I used to be Technical Manager for JVC(UK) and these were all over eBay when camcorders were much more popular that they are now. I actually wrote the warning that you showed in your video. There were around 30 fake JVC models. eBay were good at removing them and I had a VeRO account where I could report any fakes and they would remove them pretty much instantly. I don't think anyone does that job now, which is one reason why there are so many.
@@JaredConnell The Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Program allows owners of intellectual property (IP) rights and their authorized representatives to report eBay listings that may infringe on those rights. VeRO embodies our commitment to provide a safe place to buy and sell, which respects property owners’ rights.
@@richardbrobeck2384We used to get them sent to us for repair by customers who thought they were JVC products. We took a look inside a few of them, and as you say, they were junk. I have an "MXJVC" camera bag around here somewhere.
Nah these were just so cheaply made that they made boatloads of them and many are still new, sealed, and sold today. Warehouses full of them all around the world and owners wanting to get rid of them ASAP.
I'm not sure if they're still being made, but I have no doubt online dollar stores like Temu and Wish probably still have plenty of sellers peddling this garbage.
When all the electronics showrooms like Best Buy close & you can't shop & buy in person with real products, getting scammed online is what becomes commonplace.
That’s why we have trusted online marketplaces like Amazon. Now if you’ll excuse me I’ll be returning the brick Amazon just shipped me when I ordered a battery bank.
@@beefchicken A few years ago when ordering on Amazon I looked after placing my order and found that the item on it wasn't what the page showed. To be fair the did cancel my order and refund me promptly.
I don't understand why you don't have upwards of 500k subs by now. For me, your channel is a staple in vintage electronics. You get shout outs from a bunch of TH-camrs that have millions of subs. I think your content is very underrated. Keep up the good/honest work!
I remember many years ago, a popular TH-camr, Dr. Ashens, reviewed a Toshiba Camilio. it was like a few weeks after the upload he added an annotation(remember those) saying that the camera was counterfeit, and he fell for it. This guy is a retro gaming enthusiast so he is very familiar with electronics. It can happen to anybody.
8:52 - I always wondered how in a world where the cheapest Android phone has HD video & stabilization, we still get the _worst_ quality UFO and bigfoot videos. Now I know.
In the early 2000s, in a shopping center near me, they sold these fake SONY cameras. Knowing this, I bought one, emptied it completely of electronics once home, returned it, and got my money back! I used the electronics for one of my many projects.
Amazon thrives on fake stuff, I was banned from reviews because I stated the truth about 18650 batteries, due to the physical & chemical makeup of them, they can't be over 3500mAh yet Amazon still sells the fakes rated at 9999mAh which are exceptionally dangerous, and I even had a workmate loose the second floor of his house due to fire from these fakes. 🤬
There are MORE fake camcorders on Amazon than real ones. I miss local camera shops! B&H might not be the cheapest place on earth but at least I know I'm getting REAL branded gear.
I used to manage a camera shop and felt sorry for people who brought these things in, usually purchased in Tenerife etc. Names like Cannon, Roniflex, Nokin etc, often as you describe with no electronic viewfinder and crappy resolution. Sometimes they wanted the 'optional' battery pack and memory card which cost more than they had paid for the camera. Other times they insisted we honour the international warranty the guy had assured them it came with.
Always stick to reputable brands: Awai, Somy, Pioner, Mangabox, Teak, Technix, Kenbook, etc. Even generics, like General Electonic and Reelistic are at least known quantities.
I am amazed at how deliberately deceptive the Mitsuba is designed. It's literally built to rip unsuspecting people off. A fake lens to draw attention away from the cheap early noughties webcam and a completely useless compartment for 8cm DVDs that looks like a disk drive. This is more of a prank than an actual device.
These are designed to be used in some variation of the "white van speaker scam." A street hawker or flea-market vendor will sell these suspiciously cheap with a story attached ("my boss accidentally double-ordered"). Maybe they'll even show you a real Sony. When you buy it, get home and realize you've been conned the seller is long gone. It's difficult to prove a crime happened since you did recieve a "camera" so the cops don't get involved; in their eyes you just overpaid which isn't illegal.
Me too, I am fascinated by this "camera". My brain cant comprehend that it actually exists. It feels like something from a dream, I have to rewatch the video to remind me its real. Can you imagine a whole factory with 100+ workers producing these?
I remember a friend of mine buying one of these fake "sony" ones (and later on, one of my students also bought one). When I pointed out it was fake he was completely denying it. I also remember funny company names in other counterfeit devices, like portable radios. My favorite one has to be "Panashiba", obviouly a co-op between panasonic and toshiba :D
That was a fantastic video. The camera with the fake lens was wild! Coming from a broadcast background, I knew about cheap consumer cameras to avoid - but never counterfeit cameras! I remember when my kids were younger, they would sometimes play with those cheap camcorder like toys with the lenses that were merely pinhole cameras shooting VGA resolution.
The 4 telltales of a bad copy: 1 - The clumpiness of the design, usually roundy and cheap looking. 2 - If you look at the copys lens, they are usually covered by a flat piece of glass made to look like a lens behind a pinhole camera. 3 - stickers that exaggerate specs to unreasonable hights. 4 - more stickers that pretend to be features.
I used to watch fake camera reviews. (Including yours) These things have disappointed many people especially the customers that they don’t even know about the brand’s existence and when they bought the thing (Like the one you showed) not even realized that they got ripped off. (Just like me, But with the headphones) Oh, And I’m also a camcorder user and lover too. (Speaking of a camcorder comeback. 😅)
It would help consumers if companies would keep legacy product webpages up instead of taking them down. The info there isn't hard to maintain, it isn't going to change, and some very simple CMS would keep it secure and up to date.
Fake product trick names are a running joke between my uncle and I and this video was full of some great ones! Some cameras to use with your Bollex watch!
2:22 I actually saw that same exact listing for that Canon DDV-C330 counterfeit camcorder on eBay exactly three months before you uploaded this video. I politely told the seller that the camcorder's a counterfeit camcorder and I asked them to either remove their listing or change their listing's title stating that it's a counterfeit camcorder. In response, the seller cussed me out, claimed that the camcorder wasn't a counterfeit camcorder, and blocked me.
The "Sony $789.99" is fun. It has an EAN barcode, not UPC. EAN is used in Europe. And the 4 at the beginning means it is for the German market (entre outre). So there would not be $ as currency ;-)
The background music at 10:12 was giving me serious _Portal_ clock radio vibes. As to the cameras, it really was remarkable how poor the quality of that knock-off was. So much so that the brand on the side ought to have read "Russet", "Idaho" or "King Edward", rather than "Mitsuba". Thanks for making the video - I hope it saves someone from making a mistake and losing money.
This is why I don’t like buying cameras on eBay, because they can mislead people into buying a counterfeit with using the same logo like JVC or Sony! At least you were able to report some of those counterfeit camcorders, eBay needs to be more clear with online listings of vintage camcorders!
I remember I used to like to buy counterfeit camcorders because it was fun to see what kind of crap they were. Sometimes you'd get lucky and salvage parts out of them and add it to my parts bin. But yeah, if you're older/non-technical _AND_ you're in another country buying electronics you might be screwed. If you know what you're doing you might be a little better off. Having said all that I found the fake DVD (DVC) hilarious lol
Awesome video man. I like that you speak slow and very clear and because of this, i understood everything you said in your video, i liked the samples of video and audio comparison between fake and real camcorders. By the way i am impressed about the quality of the audio of this old sony camcorder. I just saw one of the best made videos in the whole youtube. For real man, i liked your content a lot , so you deserve a subscribe. I am impressed of how clear you speak and the rest of the video is perfect made. Man you are very, very good at this👍
I got burned on a fake Minolta video camera. They used the bundle trick to make it look even better and everything you say is true. It was as bad as anything you demonstrated here! There was no way to be sure it was fake -- except the price was so low. There were fake TH-cam videos about it making it look really good. I returned it and got hit with a $35 re-stocking fee! And this was from Amazon! Sheesh, let the buyer beware!
I was approached by a guy that wanted to sell me "genuine" Sony camcorder. Brand new, in the box. The price was 50€ but I asked to cut it down because it was fake. After negociations, for 20€, I ended up with a beautiful webcam of good quality (it did VGA video in 2012 when a similar priced webcam only had CIF or QVGA resolution) and a nice device to reccord videos on the go on a standard SD card. I still have it and it kinda work; it have tripod mounting point, a LCD preview on the door and a simple menu. And for the batteries, it had 3xAA but I modified it to a 2000mAh rechargeable Lithium cell. And to not forget, it also have FM radio built in. A beauty.
i have an old digital camcorder says its made by sony bought in 2012 the font and everything is the same the sticker is the same as what you find on sony point and shoots of the time your video made me go back and look at it again and i tried to google the model number i find nothing it records in asf format with M4S2 codec so i think its fake
Thank you for making this video. Because of it I just realized I had a fake canon camera for sale on eBay. It looks exactly like one of your examples of fakes. I am kind of embarrassed that I did not realize it was a fake. Of course I took the listing down and I will give myself a talking to later on.
It's now apparent that we can no longer trust the very brands many of us grew up to respect and purchase. I told my son not too long ago. It will get to the point where you will have people paying top dollar for so called "real products". Even parts will be very high priced, and individuals will be buying old and broken models to simply make one good working until. It reminds me of the storyline from the Sci Fi show "Serenity". Its said that when the Earth started sending out starships to colonize other worlds, the precious few items or "Earth relics" people took with them are worth huge prices on the so called Black Market. It's a bit of a competition among the wealthy to have the most "Earth relics" and be the talk of their planet. Is that where we are headed? Because of such horribly cheap and low quality products people scour for old but much better quality items? And paying the price of course?
Some of the people who sell these products on eBay (or similar sites), aren't even aware that they're selling a knock-off goods. Usually people who are not tech savvy. Of course there are genuine scammers. They usually tend to sell bootleg music CDs and DVDs (CD-R & DVD-R). And then there are people who make a really lousy quality image where you can't figure out is this genuine item or a prop. Or a really lazy that couldn't be bothered to make a photo of their goods, take stock one from the internet and be "it's good enough".
I also own a panasonic which I ve been using it with my husband a lot. They do have a very nice type of feel to the video which I wasnt quite able to replicate with the smartphone. Besides I also enjoy the look and ergonomics of it plus having a dedicated video and picture device! I love having retro stuff like that! I cant wait to be able to afford to get more technologies which are just nice like that. Thank you for making an awesome video!
My dad gave me one of them fake camcorders in 2018, it never worked for him so passed to me to see if I could revive it, I did, battery had puked cos it was a re-used one, but the thing was just as decribed here, fixed focus, lump of metal inside for "added value", recordings were worse than my Nokia 6260 flip from 2005, software was janky, and it just felt crap, I took it to bits permanently, no point trying to polish that turd... :S (I'll reply to this with an insta link to the pic I took of it alongside my Panasonic HC-V110, given youtube sends links to the spam trap, it's a "convincing" fake, but not to someone who used a real camcorder!)
I live in Europe and i always saw these cameras and mobile phone shops alongside other fake goods. I have relatives in Lithuania and counterfeit electronics were common there after the fall of the iron courtain. In Vilnius there is this really ugly brutalist shopping centre which looks like a prison (they still haven't torn it down). There was a shop, which only sold fake electronics and clothes. The shop also had a chemical smell so bad, i still remember it. Eastern bloc people had no experience with outside brands and it was less than easy to fool them.
Well if somebody hasn't posted it. Those Traveling sales would go around to different towns sold them to. They also sold refurbished stuff. Plus Cell phones that was a cell phone but would not work in the USA. I can't remember the last time I saw one of those shows in this area.
Oh, that last part is spot on! Yet as you said, some people are so non-tech-savvy, they won't notice nor care about aspect ratio and audio channels. So, ... maybe there's a market for those sketchy cameras afterall. Too bad they just could not help pretending to be something else.
omg we had a sony at one point I think. I love that theres a community of people using these because not only does the footage looks nice, but the devices themselves look both really cool and fun to use
Fortunately a lot of old camcorders (especially old ones that take cassette) have a barrel jack for 12v car adapters. you know what else is 12 volt? cheap drill batteries at harbor freight. 12 dollars for a rechargeable lithium drill battery, all you have to do is make an adapter to plug it in either the barrel jack or the original battery terminals.
My neighbor had the infamous DV7000 and rather demanded I but it from him, to prove to his wife that it had been a good investment. After looking it up, it seemed worthless but I offered him $20 just for the novelty. He agreed, but only if I told his wife I gave him $100 for it... whatever! What amazed me about this device is that it actually functioned as a camcorder! Decades earlier when you bought a product like this, you just got a box of rocks!
It's fascinating how the market for vintage camcorders has brought about a market for _fake_ camcorders. I love having dedicated devices for things. Phones are super convenient, but they're still jack-of-all-trades. This video is so important because camcorders are still the best way to shoot video!
It's funny when you see the reflection of the camera man in a 'VLOG' and they are awkwardly holding a DSLR style body with two hands to try and keep it steady when a simple Camcorder, which would even end up being cheaper than whatever mirrorless camera + lens they are using, would be so easy to hold in one hand and get a similar quality footage.
@@bennyc500949 No, it definitely won't be steady footage with one point of contact, but it sure is more comfortable to hold. Any camera with shoulder support will be infinitely more comfortable than DSLRs and camcorders (as shown in this video) combined though. If I already own a good stills camera, then I'd skip the camcorder and go with an ENG/EFP-style video camera.
when I saw the beginning of the video with the plain white background I was worried you got rid of your iconic table lmfao. There's something about your usual set that just feels right...
0:58 I had a Hitachi camcorder very similar to that, but shot on 8cm DVD discs. I traded it in and remember getting quite decent money back then. I remember going out the shop thinking they made a mistake or something but it was a good camcorder. The DVD format was a bit annoying, because you had to initialise the DVD's before they could be played back, and the 8cm DVD-RW discs were quite expensive if you don't plan on keeping everything. Still pretty cool going from camcorder to DVD player to watch back.
almost 14 years ago, some Argentinian accent guys tried to white-van scam me, first asked me for directions to some random place, then they offered me a sony camcorder, the name Sony was written in cursive, I ran like hell.
The problem with modern kids using these camcorders is that they put zero effort into properly capturing that footage on a PC. I've seen even some quite pro looking TH-camr who's made the mistake of capturing footage from a miniDV camcorder via RCA composite video cables as well as a probably questionable capture device as well. The result being that our homie VWestlife, with a much more modest production value, gets much better quality footage out of these old camcorders than these higher budget TH-camrs.
A lot of music released today has heavy inspiration from the late 90's, with many music videos even being purposely shot in 4:3 rather than 16:9. These camcorders give that warm aesthetic that's lost in a lot of modern smartphones, which with heavy HDR and processing means video is perfect, but lacking that charm. Similar to what happened with the 80's trend, the 90's trend is making a lot of portable cassettes, consoles, CRT's, disposable cameras and camcorders more popular.
A few years ago I was trying to get a full size VHS camcorder. Every single one was destroyed beyond repair by leaking electrolytic capacitors. No joke, I went thru 6 broken camcorders before I found a repairable one. These more modern camcorders you show in the video always refuse to power up for some reason. If you trying to buy a camcorder in this day and age: Prepare to go thru 10 broken ones before you find a single working one!
That "Mitsuba" camcorder had about the same quality as the 1984 Sony BMC-220 Betamovie camcorder with its singe stripped Vidicon (Trinicon) sensor and mono linear sound.
11:40 I wasn't expecting a CBBC cameo but alas there it is! Also I had another cheap camcorder that I got from Goodwill that also had metal plates in it to make it feel heavier. The video quality was pretty bad and the audio was out-of-sync. I still have it but it doesn't really work because the battery cover's spring is broken and it won't stay shut.
I own a Sony Handycam CX-405. It's a fairly "outdated" model by today's standards but for a compact 1080p camcorder I quite like it. I have some experience with cheap Amazon camcorders as well and if you spend just a little more on the real thing the difference is incredible.
I still have my Panasonic NV -GS17E which I bought in the 90s. I also have batteries, chargers, cassettes ac adapter and computer interface/grabber to upload to my laptop. It works perfectly.
I know what you mean about loving camcorders. My first was a Sony TRV818, very very basic model. Didn't even have a side screen, but it did have a color viewfinder which was good enough. I loved learning how to make short films with little to no editing tools.
Wow, I am so glad I don't buy cameras based on price. The last camcorder I had, which I gave to my daughter, was the Canon VIXIA HF G50. I did record great 4k/30p but required too much color correction in post to match my Black Magic Cine cam.
yep. man living in manhattan during the 2000s i saw so many of these things sold in cheapo goods stores all over the city. there were actually some *really* accurate looking fakes being made by the mid 2000s and it could be hard to tell them apart from just appearances. it's always important to buy from a reputable seller!
That would a funny prop for 2000's period piece. Someone filming with a camera that looks like period accurate thing, but an eagle-eyed viewer notices, hey, that's a pinhole sensor on that Matsusonichu camera....
You're telling me my grandma wouldn't watch my TH-cam videos in 2005 because I didn't deinterlace like she always told me?! I just assumed it was an old wives tale.
I had one of those camcorders, and it was an Aiptek camcorder from the mid to late 2000’s and the video quality was horrendous. Too dark and dull. I replaced with a FlipVideo from 2009 and it does the rest. And with the advent of iPhones and iPads, FlipVideo was retired by 2011 or so.
Thanks for bringing this up. I was looking into buying another one soon. That's so wild that it comes with a fake sd card telling you it doesn't have one when they could have put it on paper but made a fake sd card and why even make a fake place to hold a mini dvd 😂
Looks like I got lucky. I ordered a used Sony HI-8 camcorder, and I got a used Sony HI-8 camcorder. Obviously old and well used. It works great. Glad I didn't get scammed. Of course, I assumed I would not be, as I bought it from a US based individual seller who only had one to sell.
I love my SoKnee camcorder. At 15 frames per second, 140p resolution and in-built single Christmas tree light for bright illumination of your subject, it's top of the range! Not only that, its lens cap is permanently glued on so you don't even have to worry about taking care of its high quality SoKnee lens! If you can't use it, it'll never get damaged. They really like to think of the consumer at SoKnee.
The camera in 2:02 is very common in Mexico, I call it "The Fools Camera" someone buy one and like a curse, as soon as the buyer finds out he was scammed he or she tries to sell it again even more expensive. It is a curse.
It pisses me off that ebay allows counterfeit junk on their site. Items like the fake Sony clearly violate their TOU, they don't include keywords like "reproduction" or anything like that.
Though I was born in the 1970s, I (nor my immediate family) never owned a camcorder. The closest I’ve ever had was a Kodak Zi-8 (digital 1080p video recorder that came out in 2009). Ive used a number of VHS recorders and recorded hundreds of tapes up until the 2010s, but I’ve never had any love for SD video. But I do like record albums and appreciate your videos!
Another note on that very last part, ADJUST THE GODDANG PICTURE ON YOUR CAPTURE STICK if you're digitizing analog formats like VHS-C or Hi8, cause the default settings on those $20 USB capture dongles are trash and almost every capture software lets you adjust the chroma, luma, gamma, saturation, etc. on them to get a halfway decent picture even outta worn-out EP-mode VHS. Nobody wants to see a super-dark and washed out image and there's only so much improvement Davinci Resolve can do in post when the output is a compressed mpeg2 video. Also, CLEAN YOUR TAPE HEADS IF IT STILL LOOKS LIKE TRASH, cause I guarantee the previous owner never did and with sold-as-blank media a lotta the tapes are degrading and gunking your head drum up.
We've got a Sony camcorder from the early 2000's and as you say the pictures nothing to get excited about, but the sound is excellent. I have loads of footage taken at music festivals and the sound is great, quite often I'd get bored of filming and want to watch the acts so I'd point the camera at the sky and just record the music.
5:54 I have that one branded as DVxJVC. I got it for less than 1€ with a dead battery from a thrift store back in 2012. It's honestly not that bad for being a cheap china camera from 2005, much better than what most phone cameras were back then. But it only has fixed focus and digital zoom so it's definitely not comparable to a real camcorder.
I agree. I also like camcorders. Although DSLRs and smartphones have reached incredible levels of quality with their sensors, they still have a long way to go to improve, especially when it comes to focusing. Techmoan and LGR use DSLRs to record videos and they do great, but in order to achieve good results, you have to become very perfect in manual handling of the camera, which if you intend to use your DSLR to record automatically, the results can be not very convincing. In that aspect, you can use (home) camcorders without having too much knowledge of video, and obtain very good images. Obviously, if you touch the manual settings you get the most out of it. But from now on, camcorders in their automatic modes behave very well (generally).
I used to be Technical Manager for JVC(UK) and these were all over eBay when camcorders were much more popular that they are now. I actually wrote the warning that you showed in your video. There were around 30 fake JVC models. eBay were good at removing them and I had a VeRO account where I could report any fakes and they would remove them pretty much instantly. I don't think anyone does that job now, which is one reason why there are so many.
Whats a vero account?
@@JaredConnell The Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) Program allows owners of intellectual property (IP) rights and their authorized representatives to report eBay listings that may infringe on those rights. VeRO embodies our commitment to provide a safe place to buy and sell, which respects property owners’ rights.
I have opened one those fake units up and they were built like a kids toy !
@@richardbrobeck2384We used to get them sent to us for repair by customers who thought they were JVC products. We took a look inside a few of them, and as you say, they were junk. I have an "MXJVC" camera bag around here somewhere.
@@richardbrobeck2384I seen actual Fisher Price cameras that was less like a toy than the fakes
I've once saw in a pawnshop a fake Canon printer under the brand name of Cumon. I wish I was joking.
I wish you aren't. That made my evening! 🤣🤣🤣
It prints spice on blotter paper, obviously.
For a moment I thought these were fakes made recently. I was like “wait, they’re making counterfeit camcorders of 20+ year old models???”
Nah these were just so cheaply made that they made boatloads of them and many are still new, sealed, and sold today. Warehouses full of them all around the world and owners wanting to get rid of them ASAP.
they can't clone analog camcorders because mechanism is too hard to make. and they're not the smartest folk around.
I'm not sure if they're still being made, but I have no doubt online dollar stores like Temu and Wish probably still have plenty of sellers peddling this garbage.
Skip to 10:35 or so to see they are indeed making new fakes and they could be harder to spot
When all the electronics showrooms like Best Buy close & you can't shop & buy in person with real products, getting scammed online is what becomes commonplace.
That’s why we have trusted online marketplaces like Amazon.
Now if you’ll excuse me I’ll be returning the brick Amazon just shipped me when I ordered a battery bank.
thats why you can't be mentally challenged when shopping online.
@@Australiaisupsidedownya because smart people never get scammed. Scammers could never use fake pictures or descriptions, after all.
@@beefchicken A few years ago when ordering on Amazon I looked after placing my order and found that the item on it wasn't what the page showed. To be fair the did cancel my order and refund me promptly.
@@beefchickenand the fake capacity & brand sd card they sent me
Ah yes, the very well known brand of Canosonic.
I'd rather go for a Panon.
@@LuenebahnNah, Panaphonics is the best.
Amateurs… Nikai is the real deal!
Guys, come on, you know the best is FONY.
I prefered Panascanic
I know a genuine Panaphonics when I see one.
Sold! You wrap it up, I'll start bringin' in the pennies!
And look, there’s Magnetbox and Sorny!
@@mushroomsamba82Ahh, but you can't beat a Carnevale
They make Techniques or Teknicks also don't they?
😄😅
I don't understand why you don't have upwards of 500k subs by now. For me, your channel is a staple in vintage electronics. You get shout outs from a bunch of TH-camrs that have millions of subs. I think your content is very underrated. Keep up the good/honest work!
Totally agree! A brilliant channel, very honest, entertaining and informative.
You made me check his subscriber count and I'm genuinely shocked it's that low. Wtf don't people see quality??
I'm surprised, given the quality of content. This was one of the first channels I subscribed to - had to be 10-15 years ago
@@audubon5425 Sadly it`s not quality that bring subs, making fool out of your self brings subs, more stupid content you got more subs will attract.
I remember many years ago, a popular TH-camr, Dr. Ashens, reviewed a Toshiba Camilio. it was like a few weeks after the upload he added an annotation(remember those) saying that the camera was counterfeit, and he fell for it. This guy is a retro gaming enthusiast so he is very familiar with electronics. It can happen to anybody.
8:52 - I always wondered how in a world where the cheapest Android phone has HD video & stabilization, we still get the _worst_ quality UFO and bigfoot videos. Now I know.
In the early 2000s, in a shopping center near me, they sold these fake SONY cameras. Knowing this, I bought one, emptied it completely of electronics once home, returned it, and got my money back! I used the electronics for one of my many projects.
People on TH-cam, admitting to actual theft. 😂
It probably worked better without any components inside! You gave them a better life using them in your projects. Grande Marco!
@@awesomeferret the store itself was just as bad for trying to scam people.
@@awesomeferret Statute of limitations baby!
Grande marco! (Poco legale😅)
Finally someone has finally talked about this, i see these all over amazon too.
Amazon thrives on fake stuff, I was banned from reviews because I stated the truth about 18650 batteries, due to the physical & chemical makeup of them, they can't be over 3500mAh yet Amazon still sells the fakes rated at 9999mAh which are exceptionally dangerous, and I even had a workmate loose the second floor of his house due to fire from these fakes. 🤬
for sure just plain junk !
There are MORE fake camcorders on Amazon than real ones. I miss local camera shops! B&H might not be the cheapest place on earth but at least I know I'm getting REAL branded gear.
I used to manage a camera shop and felt sorry for people who brought these things in, usually purchased in Tenerife etc. Names like Cannon, Roniflex, Nokin etc, often as you describe with no electronic viewfinder and crappy resolution. Sometimes they wanted the 'optional' battery pack and memory card which cost more than they had paid for the camera. Other times they insisted we honour the international warranty the guy had assured them it came with.
Always stick to reputable brands: Awai, Somy, Pioner, Mangabox, Teak, Technix, Kenbook, etc. Even generics, like General Electonic and Reelistic are at least known quantities.
I am amazed at how deliberately deceptive the Mitsuba is designed. It's literally built to rip unsuspecting people off. A fake lens to draw attention away from the cheap early noughties webcam and a completely useless compartment for 8cm DVDs that looks like a disk drive. This is more of a prank than an actual device.
These are designed to be used in some variation of the "white van speaker scam." A street hawker or flea-market vendor will sell these suspiciously cheap with a story attached ("my boss accidentally double-ordered"). Maybe they'll even show you a real Sony. When you buy it, get home and realize you've been conned the seller is long gone. It's difficult to prove a crime happened since you did recieve a "camera" so the cops don't get involved; in their eyes you just overpaid which isn't illegal.
Canasonic takes the cake with its name, combining Canon and Panasonic. lol
The fake sd card topped it off 😂
Me too, I am fascinated by this "camera". My brain cant comprehend that it actually exists. It feels like something from a dream, I have to rewatch the video to remind me its real. Can you imagine a whole factory with 100+ workers producing these?
@@WolfmanDude - I wouldn't sleep well as a worker knowing the crap I'm producing. lol
I remember a friend of mine buying one of these fake "sony" ones (and later on, one of my students also bought one). When I pointed out it was fake he was completely denying it. I also remember funny company names in other counterfeit devices, like portable radios. My favorite one has to be "Panashiba", obviouly a co-op between panasonic and toshiba :D
there's literally a Panashiba TV being sold on amazon india
Ive seen genuine Fony headphones
That was a fantastic video. The camera with the fake lens was wild! Coming from a broadcast background, I knew about cheap consumer cameras to avoid - but never counterfeit cameras! I remember when my kids were younger, they would sometimes play with those cheap camcorder like toys with the lenses that were merely pinhole cameras shooting VGA resolution.
The 4 telltales of a bad copy: 1 - The clumpiness of the design, usually roundy and cheap looking. 2 - If you look at the copys lens, they are usually covered by a flat piece of glass made to look like a lens behind a pinhole camera. 3 - stickers that exaggerate specs to unreasonable hights. 4 - more stickers that pretend to be features.
I used to watch fake camera reviews. (Including yours)
These things have disappointed many people especially the customers that they don’t even know about the brand’s existence and when they bought the thing (Like the one you showed) not even realized that they got ripped off. (Just like me, But with the headphones)
Oh, And I’m also a camcorder user and lover too. (Speaking of a camcorder comeback. 😅)
It would help consumers if companies would keep legacy product webpages up instead of taking them down.
The info there isn't hard to maintain, it isn't going to change, and some very simple CMS would keep it secure and up to date.
Fake product trick names are a running joke between my uncle and I and this video was full of some great ones! Some cameras to use with your Bollex watch!
2:22 I actually saw that same exact listing for that Canon DDV-C330 counterfeit camcorder on eBay exactly three months before you uploaded this video. I politely told the seller that the camcorder's a counterfeit camcorder and I asked them to either remove their listing or change their listing's title stating that it's a counterfeit camcorder. In response, the seller cussed me out, claimed that the camcorder wasn't a counterfeit camcorder, and blocked me.
0:39 - Er, you didn't just _visually_ rickroll us, did you?!
😂
Seeing the last clip i would’ve never thought that i would feel nostalgia for a mk5 GTI
The "Sony $789.99" is fun. It has an EAN barcode, not UPC. EAN is used in Europe. And the 4 at the beginning means it is for the German market (entre outre). So there would not be $ as currency ;-)
That Mitsuba is the perfect quote unquote "digital versatile camera" if you ask me
I never knew there were knockoffs of old cameras until I went looking to buy an old Pentax and saw a bunch of fakes. Blew my mind.
The background music at 10:12 was giving me serious _Portal_ clock radio vibes. As to the cameras, it really was remarkable how poor the quality of that knock-off was. So much so that the brand on the side ought to have read "Russet", "Idaho" or "King Edward", rather than "Mitsuba".
Thanks for making the video - I hope it saves someone from making a mistake and losing money.
This is why I don’t like buying cameras on eBay, because they can mislead people into buying a counterfeit with using the same logo like JVC or Sony! At least you were able to report some of those counterfeit camcorders, eBay needs to be more clear with online listings of vintage camcorders!
my favorite historical irony is that these "counterfeit" 35mm cameras formed the basis of what we now call lomography
"I know it's not fake, it was my grandma's!" LMAO
I remember I used to like to buy counterfeit camcorders because it was fun to see what kind of crap they were. Sometimes you'd get lucky and salvage parts out of them and add it to my parts bin. But yeah, if you're older/non-technical _AND_ you're in another country buying electronics you might be screwed. If you know what you're doing you might be a little better off.
Having said all that I found the fake DVD (DVC) hilarious lol
Awesome video man. I like that you speak slow and very clear and because of this, i understood everything you said in your video, i liked the samples of video and audio comparison between fake and real camcorders. By the way i am impressed about the quality of the audio of this old sony camcorder. I just saw one of the best made videos in the whole youtube. For real man, i liked your content a lot , so you deserve a subscribe. I am impressed of how clear you speak and the rest of the video is perfect made. Man you are very, very good at this👍
Thanks a lot! I appreciate it.
Well, one advantage to the fake camera is that you can't hear the DVD mechanism making sounds _while it's recording, SONY!!!_
No... you can't hear it over the background noise of the 8 bit digitization chip.
I got burned on a fake Minolta video camera. They used the bundle trick to make it look even better and everything you say is true. It was as bad as anything you demonstrated here!
There was no way to be sure it was fake -- except the price was so low. There were fake TH-cam videos about it making it look really good.
I returned it and got hit with a $35 re-stocking fee!
And this was from Amazon!
Sheesh, let the buyer beware!
Ah… the mitsuba makes its fates return to the channel
I love it when you include those funny endings at the end of the video.
My favorite knockoff product name was a set of alkaline-ish batteries labeled PanaSony.
Or the SQMY ones. I see those all the time lol.
Who doesn’t love the quality of a genuine Magnetbox?
I also buy my PC power supplies from only the most promising brands, like Blaze, SparklePower or Fire Dancing.
@@HazewinDog Still safer than a genuine Gigabyte.
I was approached by a guy that wanted to sell me "genuine" Sony camcorder. Brand new, in the box. The price was 50€ but I asked to cut it down because it was fake. After negociations, for 20€, I ended up with a beautiful webcam of good quality (it did VGA video in 2012 when a similar priced webcam only had CIF or QVGA resolution) and a nice device to reccord videos on the go on a standard SD card. I still have it and it kinda work; it have tripod mounting point, a LCD preview on the door and a simple menu. And for the batteries, it had 3xAA but I modified it to a 2000mAh rechargeable Lithium cell. And to not forget, it also have FM radio built in. A beauty.
i have an old digital camcorder says its made by sony bought in 2012 the font and everything is the same the sticker is the same as what you find on sony point and shoots of the time
your video made me go back and look at it again and i tried to google the model number i find nothing
it records in asf format with M4S2 codec so i think its fake
Thank you for making this video. Because of it I just realized I had a fake canon camera for sale on eBay. It looks exactly like one of your examples of fakes. I am kind of embarrassed that I did not realize it was a fake. Of course I took the listing down and I will give myself a talking to later on.
It's now apparent that we can no longer trust the very brands many of us grew up to respect and purchase. I told my son not too long ago. It will get to the point where you will have people paying top dollar for so called "real products". Even parts will be very high priced, and individuals will be buying old and broken models to simply make one good working until.
It reminds me of the storyline from the Sci Fi show "Serenity". Its said that when the Earth started sending out starships to colonize other worlds, the precious few items or "Earth relics" people took with them are worth huge prices on the so called Black Market. It's a bit of a competition among the wealthy to have the most "Earth relics" and be the talk of their planet. Is that where we are headed? Because of such horribly cheap and low quality products people scour for old but much better quality items? And paying the price of course?
It's a Sonya ! I lost it at the memory card ! LOL
Some of the people who sell these products on eBay (or similar sites), aren't even aware that they're selling a knock-off goods. Usually people who are not tech savvy. Of course there are genuine scammers. They usually tend to sell bootleg music CDs and DVDs (CD-R & DVD-R).
And then there are people who make a really lousy quality image where you can't figure out is this genuine item or a prop.
Or a really lazy that couldn't be bothered to make a photo of their goods, take stock one from the internet and be "it's good enough".
I also own a panasonic which I ve been using it with my husband a lot. They do have a very nice type of feel to the video which I wasnt quite able to replicate with the smartphone. Besides I also enjoy the look and ergonomics of it plus having a dedicated video and picture device! I love having retro stuff like that! I cant wait to be able to afford to get more technologies which are just nice like that. Thank you for making an awesome video!
My dad gave me one of them fake camcorders in 2018, it never worked for him so passed to me to see if I could revive it, I did, battery had puked cos it was a re-used one, but the thing was just as decribed here, fixed focus, lump of metal inside for "added value", recordings were worse than my Nokia 6260 flip from 2005, software was janky, and it just felt crap, I took it to bits permanently, no point trying to polish that turd... :S
(I'll reply to this with an insta link to the pic I took of it alongside my Panasonic HC-V110, given youtube sends links to the spam trap, it's a "convincing" fake, but not to someone who used a real camcorder!)
I live in Europe and i always saw these cameras and mobile phone shops alongside other fake goods. I have relatives in Lithuania and counterfeit electronics were common there after the fall of the iron courtain. In Vilnius there is this really ugly brutalist shopping centre which looks like a prison (they still haven't torn it down). There was a shop, which only sold fake electronics and clothes. The shop also had a chemical smell so bad, i still remember it. Eastern bloc people had no experience with outside brands and it was less than easy to fool them.
Well if somebody hasn't posted it. Those Traveling sales would go around to different towns sold them to. They also sold refurbished stuff. Plus Cell phones that was a cell phone but would not work in the USA. I can't remember the last time I saw one of those shows in this area.
Oh, that last part is spot on!
Yet as you said, some people are so non-tech-savvy, they won't notice nor care about aspect ratio and audio channels.
So, ... maybe there's a market for those sketchy cameras afterall. Too bad they just could not help pretending to be something else.
omg we had a sony at one point I think. I love that theres a community of people using these because not only does the footage looks nice, but the devices themselves look both really cool and fun to use
Fortunately a lot of old camcorders (especially old ones that take cassette) have a barrel jack for 12v car adapters. you know what else is 12 volt? cheap drill batteries at harbor freight. 12 dollars for a rechargeable lithium drill battery, all you have to do is make an adapter to plug it in either the barrel jack or the original battery terminals.
thank you !
My neighbor had the infamous DV7000 and rather demanded I but it from him, to prove to his wife that it had been a good investment. After looking it up, it seemed worthless but I offered him $20 just for the novelty. He agreed, but only if I told his wife I gave him $100 for it... whatever!
What amazed me about this device is that it actually functioned as a camcorder! Decades earlier when you bought a product like this, you just got a box of rocks!
It's fascinating how the market for vintage camcorders has brought about a market for _fake_ camcorders.
I love having dedicated devices for things. Phones are super convenient, but they're still jack-of-all-trades. This video is so important because camcorders are still the best way to shoot video!
It's funny when you see the reflection of the camera man in a 'VLOG' and they are awkwardly holding a DSLR style body with two hands to try and keep it steady when a simple Camcorder, which would even end up being cheaper than whatever mirrorless camera + lens they are using, would be so easy to hold in one hand and get a similar quality footage.
@@bennyc500949 No, it definitely won't be steady footage with one point of contact, but it sure is more comfortable to hold. Any camera with shoulder support will be infinitely more comfortable than DSLRs and camcorders (as shown in this video) combined though. If I already own a good stills camera, then I'd skip the camcorder and go with an ENG/EFP-style video camera.
Great point! Those of us that enjoy using and collecting them probably don’t expect counterfeit camcorders
i laughed so hard with this one. Especially your "does this look hd to you?" Take care
when I saw the beginning of the video with the plain white background I was worried you got rid of your iconic table lmfao. There's something about your usual set that just feels right...
0:58 I had a Hitachi camcorder very similar to that, but shot on 8cm DVD discs. I traded it in and remember getting quite decent money back then. I remember going out the shop thinking they made a mistake or something but it was a good camcorder. The DVD format was a bit annoying, because you had to initialise the DVD's before they could be played back, and the 8cm DVD-RW discs were quite expensive if you don't plan on keeping everything. Still pretty cool going from camcorder to DVD player to watch back.
If Sony used the clip @ 9:40 of Kevin comparing a Sony’s camcorder’s recording quality to the fake, it would make a great ad for Sony.
Great job! I’d seen some of the bogus models on Wish, Alibaba, and other shopping apps and wondered what they were like.
almost 14 years ago, some Argentinian accent guys tried to white-van scam me, first asked me for directions to some random place, then they offered me a sony camcorder, the name Sony was written in cursive, I ran like hell.
9:35 When you realize that there was actual music playing in the background when switched to the original Sony.
The problem with modern kids using these camcorders is that they put zero effort into properly capturing that footage on a PC.
I've seen even some quite pro looking TH-camr who's made the mistake of capturing footage from a miniDV camcorder via RCA composite video cables as well as a probably questionable capture device as well.
The result being that our homie VWestlife, with a much more modest production value, gets much better quality footage out of these old camcorders than these higher budget TH-camrs.
I commented on someone doing that -- capturing a Canon GL2 MiniDV camcorder via composite -- and their response was "I'm not looking for quality".
@@vwestlife>I'm not looking for quality
Why bother spending the greens on such a camcorder instead of some Hi8 camcorder then?
Some people, I swear.
@@fungo6631 Because they like the way it looks and feels. Especially among the skateboarders, it's more of a prop than anything else.
A lot of music released today has heavy inspiration from the late 90's, with many music videos even being purposely shot in 4:3 rather than 16:9. These camcorders give that warm aesthetic that's lost in a lot of modern smartphones, which with heavy HDR and processing means video is perfect, but lacking that charm. Similar to what happened with the 80's trend, the 90's trend is making a lot of portable cassettes, consoles, CRT's, disposable cameras and camcorders more popular.
A few years ago I was trying to get a full size VHS camcorder. Every single one was destroyed beyond repair by leaking electrolytic capacitors. No joke, I went thru 6 broken camcorders before I found a repairable one. These more modern camcorders you show in the video always refuse to power up for some reason. If you trying to buy a camcorder in this day and age: Prepare to go thru 10 broken ones before you find a single working one!
Nice to see my home city (Glasgow) mentioned. Another top video👍🏻😉🏴
4:07 Now that's hilarious, with the real lens a tiny thing below.
That "Mitsuba" camcorder had about the same quality as the 1984 Sony BMC-220 Betamovie camcorder with its singe stripped Vidicon (Trinicon) sensor and mono linear sound.
I love this channel!! Never disappoints!!!!!!!
Another great video. Yes, stretched 4x3 is an abomination- or just plain lazy. Seeing it more often on TH-cam. Grrrr...
11:40 I wasn't expecting a CBBC cameo but alas there it is!
Also I had another cheap camcorder that I got from Goodwill that also had metal plates in it to make it feel heavier. The video quality was pretty bad and the audio was out-of-sync. I still have it but it doesn't really work because the battery cover's spring is broken and it won't stay shut.
I own a Sony Handycam CX-405. It's a fairly "outdated" model by today's standards but for a compact 1080p camcorder I quite like it. I have some experience with cheap Amazon camcorders as well and if you spend just a little more on the real thing the difference is incredible.
The last advice was so specific! 😅
I still have my Panasonic NV -GS17E which I bought in the 90s. I also have batteries, chargers, cassettes ac adapter and computer interface/grabber to upload to my laptop.
It works perfectly.
that fake... excuse me *Sample* memory card is hilarious 😂
My grandad got sold something similar to this in a supermarket car park in the 2000s. None of us could ever get it working, and I was the techy one
I never stopped using a traditional camcorder. Glad to know I'm cool again 😎
I know what you mean about loving camcorders. My first was a Sony TRV818, very very basic model. Didn't even have a side screen, but it did have a color viewfinder which was good enough. I loved learning how to make short films with little to no editing tools.
Thanks! And thanks to everyone for reporting fakes and counterfeits to eBay!
Wow, I am so glad I don't buy cameras based on price. The last camcorder I had, which I gave to my daughter, was the Canon VIXIA HF G50. I did record great 4k/30p but required too much color correction in post to match my Black Magic Cine cam.
Wow Kevin, that was great! You're just like John Stossel but without the moustache.
yep. man living in manhattan during the 2000s i saw so many of these things sold in cheapo goods stores all over the city. there were actually some *really* accurate looking fakes being made by the mid 2000s and it could be hard to tell them apart from just appearances. it's always important to buy from a reputable seller!
Pro tip: No manufacturer places a price on the bar code. Not with camcorders not with any other product...
To quote Star Trek DS9 "It's a fake!"
I can think of one good use for these fake camcorders. To fool thefts or for omg I dropped it pranks
Show props and in China it's known during interview or filming to have professional looking camera in the background.
@@smiths7317 didn't think about show props etc, that's a really good idea
That would a funny prop for 2000's period piece. Someone filming with a camera that looks like period accurate thing, but an eagle-eyed viewer notices, hey, that's a pinhole sensor on that Matsusonichu camera....
You're telling me my grandma wouldn't watch my TH-cam videos in 2005 because I didn't deinterlace like she always told me?! I just assumed it was an old wives tale.
I saw a FedEx Camara but it was repaired with parts from a UPS Camara. The seller called it the Fedup camara
that fake video camera's audio recording sounds like it's at 8 khz and 8 bit.
I had one of those camcorders, and it was an Aiptek camcorder from the mid to late 2000’s and the video quality was horrendous. Too dark and dull. I replaced with a FlipVideo from 2009 and it does the rest. And with the advent of iPhones and iPads, FlipVideo was retired by 2011 or so.
Thanks for bringing this up. I was looking into buying another one soon. That's so wild that it comes with a fake sd card telling you it doesn't have one when they could have put it on paper but made a fake sd card and why even make a fake place to hold a mini dvd 😂
Looks like I got lucky. I ordered a used Sony HI-8 camcorder, and I got a used Sony HI-8 camcorder. Obviously old and well used. It works great. Glad I didn't get scammed. Of course, I assumed I would not be, as I bought it from a US based individual seller who only had one to sell.
I love my SoKnee camcorder. At 15 frames per second, 140p resolution and in-built single Christmas tree light for bright illumination of your subject, it's top of the range! Not only that, its lens cap is permanently glued on so you don't even have to worry about taking care of its high quality SoKnee lens! If you can't use it, it'll never get damaged. They really like to think of the consumer at SoKnee.
The camera in 2:02 is very common in Mexico, I call it "The Fools Camera" someone buy one and like a curse, as soon as the buyer finds out he was scammed he or she tries to sell it again even more expensive. It is a curse.
It pisses me off that ebay allows counterfeit junk on their site. Items like the fake Sony clearly violate their TOU, they don't include keywords like "reproduction" or anything like that.
People will fake just about anything it seems if they can make a profit...
Though I was born in the 1970s, I (nor my immediate family) never owned a camcorder. The closest I’ve ever had was a Kodak Zi-8 (digital 1080p video recorder that came out in 2009). Ive used a number of VHS recorders and recorded hundreds of tapes up until the 2010s, but I’ve never had any love for SD video. But I do like record albums and appreciate your videos!
Have that same rainbow mug! Found it at a Goodwill about 25 years ago.
Another note on that very last part, ADJUST THE GODDANG PICTURE ON YOUR CAPTURE STICK if you're digitizing analog formats like VHS-C or Hi8, cause the default settings on those $20 USB capture dongles are trash and almost every capture software lets you adjust the chroma, luma, gamma, saturation, etc. on them to get a halfway decent picture even outta worn-out EP-mode VHS. Nobody wants to see a super-dark and washed out image and there's only so much improvement Davinci Resolve can do in post when the output is a compressed mpeg2 video.
Also, CLEAN YOUR TAPE HEADS IF IT STILL LOOKS LIKE TRASH, cause I guarantee the previous owner never did and with sold-as-blank media a lotta the tapes are degrading and gunking your head drum up.
We've got a Sony camcorder from the early 2000's and as you say the pictures nothing to get excited about, but the sound is excellent. I have loads of footage taken at music festivals and the sound is great, quite often I'd get bored of filming and want to watch the acts so I'd point the camera at the sky and just record the music.
5:54 I have that one branded as DVxJVC. I got it for less than 1€ with a dead battery from a thrift store back in 2012. It's honestly not that bad for being a cheap china camera from 2005, much better than what most phone cameras were back then. But it only has fixed focus and digital zoom so it's definitely not comparable to a real camcorder.
Thank you for this video. You literally just saved me from buying a fake JVC camera online.
I agree. I also like camcorders. Although DSLRs and smartphones have reached incredible levels of quality with their sensors, they still have a long way to go to improve, especially when it comes to focusing.
Techmoan and LGR use DSLRs to record videos and they do great, but in order to achieve good results, you have to become very perfect in manual handling of the camera, which if you intend to use your DSLR to record automatically, the results can be not very convincing. In that aspect, you can use (home) camcorders without having too much knowledge of video, and obtain very good images. Obviously, if you touch the manual settings you get the most out of it.
But from now on, camcorders in their automatic modes behave very well (generally).