OT: Anyone have an 8 mm cam or deck?

Randy Brown wrote on 11/3/2003, 6:58 PM

Howdy,
About 15 years ago I had a nice ($2200) camera. I don't recall much about it (sometimes I have a hard time remebering last week : ) but I believe it was an 8 mm as the tapes are all Sony "Video 8" (must be metric but approximately 3-3/4" X 2-3/8 X 1/2"). Anyway, I pawned the cam for $400 (that I somehow remember) about 14 years ago and I'd really like to have the raw family (according to my scribbling on them) video footage dubbed to mini DV. If anyone is capable of doing this (I would provide the tapes) will you please e-mail me personally at randy (at) ccpro (dot) net to quote me a fee please.
TIA,
Randy

Comments

randy-stewart wrote on 11/3/2003, 7:08 PM

Randy,
Suggest you pick up a Sony Digital 8 camcorder with firewire capability and just digitize them yourself. It will accept the 8mm tape and output digital format. Camera's cost around $400-500 (Sony TRV-350 or 250). How many tapes do you have?
Randy Stewart

Liam_Vegas wrote on 11/3/2003, 7:22 PM

Hmm... you might even be able to buy the camera...use it to digitize the tapes and then just <realize> that the camera is not really what you needed and take it back for a full refund.

Seems reasonable to me.

Oops... I am posting on a Sony forum here...

I have never done this myself of course.

farss wrote on 11/3/2003, 7:50 PM

When asking questions like this PLEASE let us know roughly where you are!
We all want to leap in and help but when it involves moving physical stuff around it is really good to know if you might be the guy next or on the other side of the planet.

Randy Brown wrote on 11/3/2003, 8:03 PM

Thanks Stewart, I'll check it out.

Liam_Vegas...hmmm... call me a prude but I just cain't do that...thanks for your suggestion though.

Farss, I'm roughly in New Mexico but I don't understand the rest of your post ? If you're talking about shipping cost, I guess I figured (ASSumed) one would know I would cover the shipping both ways.
Thanks guys,
Randy

farss wrote on 11/3/2003, 11:52 PM

Guess I was being a bit obscure.

It's just that even though the majority of users are in the US there are a lot of us scattered around the planet. I was about to leap in and offer to help as I have a D8 camera but then I realised I didn't have a clue where you were and for the cost and time involved in shipping even a few tapes to and from the US (if that's where you were) it would have been cheaper for you to pay a dub house to do it.

Then again you might be living next door and I'd feel a real jerk for not offering to help my neighbour, just one of the problems of communicating on the interent I guess.

craftech wrote on 11/4/2003, 5:40 AM

Why don't you try to find a SONY Video 8 VCR such as the EV-S550? I have seen these used for under $300. A deck could be routed through your DV camera for transcoding or you could record with your camera. You may not be satisfied with the results by farming it out. When you do it yourself you can mess with it until you are satisfied and can post problems here if they come up.

John

Softcorps wrote on 11/4/2003, 8:27 AM

Randy,

If it cost $2,200, I'm guessing that you probably owned a Sony V220 camcorder. These were very nice machines. This camcorder recorded stereo audio as 32k 12bit PCM, it also recorded the same audio mixed to mono as FM. Current Digital8 camcorders will only play the FM mono audio tracks from those old 8mm tapes. Although, not all Digital8 camcorders will play 8mm tapes and none of them will play PCM stereo audio from the 8mm tapes.

If you're in New Mexico, I suggest you contact John Cline, he lives in Albuquerque and does a lot of video restoration work. He maintains a collection of old analog VTRs and VCRs, from the old Sony EIAJ 1/2" B&W reel to reel machines to Betamax to a Sony BVH2800 1" Type "C" machine. In another forum, he had been talking about getting an Ampex 2" Quad machine, but I don't know if that happened. I'm sure he has a way of playing your 8mm tapes and getting the stereo PCM digital audio off of them too.

James

Randy Brown wrote on 11/4/2003, 9:34 AM

Thanks everyone, I think Randy Stewart and I are going to be able to work out a deal.
John Cline, if you see this (or James maybe you could let him know) I occasionally have to turn down work that entails the transferral of tapes that were made on machines that the client nor I own. If you will e-mail me at the address in my first post I will definitely send the next one your way.
Thanks again everyone,
Randy

Jsnkc wrote on 11/4/2003, 9:37 AM

I work at a video duplication house in WI, we have pretty much all the formats here so if you never need anything else transfered let me know I can get it done for you, or anyone else for that matter.

Randy Brown wrote on 11/4/2003, 9:49 AM

Silly me, I will keep that in mind Jsnkc.
Thanks,
Randy

Caruso wrote on 11/5/2003, 12:02 AM

Softcorps:

I own the cam to which you refer - it is the Sony CCDV-220. My wife was ready to shoot me when I bought it, but, since we are both musicians, her complaints were, mercifully, short-lived.

I'm trying to remember when I bought it, I think it was very late '80's or early '90's - a very capable machine for its time - manual shutter speed control, iris control, left/right audio input control, and 1/4" left/right mic inputs, and pseudo-time-lapse.

I still use it when recording live performance via multi-cams because I can set out stationary mics to capture the sound while using more modern cams moving around as necessary to get the final video tracks.

Using Vegas during my first multicam shoot, I discovered what you say about the audio track setup. Used my digi-8 to pass the CCDV-220's audio/video to my PC only to discover that the captured sound was weak and in mono, not stereo even though the original tape, when played through the CCDV-220 sounded fine. Solution was to capture the audio via the headphone jack through my sound card.

To the original poster, if your present arrangement doesn't work out, feel free to post back here. I'd be happy to help you with your project.

Caruso