[B 4204 T3]

I'm reviving this topic because I want to share my story with video cameras.



Back when I was a kid, my Dad made a lot of home movies on VHS & 8 mm cameras. They were usually of special occasions, like Christmas & birthday parties of myself & my two brothers. His first movie camera was a General Electric hand-held camera from the mid 1980s, which connected to a portable General Electric top-loading VHS VCR with an EIAJ cable & socket which connected to a separate external power supply. I think it could also be operated with a large nickel-cadmium battery pack. It had a special feature where you could make a movie with a date & time displayed on the screen, or just the date if you wanted to, or turn it off & just make the movie itself. With his camera, the date & time were displayed in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, and the date alone was displayed in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.



In 1989, he upgraded to a Panasonic Omnimovie VHS camcorder which just used either the external power supply or the nickel-cadmium battery pack. The picture and sound quality that this camera produced was much better than the General Electric camera. He used it for the same home movies of our special occasions, and it was a good camera. It also had the same option of having the date or the date & time displayed on the movie. They were both displayed in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.



In 1996, my Dad bought a Sony Handicam 8mm hand-held camera with a screen on the left side of it which popped out and showed the image being recorded. He used a lot for the next three years, and then he gave it to me. It produced excellent picture and sound quality. Once again, this camera also had the date & time display feature. I still have it in storage, but I haven't used it in years, so I don't know if it still works.



I still have all of the tapes of my family's movies, and a few years ago, I made copies of all of them on blank DVD+R discs. They are fun to watch and reminisce about. Today, I don't make very many movies, but I still have a lot of nostalgia for old video cameras & electronics.



I own two old movie cameras, but I don't use them very often. One of them is a Sony Betamovie camcorder, model BMC-110, from the mid 1980s. According to the owner's manual, it uses a 1/2" SMF Trinicon tube. I bought it from a thrift store back in 2016 with all of the original accessories, manuals, paperwork, and large Sony model LC-710 carrying case still included. I've used it a few times, making a few movies around my house. It works well & produces a good picture, but the issue I have is that the old Sony model NP-11 nickel-cadmium battery packs don't work any more. I've connected them to the old Sony model AC-M110 AC power adapter/battery charger, but they won't charge.



The other old video camera I own is an RCA model CKC 020 hand-held video camera from the mid 1980s. It was a Craigslist find from back in 2010 with just the camera, and none of the accessories for it, so I've never been able to use it, and I've just kept it in my drawer ever since then. I think it's a VHS camera, since RCA was a supporter of VHS in the 1970s & 1980s, instead of Betamax, and it's a camera which also connects to a VCR with an EIAJ cable. I really don't know very much about this camera, but I recently saw a You Tube video of an old TV advertisement from the mid-1980s for it starring the late David Oreck as the celebrity spokesman. He is attending a wedding in the advertisement.



Two months ago, I found the exact same model of General Electric portable top-loading VHS VCR that my family used to have for sale at an electronics recycling facility, and I bought it. Right now, I'm working on restoring it, and I'm thinking of looking for the original camera that came with it, which my Dad had when I was little. I don't know the exact model of the camera that we had, but I've been looking for information about it. From what I can tell from my online research, it must have been either a General Electric model 1CVC5033E or a 1CVC5034E from the mid 1980s. I've also determined that it requires the General Electric power supply model 1CVA505, which I'm also looking for, along with the owner's manual for them. Another fact I found was that the old General Electric cameras use a Newvicon pickup tube.



I'm sorry for writing this lengthy personal narrative, but I wanted to share my experience with old movie cameras with the vintage electronics community. In addition, if any one knows anything about any of the cameras I wrote about, or can offer any suggestions to me about using or working on repairing any of them, then I would be very thankful.