 Actually InfoLithium batteries were still available new at least in 2015. (But maybe the different "series" of them could be a problem). I bought a new batteries for my 2001 vintage still cam and camcorder back then, and they still working fine. The only problem is with capacity reporting (the feature of that type of batteries - they are actually communicating with the camera). On charging it advertises ridiculously high working time, while in use gives false reports that it already discharged. Looks like minor encoding incompatibility like different number of bits, signed vs unsigned or float instead of integer. But this happens only with my still cam which takes only two lower-end models of that batteries (others are physically bigger).
Either it is a cheapest available battery (maybe supplied with the cam) or it's dead :) Highest tier batteries gives you about 4-6 hours, depending of what you are actually doing with the cam. And remember - this gigantic side screen is your enemy there! Using it instead of viewfinder decreases battery life two or threefold to such ridiculous numbers!
@@user-gi1vg4ck1p I had a digital camera once that had a battery life of about 20 min. And if you pulled the battery to replace it the pics were lost. I returned it. Lol
Those type of camcorders bring back so many memories. Every year during birthday celebrations the camcorder came out 😅 so insane that the specific device you talk about in this video has turned 20 years old. Now I began to feel old too. Thank you for another video!
Sony made some really great batteries back in the day. I have an old VAIO C1VE laptop with extended battery and it lasted about 10 hours back then and even now can still manage more than 7 hours at least. Of course I treated it well. Kept it in charge between 20 and 70% most of the time. Also: that isn't an SD card in there. The symbol is of Memory Stick, SONY's preferred format at the time.
Treating batteries well is the secret behind amazingly durable old batteries. Nowadays the focus on performance numbers like fast charge time or runtime for power hungry gadgets means that most products run batteries as hard as possible while not wrecking the warranty costs.
That camcorder is one of the examples of the definition "oddware". 0:59 I remember owning that exact model. 3:34 The narrow FoV is a sign of the times when 4:3 CRT TVs was still a thing. 4:25 Don't know if this HandyCam had support for the PS2.
I like that term "oddware". You can have large field of view with any aspect ratio. It's just easier/cheaper to built lenses with longer focal lengths. I have some very wide lenses for my 70's video cameras.
Yup, feeling old. And just a couple of years before 2001, I remember us all being under massive stress frantically re-writing code to save the world from the pending Y2K catastrophe! LOL. In terms of wanting to go back in time so bad though, I might be happier with just pre 2020. ie. pre pandemic times. But, then again, who’d want to go through 2020 / 21 again? So, I think maybe going back to the retro computing 80’s is it for me then! :)
That MR2 is really beautiful looking. Very classic looking sports car from the transitional era where car designs moved from the boxy, angular look to a more rounded look.
I'm actually really impressed with the replication of color in such a unique, and small, printer for that time. This thing is actually pretty dang cool.
Ugh this made me feel old. Seeing that 88’ MR2 + JVC camcorder was amazing. Here something so amazing about seeing the recording through the eyes of that Sony camera was something I feel I completely missed. That was seriously a next-level device. Also you should make a wall of screenshots! Love this
@@hectorg5809 because there is no ink cartridge. the print papier itselve has all colors. it uses different heat temps to create different colors. the only down side is the paper is really expansive. its called Zink paper.
@@phunkstar7347 the Zink works like that AFAIK but that’s a newer product development. I also have a Canon Selphy or two (or three?). The dye sub definitely takes a ribbon (not an “ink cartridge “). The ribbon has a yellow section and magenta and cyan and clear UV protection section. With each pass a color dye is sublimated to the paper and the section of ribbon for each color must be size matched to the paper size. Whatever dye transfers comes off the clear ribbon leaving a clear spot behind on that area of ribbon - like an inverse color separation. Pretty cool but several times slower than Zink (which is 1 pass). But I like the quality of my Canon Selphy over my Polaroid branded Zink. And my Zink is Fuji Instax Mini sized (although I’ve seen bigger Zink printers on Amazon but not in the wild).
I was thinking it uses the dye on a ribbon approach. Actually we can check that, if the camera needs 4 passes it used a ribbon if it only needs 3 passes it used the special paper. The sephy printer I have is from 2001 and it uses the ribbon cartridge + paper.
As Dr. Emmett Brown would say: "That's an amazing portable television and photography studio!" 🙂 And, great advance! ... We will gladly and patiently wait for more news about 'Robots' for C-128. 👍
Sony Handycams were awesome and packed full of features. I had one living in Germany with the US Army in the 90's. I used it scuba diving in the $600 Sony diving case, strapped to my Ninja motorcycle racing down the autobahn, and the best, I strapped it to the stinger rack on the OH-58C helicopter I used to fly. Got some great footage training against German air defense, zipping around castles on the Rhine river, all kinds of stuff. You really brought the memories back, thanks!
Well that's an impressive piece of hardware. Talk about overengineered... a color printer that works 20 years later is already a feat. Let alone having it attached to the back of a camera for seemingly no reason. Yet, it would probably be worth it to track one down just for that digital conversion quality.
@@vinesthemonkey No no, I'm talking like recent years, quality is moving futher and futher to the $500+ range. DIY is the route to go when it comes to getting and making entertainment.
If you had a broadcast-level VHS for your playback into the capture, that would rock. I used to have a JVC SR-40 chained into my Sony DVCAM deck (via SVIDEO) and captured via firewire on Premiere to get rough digital masters of old VHS training tapes.
Broadcast and VHS can't really be used in the same sentence other than with NEVER. But I do capture a lot of VHS using SVHS decks like the Panasonic AG-4700 (with TBC) connected via S-Video to a Sony DSR-11 or similar DVCAM deck. Results are about as good as VHS can be.
I can't wait to start doing VHS captures on my new setup... JVC SR-W5U flows S-Video into an old Matrox MXO2 into an old Mac Pro. Lipstick on a pig, perhaps, but that W5U is unflappable with (usually dodgy) samples of my off-air recording archive.
@@the_circuit_man Oh, I have a JVC SR-W5U. The VGA output is a bit glitchy, but all the other functions are pretty good, I use an AJA Kona LHe for capturing.
@@TVperson1 - I've never tried the VGA output on my deck - makes me curious... Can you output regular VHS/SVHS signals over YPbPr? To watch on my Sony BVM, I run the S-Video through a scaler to give me 480p YPbPr; it'd be curious to see if I could eliminate the middleman.
@@the_circuit_man Nah, it's only for HD content, same as component. For some reason they chose not output 480 SD through the component and VGA outputs. I guess the deck was too expensive as it was
The Quality of the cam recorder are truly great, not only giving an old vibe (of course becauss it old products),but capturing on details that many more modern products cant capture, it the feels, today many people wants more sharpness images, but in this cam recorder, they capturing the feels from early 80s to early 20s which is giving vibe of nostalgic, not only from the quality of the images, but also from the colour of the new studio
Double checked with the manual of this or very similar that the cartridge is a dye sublimation cartridge. Just a small one. Strange to see that feature in something this old.
Dye Sublimation was/is one of the best home print technologies in my opinion, just a shame its so wasteful. The results really are great though. I remember getting a Canon Selphy with a memory card reader and screen, back in the day and taking it and extra print packs to parties, family get togethers, etc and it impressing people
This is kinda fun. Also that looks like a *gigantic* screen, too… Edit: this actually reminds me of some modern devices that use similar dye sublimation printers for a sort of instant printing photo camera. Unfortunately the paper is fairly expensive.
I actually did research on zink paper recently! what makes it so expensive is that theyre "inkless" printers-- zink paper has ink embedded in the paper that activates at different temperatures, as opposed to one like this with ink cartilages and stuff that fuses ink to the paper
Yeah, I was reminded of the Canon Selphy printers, that use a "Tape" of heat-reactive ink that's stored in bands of C-M-Y, so the paper ends up going through 3 times. It also means when you buy a "paper" refill, you also get an ink ribbon for it.
I knew a gal that had an MR-2 and ran into the back of a jacked up pickup truck. The car drove up under the truck like a wedge, she showed me the pictures. When they figured out how to roll the truck off the hood without making things worse, the truck was pretty much unharmed and the MR-2 had only cosmetic damage, although a lot of it. Many cracked panels. I don't know whether the body shop repaired or replaced, it wasn't my car. I definitely would have asked that question.
Hard to believe there was a time when we actually didn't go around casually taking pictures, because there was a real cost to getting them processed, not to mention a significant wait time. This cam would have been pretty impressive in that light, although the small format probably would have struggled to compete with real photos. It'd be interesting to know what sort of ink system it uses and how well the printed photos hold up over time.
Usually I skip intros when I watch YT videos, but your jingle makes me happy and nostalgic. Keep up the great vids; and I like the final outcome of the wall tiles, good mix of colors.
this channel visits all kind of classic technologies. this is an amazing video and I love the variety yet focused approach. well done and good luck David
WOWW, Dave, I was _hoping_ you'd make us a game that took advantage of the 2 main styles of display that the Commodore 128 has, and YOU DID IT! HOT DOG! I can't wait to see that episode! That'll be the first version I buy!
Was the model of the camera ever mentioned within the video? I'm guessing from Google results that it might be a Sony DCR-TRV820? Also, at 3:53 it's mentioned "some sort of dry ink cartridge, that I'll show you in a minute", never to be seen again... just nitpicking, I enjoyed the video nonetheless.
Thanks for that; I was wondering as well! Amazing to see that Sony still has the manuals available online: Operating Instructions Release Date: 08/18/2003 www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/W000/W0003112M.pdf Kudos to them for that!
I also figured it out independently . Model: Sony Handycam DCR-TRV820. Goes for 400-500 USD used on Amazon (american). Really cool vintage camera. :-) There is also *slightly different model* DCR-TRV820e. Don't know what it is.
What a cool video. I use to use an old VHS Camcorder for hooking my SNES up to a monitor that didn't have the right inputs. It worked really well and I could record myself playing SNES games.
It's, but consumables prices are high and number of printouts from one cartridge is low, so the end result is not good at all for the ordinary people. It's a kind of thermal sublimation printer, on the used market they could be get almost for free, but consumables prices make it simply infeasible. Such printers are often built in in medical equipment and such use allows inflating prices on them even more.
Gee, what great nostalgia is going on here ^^ I remember copying together Christmas movies for my family back in the days with these kind of video cameras and SVHS-recorders :) Does anybody remember the Hama Video Cut 200 mixer?
I'm still amazed by the amount of work you put in these videos. They'll be a legacy showing all this technology from 70's till 2000's, which i'm so scared will soon stop working... Thank You!
You should do more short videos once in a while! I love these little tangents outside the realm of computers that you do, always bringing cool new things I had no clue existed!
C128 version? Super awesome. I’ve wanted to see some games optimized with its capabilities in mind. Are you using the extra ram as well? VDC chip seems interesting to code to as well. Please do a deep dive on this port, that’d be awesome!
I wonder what vwestlife will say when he sees this video... I've heard how good the ADC is in those cameras, and having one, I can attest, they work excellent. That is how I captured video from the Oddessy2 when I made a video composite modding said system. The conversion was excellent. I am looking forward to seeing the new versions of Petscii Robots in actions, but I know it will take time. Someone commented that they wanted to see you shoot an episode on a vintage camera, that could be fun, but even Ben on Oddity Archive mentioned (and I'm paraphrasing here) that the amount of work it would take to shoot an episode on VHS would be time prohibitive.
That is a neat bit of tech. I love how even though it is digital the video still has that "vintage" look. I'd love to find out what causes that. Did footage shot this way always look like that and we remember differently? Do the image sensors degrade over time and produce that effect? Enquiring minds want to know.
I think it is primarily just a lack of dynamic range on the CCD, combined with the lower resolution. Sure, high-end professional cameras of the era had better CCDs, and better lenses. So there was always a noticeable difference between the video quality of consumer vs. professional cameras.
Also, the digital 8 format was capable of recording far higher quality than what you’re seeing captured here, but Sony nerfed the digital 8 cameras somewhat so that minidv and the prosumer ones had credibility. 12voltvids is a good channel for reference on the digital camera formats, lots of tear downs and repairs,
@@The8BitGuy now we have phones like the Galaxy S20 and S21 that take video that looks far better than professional studio video cameras from years ago. IIRC NASA's video from the space shuttles took a sudden leap in quality when one astronaut used most of his personal stuff weight allotment to take his little video camera along. He jacked it into the video downlink and mission control got quite the surprise that an off the shelf camera was so superior to the junk they'd been paying thousands of dollars for.
@@The8BitGuy I've found that the older digital cameras with CCD sensors and big lenses take better pictures than newer cameras with CMOS sensors and tiny lenses. The CMOS sensors are fuzzy and blurry so they hide it with higher resolution. The newest CMOS cameras are better but they still hide the low level noise with super high resolution and software tricks.
Wasn't just France, the final generation (97-07) was called the MR-S in Japan as well. Only the US and Europe (minus France and Belgium) called it the MR2.
I believe the camera featured here is the DCR-TRV820. I personally own the DCR-TRV720, which is exactly the same camera except it doesn't have the printer. I chose not to spend an extra $100 for the printer, and the printing supplies were about $20 for 40 prints.
I find it funny how when you were recording your studio with the older camera, that's exactly what someone probably would have used to record a TH-cam video back when TH-cam started in 2005.
It actually just looks like a 2005 TH-cam video
@@EddieBurke Oh it really doesn't, most videos were 240p back then and even now its amazing how many people upload old footage to TH-cam without deinterlacing it first.
"Me at the zoo"
When I read the comment and the realization hit me: 😳😳
only if you were a rich, cool kid......
The intro theme always gives me the feeling that things in the world are going quite alright
Same here.
Same, The Computer Chronicles theme also has the same effect.
That music brings me back into my childhood, when everything was so happy and simple
It's a very 80s sitcom theme music.
Is that because it sounds like it's 30 years old? ;)
Forget "OFF", this is ON POINT with your channel. It was over and I was bummed, I wanted to see more. Also, I would TOTALLY watch all those images being printed out. Put them to music and make a bonus video...
Looks like a dye sublimation printer. The three-pass process is pretty indicative. They're very compact and the consumables are generally very stable which explains why it still works. I used to have a small dye-sub printer made by Canon that I kept in my camera bag for printing out photos on the spot to give to people.
Didn't Tektronix use that tech for the printers attached to some of their color terminals?
I would agree, hands down that's a die sublimation printer. The three passes and still viable ink are hallmarks of the tech.
Tektronix did do some dye sublimation printers like this, although the vast majority of their printers I've see in the wild are technically wax thermal printers. The giveaway for wax thermal is a visible grain, you can feel the ink on the paper, and if you're around the printer it smells like melted crayons.
Agree
I still have my early-mid 2000s Canon Selphy dye sub printer. Makes post card sized prints and the common paper was a little thick and had la place to write from/to addresses on the back, and a box where to put the stamp! The one I got at Sam’s Club a few years back has an lcd screen for previews and seeing what is on a memory card. The Canon PowerShot cameras hook right up.
@@petertheisphotography1198 There were a lot of companies in the 90s that produced thermo-sublimation printers. The process itself is a bit like the thermo printer head in a receipt printer. The better ones had 4 colors (CMYK) and would print a full tabloid size at 300 - 400 dpi. The Tektronix Phaser 480 is a typical machine of that time. 3M/Imation made a similar printer series (Rainbow color Models 27x0 and 4700). The technology is very expensive when it comes to bigger sheets. A print of a full tabloid sheet would cost around $5 for the paper and around $6 for the color typically at least $10 for a print. Dye Sublimation printers are used for photo-prints as well. The paper has to have a polyester coating to work with the sublimation process. T-shirts containing polyester (at least 50-50 mix or coated) can be used to transfer the prints with heat (small prints can be transferred by ironing).
Really impressed at how small that photo printer is. We had a Sony Photo Printer at the hospital for sonogram photos. It’s was about the size of a loaf of bread.
We still use those in my hospital.. haha they technology (and size) really hasn't changed much!
I mean, a large part of of how its so small is that it can only print tiny photos
Ooh it must be like the one in the Techmoan video, it's a very cool device.
@@leandrotami that’s what I’m thinking
That's actually where I kept my bread! Don't tell anyone at the hospital!
My high school job was at a CompUSA selling this type of stuff circa 2004-2006. It's odd to see stuff I could have sold on a vintage tech channel. Thanks for the wakeup call that I'm old! :)
I worked at Radio Shack just out of high school, they still sold electronics then, 1988-ish.. Feeling old just gets worse.
Time to write that Will.
Old is an understatement ;P
I worked in an 1980s arcade when I was in high school.
We're not old, technology is just moving too fast...
I felt old with 8 years old when the gameboy color came out and I was still rocking the old classic brick.
The analog to digital conversion in this device is such a great feature.
I love the Techmoan-style old electronics reviews. Keep doing these
My brother got this camera when he was 10 years old and i was 7 and we filmed so many movies (garbage sci-fi plots and all) back then on this. Alot of great memories
Must be from a very wealthy family if a 10 year old receives a $1400 video camera.
@@dumbpup And it's probably the most expensive one you could find in a regular electronic store.
Lmao it was being discounted if I remember correctly and it was ~$800 at circuit city. It was his birthday and Christmas gift for the year. Dude was obsessed with film making back then. So my parents were very okay with giving him something he would really want
There are much cheaper ones costing less than $500, the $1400 one must be the most high end one you can buy.
I'm actually impressed by this. Kinda wish modern tapecoders had all these features. Would have been usefull for digitizing VHS
But the footage looks awful. "features" are at the cost of other things. I think you possibly have "grass is greener" syndrome which just means you are bad at analytical thought and have low emotional intelligence.
Would have modern cameras that use less waste, less power and look better...
Its like the display... The picture is so bad you need a bigger display. On modern you can view in 1080p on a much nicer screen... So can be smaller yet more legible.
Its like with smart watches... Smaller screen than the Dot Matrix on a Gameboy (DMG) but one can be OLED and high res and the other is a dot matrix display from the 80s... Which do you think is more legible? The gameboy that struggles with graphics on a 2.5" screen whilst a smart watch can display high res at under 1"
@@razerow3391 imagine a Gameboy with a smart watch screen
@@razerow3391 It's not contradictory to want a camera that is modern-quality but also has features like digital-to-audio and a mini printer. Not sure why you think they're exclusive somehow.
@@razerow3391 “which just means you are bad at analytical thought and have low emotional intelligence”
Wow, if you could take all of that from a single comment, that’s amazing.
But seriously, you could’ve made your otherwise valid thoughts without no such presumptuous, asinine remarks.
@@razerow3391 thats not the point thousands of us have VHS tapes that would be nice to digitize, but most modern digitizers are kinda well crap and quite limited, this thing would be wonderful, no one said to bring back these 480p devices, it kinda shows you have no emotional maturity for calling him out for saying that a modern version of a very good digitizer should exist, of course screens are better thats the march of progress, but no one cares when your talking about a camcorder thats 20 years old or a DMG gameboy thats over 30, of course the gameboys screen is rubbish now, but back then it was actually the 1080p screen of its day meaning it was bleeding ass edge for a tiny device running on AA batteries
if you were talking about a movie that came out on VHS and on BluRay of course youd buy the high def version, but theres no high version of the VHS tape of me at disneyland in 1992, thats the bloody point of a good quality digitizer
oh one final thing, are you sure your on the right channel, you flame old tech for being old and justify it by saying modern tech does it better, but this is a retro tech channel people here get enamored by a camcorder that can print and digitize, even though they are watching it on computers and phone with so much more power.
When David does these throwaway videos it usually means he's working on a large project but wants to keep new content coming so people stay engaged with the channel. Can't wait to see what he's cooking up for the coming months.
Hopefully the Amiga episode!
Hmm c5?
"That episode of B-bit Guy filmed to look like the intro to Adrian's Digital Basement" 😂 Thanks for the 80's feel memories.
This one feels like a Techmoan or an LGR video :) Those screenshots look amazing! Back in 2001 it was possible to do fine screenshots but imagine having something like this in the 80's, some video game related print magazines would have loved something like this.
I think Cathode Ray Dude channel would be the one.
Matt Taylor driving on the wrong side of the car, of the road, etc..! :D
And also it is expectable that the price of a second-hand camera like this would suffer from the "Techmoan effect"!
@@tonysofla He'd spend at least half an hour talking about all of the flaws with the camera :P
Techmoan did a video on the technology used in the printer, interesting stuff - got a modern one myself, glad to know the cartridge lasts for decades 😁
“That’s it for the moment”
Haha, if you had asked me, I could have given you a serial key for QT7 Pro. But you managed perfectly without anyway. Fun stuff! :D
In 2001, I would have been shocked by this level of technology. But in 2021 it still looks vintage and nice. And most importantly, it does not hurt the eye! A wonderful device!
That looks and acts like a dye sublimation printer. They are some of the most colorful printers out there because they literally generate colors vs dithering CMYK patterns like conventional printers. They are fantastic for photos, but horrible for text and line art. The other down side is dye sublimation uses a full sheet of each color of ink per pass making them one of the most expensive to operate per sheet, and if little of one color is use very wasteful.
then you can rip the old cartridge apart and see inverted color-separated copies of everything you printed left over on the ribbon
@@ailivac yes and no. The dye sheets are still CMY and some times K, and each pass is a transparent negative like images for each color, but the dye sheets couldn't be reused. The colors form from a dye combination reaction that I don't believe scanning them and recombine them as channels later would result in a true accurate negative of the printer version of the image; however, if one just wanted the color film transparencies, even though they are often very thin, it could probably be done, and I suppose one could turn them into something like a transparent triptych/polyptych pop art variant if they chose to do so.
They are used today still. I use one in a studio as a passport printer.
@@billyoung9538 I don’t think he meant on one sheet, but rather all the sheets. 4 per print
Cool, the iBook Guy even makes a cameo 😉
I admit my favorite intro is yours! Ah the 80s but I went a different path after highschool away from computers despite my love for them, now watching your videos years later as I study to do network engineering (career change at 52!) I can't put in words how much I love your videos. please keep them coming!
This is super cool. Thanks to your friend for letting you film this.
Wow this camera really captures the "80s" feeling of that era, yet the photos themselves are really high detail. What an impressive little piece of equipment.
I really like these "shorter" videos too, videos with around 10 minutes are just the perfect length in between longer ones where I usually kind of lose focus for a bit in between.
I watch the longer ones in pieces. Its better for 8 bit guy too, more ad impressions
I have heard somewhere on TV (specifically they were talking about children; let alone adults) that the mind has the best concentration for about *15 minutes* in a row... after that, it does tend to wander a bit with other thoughts.
@@MonoChorMe
How true, thats why Cartoons were 10, 15 minutes youtube algorithms like longer videos, they sell more advertising, and it makes it more like Television
I see you everywhere! We have a lot of the same subscriptions, so I guess that makes sense.
I am more the oppossed, I prefer longer video to learn even more. Shorter is okay, but they bored me a bit.
Seriously, that's a neat multi-purpose camcorder.
"When 2001 arrived it was kind of a let down."
Understatement of the Willenium.
@@brentfisher902 16 and counting
Thanks for that blast from the past! That was a trip. Something so surreal about seeing 90s quality camcorder footage of current day scenes.
Ahh the era of cramming as many functions into a single device as possible. I remember being impressed with my neighbour's phone/fax/printer/scanner/copyer, as well as my father's dismissal of it, since "if one thing breaks, all of it breaks." Good times.
Isn't it exactly the same w/ smartphones
@@brentfisher902 Actually InfoLithium batteries were still available new at least in 2015. (But maybe the different "series" of them could be a problem). I bought a new batteries for my 2001 vintage still cam and camcorder back then, and they still working fine. The only problem is with capacity reporting (the feature of that type of batteries - they are actually communicating with the camera). On charging it advertises ridiculously high working time, while in use gives false reports that it already discharged. Looks like minor encoding incompatibility like different number of bits, signed vs unsigned or float instead of integer. But this happens only with my still cam which takes only two lower-end models of that batteries (others are physically bigger).
A battery life of 45 min. Puts it on par with some new laptops and cameras.
Either it is a cheapest available battery (maybe supplied with the cam) or it's dead :) Highest tier batteries gives you about 4-6 hours, depending of what you are actually doing with the cam. And remember - this gigantic side screen is your enemy there! Using it instead of viewfinder decreases battery life two or threefold to such ridiculous numbers!
@@user-gi1vg4ck1p I had a digital camera once that had a battery life of about 20 min. And if you pulled the battery to replace it the pics were lost. I returned it. Lol
The grain/light contrast of camcorder film in the 90s/early 2000s will always be special.
Those type of camcorders bring back so many memories. Every year during birthday celebrations the camcorder came out 😅 so insane that the specific device you talk about in this video has turned 20 years old. Now I began to feel old too. Thank you for another video!
Sony made some really great batteries back in the day. I have an old VAIO C1VE laptop with extended battery and it lasted about 10 hours back then and even now can still manage more than 7 hours at least.
Of course I treated it well. Kept it in charge between 20 and 70% most of the time.
Also: that isn't an SD card in there. The symbol is of Memory Stick, SONY's preferred format at the time.
Treating batteries well is the secret behind amazingly durable old batteries. Nowadays the focus on performance numbers like fast charge time or runtime for power hungry gadgets means that most products run batteries as hard as possible while not wrecking the warranty costs.
That camcorder is one of the examples of the definition "oddware".
0:59 I remember owning that exact model.
3:34 The narrow FoV is a sign of the times when 4:3 CRT TVs was still a thing.
4:25 Don't know if this HandyCam had support for the PS2.
I like that term "oddware". You can have large field of view with any aspect ratio. It's just easier/cheaper to built lenses with longer focal lengths. I have some very wide lenses for my 70's video cameras.
4:25 You mean that S-Video socket?
I'm talking about the FireWire port. Early PS2 models had one as well.
Seeing something from 2001 being called "vintage" makes me feel so old. I want to go back to those times so bad.
True. Time is scarry.
Yup, feeling old. And just a couple of years before 2001, I remember us all being under massive stress frantically re-writing code to save the world from the pending Y2K catastrophe! LOL. In terms of wanting to go back in time so bad though, I might be happier with just pre 2020. ie. pre pandemic times. But, then again, who’d want to go through 2020 / 21 again? So, I think maybe going back to the retro computing 80’s is it for me then! :)
Same
@@MartasZLA does time scar you or does it scare you?
@@TheBloxxedSanarcati I can say both.
That MR2 is really beautiful looking. Very classic looking sports car from the transitional era where car designs moved from the boxy, angular look to a more rounded look.
That’s pretty cool! I’m also reminded of the show “Beyond 2000”. I loved it!
wow! I used the watch that show when I was a kid :)
this camera looks like something for cathod ray dude to cover. he loves this type of thing
Maybe too many LCDs for a CRT fan. Still it's surprising that the eyepiece viewfinder is also in colour.
I'm actually really impressed with the replication of color in such a unique, and small, printer for that time. This thing is actually pretty dang cool.
Sony quality
Ugh this made me feel old. Seeing that 88’ MR2 + JVC camcorder was amazing. Here something so amazing about seeing the recording through the eyes of that Sony camera was something I feel I completely missed. That was seriously a next-level device.
Also you should make a wall of screenshots! Love this
The printer uses thermal dye-sublimation, nowadays you can find them in the Canon SELPHY series printers, or in shops that offer instant photo prints.
He never showed the ink cartridge as promised. Do you know what it's like?
@@hectorg5809 because there is no ink cartridge. the print papier itselve has all colors. it uses different heat temps to create different colors. the only down side is the paper is really expansive. its called Zink paper.
@@phunkstar7347 the Zink works like that AFAIK but that’s a newer product development. I also have a Canon Selphy or two (or three?). The dye sub definitely takes a ribbon (not an “ink cartridge “). The ribbon has a yellow section and magenta and cyan and clear UV protection section. With each pass a color dye is sublimated to the paper and the section of ribbon for each color must be size matched to the paper size. Whatever dye transfers comes off the clear ribbon leaving a clear spot behind on that area of ribbon - like an inverse color separation. Pretty cool but several times slower than Zink (which is 1 pass). But I like the quality of my Canon Selphy over my Polaroid branded Zink. And my Zink is Fuji Instax Mini sized (although I’ve seen bigger Zink printers on Amazon but not in the wild).
I was thinking it uses the dye on a ribbon approach. Actually we can check that, if the camera needs 4 passes it used a ribbon if it only needs 3 passes it used the special paper. The sephy printer I have is from 2001 and it uses the ribbon cartridge + paper.
i really love how AmigaBill uses camcorder and videotoaster during his Twitch Streams. This really is a remarkable look.
I want one of these now! that printer looks to be very good quality. Some early 2000s tech is just awesome.
I love when the 8 bit guy covers camcorders and things, it's a really interesting break from his usual content
That's a bad ass piece of equipment. I still have a couple of those older Sonys, but I never had one that printed screenshots!
As Dr. Emmett Brown would say: "That's an amazing portable television and photography studio!" 🙂
And, great advance! ... We will gladly and patiently wait for more news about 'Robots' for C-128. 👍
The taping in the studio looks like a cable access show from the '90's LOL!
Sony Handycams were awesome and packed full of features. I had one living in Germany with the US Army in the 90's. I used it scuba diving in the $600 Sony diving case, strapped to my Ninja motorcycle racing down the autobahn, and the best, I strapped it to the stinger rack on the OH-58C helicopter I used to fly. Got some great footage training against German air defense, zipping around castles on the Rhine river, all kinds of stuff. You really brought the memories back, thanks!
Really classic and interesting "novelty" features of the time
Well that's an impressive piece of hardware. Talk about overengineered... a color printer that works 20 years later is already a feat. Let alone having it attached to the back of a camera for seemingly no reason. Yet, it would probably be worth it to track one down just for that digital conversion quality.
Sony is quality
@@vinesthemonkey Sony was quality.
@@dragonslayerornstein387 I still use a pair of sony earbuds that have held up very well in terms of audio quality
@@vinesthemonkey No no, I'm talking like recent years, quality is moving futher and futher to the $500+ range. DIY is the route to go when it comes to getting and making entertainment.
that cam looks perfect for your channel! fits the theme of your channel nicely!
This video was definitely worth it. That camera has a ton of features that I wouldn't have expected 20 years ago.
Seems us middle aged people who grew up in the 80 90s love nerding out on old tech keep up the good work mate
Tech evolved so rapidly back then, we still have lots to try out ;)
If you had a broadcast-level VHS for your playback into the capture, that would rock. I used to have a JVC SR-40 chained into my Sony DVCAM deck (via SVIDEO) and captured via firewire on Premiere to get rough digital masters of old VHS training tapes.
Broadcast and VHS can't really be used in the same sentence other than with NEVER. But I do capture a lot of VHS using SVHS decks like the Panasonic AG-4700 (with TBC) connected via S-Video to a Sony DSR-11 or similar DVCAM deck. Results are about as good as VHS can be.
I can't wait to start doing VHS captures on my new setup... JVC SR-W5U flows S-Video into an old Matrox MXO2 into an old Mac Pro. Lipstick on a pig, perhaps, but that W5U is unflappable with (usually dodgy) samples of my off-air recording archive.
@@the_circuit_man Oh, I have a JVC SR-W5U. The VGA output is a bit glitchy, but all the other functions are pretty good, I use an AJA Kona LHe for capturing.
@@TVperson1 - I've never tried the VGA output on my deck - makes me curious...
Can you output regular VHS/SVHS signals over YPbPr? To watch on my Sony BVM, I run the S-Video through a scaler to give me 480p YPbPr; it'd be curious to see if I could eliminate the middleman.
@@the_circuit_man Nah, it's only for HD content, same as component. For some reason they chose not output 480 SD through the component and VGA outputs. I guess the deck was too expensive as it was
The Quality of the cam recorder are truly great, not only giving an old vibe (of course becauss it old products),but capturing on details that many more modern products cant capture, it the feels,
today many people wants more sharpness images, but in this cam recorder, they capturing the feels from early 80s to early 20s which is giving vibe of nostalgic, not only from the quality of the images, but also from the colour of the new studio
So it's a camera, digital recording tool, night vision goggles and a printer in one go.
Can't get any more high tech than that.
This type of batteries is actually still used in various lighting equipment to this day, so you can still buy them brand new!
And cameras, too.
I believe that print technology is called dye-sublimation. You can still buy dye-sub photo printers like the Canon Selphy CP line of printers.
I agree it's totally dye-sub
Reminds me of the printer cameras Techmoan showed a while back.
Double checked with the manual of this or very similar that the cartridge is a dye sublimation cartridge. Just a small one. Strange to see that feature in something this old.
Can’t believe he let you use so much of his unreplaceable ink! Very cool camera!
Wow, actually loved the look from the vintage cam in your studio! Very nostalgic and on theme :)
Dye Sublimation was/is one of the best home print technologies in my opinion, just a shame its so wasteful. The results really are great though. I remember getting a Canon Selphy with a memory card reader and screen, back in the day and taking it and extra print packs to parties, family get togethers, etc and it impressing people
This is kinda fun. Also that looks like a *gigantic* screen, too…
Edit: this actually reminds me of some modern devices that use similar dye sublimation printers for a sort of instant printing photo camera. Unfortunately the paper is fairly expensive.
I actually did research on zink paper recently! what makes it so expensive is that theyre "inkless" printers-- zink paper has ink embedded in the paper that activates at different temperatures, as opposed to one like this with ink cartilages and stuff that fuses ink to the paper
Yeah, I was reminded of the Canon Selphy printers, that use a "Tape" of heat-reactive ink that's stored in bands of C-M-Y, so the paper ends up going through 3 times. It also means when you buy a "paper" refill, you also get an ink ribbon for it.
The Canon Selphy works pretty well and 4x6 photos cost about .30cents (US).
I'm curious about the ink cartridge for this camera, how to replace, any ideas?
@Eugene Cam Racist much?
Gorgeous VHS footage. Thank you! So sublime.
Such an amazing gadget. Is impressive it still works perfectly after 20 years. It must have been very expensive when released.
MR-2s were also called "Mister 2"s back in the day.
Mr. Two owners would troll the Pontiac Fierro owners like myself relentlessly
I knew a gal that had an MR-2 and ran into the back of a jacked up pickup truck. The car drove up under the truck like a wedge, she showed me the pictures. When they figured out how to roll the truck off the hood without making things worse, the truck was pretty much unharmed and the MR-2 had only cosmetic damage, although a lot of it. Many cracked panels. I don't know whether the body shop repaired or replaced, it wasn't my car. I definitely would have asked that question.
Hard to believe there was a time when we actually didn't go around casually taking pictures, because there was a real cost to getting them processed, not to mention a significant wait time. This cam would have been pretty impressive in that light, although the small format probably would have struggled to compete with real photos. It'd be interesting to know what sort of ink system it uses and how well the printed photos hold up over time.
Usually I skip intros when I watch YT videos, but your jingle makes me happy and nostalgic. Keep up the great vids; and I like the final outcome of the wall tiles, good mix of colors.
this channel visits all kind of classic technologies. this is an amazing video and I love the variety yet focused approach. well done and good luck David
WOWW, Dave, I was _hoping_ you'd make us a game that took advantage of the 2 main styles of display that the Commodore 128 has, and YOU DID IT! HOT DOG! I can't wait to see that episode! That'll be the first version I buy!
Was the model of the camera ever mentioned within the video? I'm guessing from Google results that it might be a Sony DCR-TRV820? Also, at 3:53 it's mentioned "some sort of dry ink cartridge, that I'll show you in a minute", never to be seen again... just nitpicking, I enjoyed the video nonetheless.
Yeah I want to know what model is this too!
I think you're correct. TRV820
Thanks for that; I was wondering as well!
Amazing to see that Sony still has the manuals available online: Operating Instructions Release Date: 08/18/2003
www.sony.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/W000/W0003112M.pdf
Kudos to them for that!
Was wondering the same, kind of strange to have a video about a product without ever mentioned the name or having it on the title or description xD
I also figured it out independently . Model: Sony Handycam DCR-TRV820. Goes for 400-500 USD used on Amazon (american).
Really cool vintage camera. :-)
There is also *slightly different model* DCR-TRV820e. Don't know what it is.
What a cool video. I use to use an old VHS Camcorder for hooking my SNES up to a monitor that didn't have the right inputs. It worked really well and I could record myself playing SNES games.
What a nice piece of kit. Definitely going to follow the podcast.
Man, that's really impressive. I can't believe the resolution of the recording and the printer. I'd say it's a top notch product even today
It's, but consumables prices are high and number of printouts from one cartridge is low, so the end result is not good at all for the ordinary people. It's a kind of thermal sublimation printer, on the used market they could be get almost for free, but consumables prices make it simply infeasible. Such printers are often built in in medical equipment and such use allows inflating prices on them even more.
Dye sublimation printers are eternal. The only good printers ever made, aside from perhaps some dot matrix stuff. So good.
I just love your videos about cameras! They're my favorite ones!
I’m so glad you left out the “static” after your intro! WAY BETTER!!👌🏻👌🏻
Gee, what great nostalgia is going on here ^^ I remember copying together Christmas movies for my family back in the days with these kind of video cameras and SVHS-recorders :) Does anybody remember the Hama Video Cut 200 mixer?
amazing how just recording with the old camera makes everything else look older.
Very cool camera. Thanks David.
I'm still amazed by the amount of work you put in these videos. They'll be a legacy showing all this technology from 70's till 2000's, which i'm so scared will soon stop working... Thank You!
I'm actually very interested in your thoughts on the MR2! I own a 1993 one, and it's easily one of the best cars I've ever driven 😅
You should do more short videos once in a while! I love these little tangents outside the realm of computers that you do, always bringing cool new things I had no clue existed!
Driving a manual transmission car is kinda like a vintage computer. You never forget how to use it! Awesome video as us usual!
Cool video. I enjoy seeing modern footage from older cameras with explanations of the tech. Please do more!
C128 version? Super awesome. I’ve wanted to see some games optimized with its capabilities in mind. Are you using the extra ram as well? VDC chip seems interesting to code to as well. Please do a deep dive on this port, that’d be awesome!
I wonder what vwestlife will say when he sees this video... I've heard how good the ADC is in those cameras, and having one, I can attest, they work excellent. That is how I captured video from the Oddessy2 when I made a video composite modding said system. The conversion was excellent. I am looking forward to seeing the new versions of Petscii Robots in actions, but I know it will take time. Someone commented that they wanted to see you shoot an episode on a vintage camera, that could be fun, but even Ben on Oddity Archive mentioned (and I'm paraphrasing here) that the amount of work it would take to shoot an episode on VHS would be time prohibitive.
I just know loads of people would love to get their hands on copies of some of those game printouts!!
This is great! Please don't hesitate to do more content like this!
That is a neat bit of tech. I love how even though it is digital the video still has that "vintage" look. I'd love to find out what causes that. Did footage shot this way always look like that and we remember differently? Do the image sensors degrade over time and produce that effect? Enquiring minds want to know.
I think it is primarily just a lack of dynamic range on the CCD, combined with the lower resolution. Sure, high-end professional cameras of the era had better CCDs, and better lenses. So there was always a noticeable difference between the video quality of consumer vs. professional cameras.
Also, the digital 8 format was capable of recording far higher quality than what you’re seeing captured here, but Sony nerfed the digital 8 cameras somewhat so that minidv and the prosumer ones had credibility.
12voltvids is a good channel for reference on the digital camera formats, lots of tear downs and repairs,
@@The8BitGuy now we have phones like the Galaxy S20 and S21 that take video that looks far better than professional studio video cameras from years ago. IIRC NASA's video from the space shuttles took a sudden leap in quality when one astronaut used most of his personal stuff weight allotment to take his little video camera along. He jacked it into the video downlink and mission control got quite the surprise that an off the shelf camera was so superior to the junk they'd been paying thousands of dollars for.
@@The8BitGuy I've found that the older digital cameras with CCD sensors and big lenses take better pictures than newer cameras with CMOS sensors and tiny lenses. The CMOS sensors are fuzzy and blurry so they hide it with higher resolution. The newest CMOS cameras are better but they still hide the low level noise with super high resolution and software tricks.
Digi8 stuff typically used inferior capturing hardware to its MiniDV and DVCAM counterparts despite all three formats using the same codec.
It's crazy how nitpicky you can get with the image quality. Considering all the capabilities of it there are practically no compromises!
This is sooo cool! Fun to see local spots on film. Thanks for doing this!
This was fascinating! Thanks for posting this!
Fun fact: The Toyota MR2 was re-named MRS in France, because "MR2" pronounced in French sounds like "Est Merdeux" which means "Is Sh*tty".
That's unexpected 😅
Wasn't just France, the final generation (97-07) was called the MR-S in Japan as well.
Only the US and Europe (minus France and Belgium) called it the MR2.
that is kinda hilarious since MR2 had a real meaning midship runabout 2 seater
7:02 Does that camcorder actually use SD cards? I thought all Sony products of that era used the proprietary MemoryStick cards.
It's a DCR-TRV820 and uses MemoryStick.
This is the type of camera I wish I'd had back in jr high and high school. And this is exactly the type of content I enjoy from you
You intro melody is the best! Thanks for an cool informative show!
"We would have flying cars in 2003."
Maybe in a timeline where the Dark Ages never happened.
Glad you said "manual transmission" and not "stick shift"!
Nice video. Something along the era that you work the most!!!
I got to say, I _love_ the hex panels in the blue/grey you have in the main studio.
You repeatedly say “this camera,” David but I don’t think you ever actually say the model name? @The 8-Bit Guy
I believe the camera featured here is the DCR-TRV820. I personally own the DCR-TRV720, which is exactly the same camera except it doesn't have the printer. I chose not to spend an extra $100 for the printer, and the printing supplies were about $20 for 40 prints.
@@mrh829 thank you.
I love these videos! Please keep making them! I love learning about good old technology like this. Your content is always superb 💅
Amazing camera! Thanks for the video.
this camera footage makes anything looks 80s, and looks so cool