#OldTech

Описание: Taking a video today is so easy ... a few years back, it was a bit different 😉

The #Sony CCD TV95E was state of the art back then. 72x Zoom, Auto Zoom, SteadyShot, Night Vision and all ...

Recording a video today is something we take for granted, thanks to the technology packed into our mobile phones—cameras, high resolution, and all the works. But back when I was younger, things were a bit different. To record a video, you needed something like this: my first video camera, the Sony Handycam.

This model used Hi8 XR technology, which was cutting-edge around 1996 or 1997 when I bought it. It came loaded with features like autofocus, night shot for low light, and a zoom function. Back then, these were the ‘whistles and bells’ that made it feel futuristic. It even had an LCD screen for previewing your shots, alongside the traditional eye viewfinder. But everything was recorded onto Hi8 video cassette tapes—no SD cards or hard drives here, kids. Just tapes.

Using the Handycam was a mechanical affair. You’d load the tape, close it up, and hear the whir of moving parts as it got ready to record. The quality? Well, this video here is from a family holiday in Turkey, September 1999. The resolution when transferred to a PC would be around 720x480—definitely not 4K. But for the time, it was great for capturing family memories, and I used it for plenty of them.

Once the footage was on tape, you’d connect the camera to a TV to play it back. But tapes were expensive, so you’d want to reuse them. That meant copying the footage off the tape first—a whole process of its own. But that’s a story for another day.

Memories of #tech from days gone by...
#Technology #HandyCam #CamCorder #VideoTaping