Before Beta: Sony's 1969 'Camcorder'

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14 years before the first camcorder hit the market, Sony put out a machine that promised to be everything the camcorder would be. It wasn't.

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The Secret Life of Machines:

00:00 Premise
01:58 Physical characteristics
05:46 Operating principles
10:16 How It Works
14:35 Startup & Controls
17:52 The Insides
20:11 The Kit Camera
26:42 The Camera Situation / Field Tests
28:02 Various Camera Tests
29:22 Modifications! Oh no!
30:23 Raw Video Demo
30:47 The Camera Problem
31:55 Conclusion
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Glad to see Tim Hunkin referenced! For anyone unaware, he's started posting remastered copies of The Secret Life of Machines to his youtube channel, along with a whole series on his knowledge on components for tinkerers from his viewpoint of making arcade machines. :)

francistheodorecatte
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The "It sounds like this" when you played the crunchy tape audio killed me lmao, amazing vid!

kiwikubu
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In 1974, when I was 14-years-old, I spent a lot of time carrying around (lugging?) that model of Sony “Portapak”, and the matching Sony camera, for “Cable 10 Mississauga” (Ontario, Canada) Community Cable TV channel. At that time cable companies in Canada had to offer community access TV to get a licence to operate a cable TV system. The community channels were volunteer staffed; I was a volunteer. The Portapak was used to cover small events like a park gathering, speeches, school events, even gathering aerial views of Mississauga. I can still feel the action of pulling the record and play levers together ... and the metallic feel of securing the video connector. There was a strict rule to NOT point the Vidicon tube camera at light sources as it would burn in dots or lines ... or worse ... burn out! My grade six school also had that model of Portapak (that I volunteered to use ... my first experience shooting video!).

TaberBucknell
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The “rods” on the hand grip were used to tilt the camera for capturing titles made on a4 paper with the lens in micro mode according to the manual
This was common at the time even on local and some networks

robertjeffries
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when you pulled out the camera and were like "this thing is probably close to working, it just needs a recap, which is way beyond my capabilities", i went "what, really? a recap is really not that difficult, just time consuming"

... and then you opened it, and i understood why you said that.

PK
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My father went back to college in the mid 1970s for his masters program. I had to occupy myself in the Central Washington University library for 5 days a week. I think I was 7 or 8. I remember going through their catalog of lectures on this format. I was asking the Librarian so often to change the tape that she showed me how and left me to it. I dont know how many lectures I watched or even what they were about, but I had the power to choose a tape and start and stop it at I think I spend as much time watching the reels spin as what was on the videos. Thanks for the memories.

ziggyinc
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I used to use this exact camera/recorder back in the early '70's at school. My social studies class allowed it to be used to make student "documentaries". They were laughably bad, but it was great fun.
By far the biggest users of this equipment was the football team. The coaches had an obsessive desire to record and analyze games. I think a lot of the impetus to record games was that the other teams were doing it, so they had to as well.

johnpickens
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I want this guy and LGR do an episode together, they would complement each other so much.

mutecommercials
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This thing is really significant, IMO, because it demonstrates bare-bones video recording without any complications. Show people this video and they’d instantly understand how VHS works, without all the extra moving parts and complications.

jimmy
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nothing could've possibly prepared me for how literal "pistol grip" was

altastral
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I may date myself, but I actually used one of these in high school. We had one in our high school television station and used it to do on location interviews and for making commercials for local businesses. Thanks for sharing, brought back some cool memories of running a small high school tv station using 1/2” open reel tape machines.

mikieme
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"The Secret Life of Machines" was one of the greatest series for someone who wanted to learn about basic engineering of household devices. It did not need any special production values and the host was so low key that you felt comfortable listening to him instead of being distracted by some bombastic loud-mouthed host. For those who honestly wanted to learn, the series was the greatest. Too bad there were so few episodes made. I especially enjoyed Hunkin's homemade contraptions.

astrosci
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For your Vidicon video: It’s very fun to consider that all of those glorious photos from the Voyager 1 and 2 missions (and I think photos from the Viking Orbiters) are from digital vidicon still cameras.

anthropic
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The Portapak was an incredibly important piece of equipment. It revolutionised the art world. Andy Warhol, Joan Jonas, Bruce Nauman and Nam June Paik were all Portapak users. It put video in the hands of artists like no other equipment before.

totallypixelated
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Gravis is such a lovable, relatable, good humored human. I enjoy his commitment to the truth, personal honesty, and especially his sense of humor! Thanks for the dope videos that I rewatch on an embarrassingly regular basis ! Awesome content. Can’t get enough.

leebee
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How about the Akai potable 1/4 inch VCRs?
In early January 1973 I made history with my Akai VT110 quarter inch reel-to-reel video recorder (explained later). This Sony 1/2inch recorder was the forerunner of the Akai I had. Also, this YouTube video was terrific and very educational even for someone who was 25 when the product was released and into video as a hobby. Great job Cathode Ray Dude!!

Anyway, in January 1973 I was on a flight from Madrid Spain to New York City returning from a whirlwind trip to Europe. We were flying on a TWA 747. About an hour and a half out of Madrid, the captain made an announcement that our flight was the target of a terrorist bomb threat. It seemed if the Basque Separatists ransom demands were not met, the bomb on the plane would explode when the flight went below 3, 000 ft. This was regarded as a valid threat by the authorities and we went through many scenarios including flying to Denver Colorado, altitude about 7, 000 feet. Obviously, the threat proved benign but not without some tension on board.

As I said earlier, I was returning from a pleasure trip that included Landon, Paris, Rome and Madrid over a two week period. For that trip, I had my newly purchase Akai "portable" VCR with me that I used to document the trip on board as my carry on. The YouTube (link below) is edited footage taken on that flight including interviews with several of the passengers on the plane.


As a postscript, Akai also sold a color version of the machine about a year later but that was too expensive for me at the time.

fredwinograd
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You're a great presenter, I love watching your detailed takes on obscure video and camera stuff no one but you and apparently me, and the rest of your audience seem to care about. Really look forward to your future productions. Those little flip out rods on the pistol grip are only to be used when the camera is off. Its so you can set the camera down in an upright position so you don't accidently damage or dislodge many of the haphazardly designed circuits and tubes inside if you were to just lop it on its side. If you were using this camera in situ you had to be very gentle, lol.

JessHull
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I remember using one of these when I was in grade school I ran the thing (so much fun). Its called simply "Video Tape Recorder" or VTR for short. Great video, never thought I would see one of these again.

SidebandSamurai
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New Cathode Ray Dude video is always a pleasant surprise. <3

DrazenX
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I used this exact cam & recorder in high school in the 70's and at the time it was the most used device in our school's TV studio. The original equipment was installed in the early '60s and it used those giant AMPEX 2" machines and giant studio cameras. This was portable and we could record anywhere and that's what made it so popular. were slowly changing over to U-Matic decks for recording off-air and broadcasting, but when there was a game or concert this was small enough to drag with you anywhere! You might find it useless but we thought it was awesome! Thanks for showing it, I had fun watching it!

mitherbee