I used to see a lot of these when I would be out covering stuff with my V99 in the early '90s. I was doing lower end corporate work and weddings. It wasn't pro by this camera's standards but it got decent enough results for what I was looking for. Far better than either VHS or 8mm in general. Frankly, lighting and adding my own music to the videos did wonders and separated my work from others. Coupled with a good VHS deck, which I got for a good price from a buddy at an electronics store (Sony something, but I've forgotten the model), I could do OK (though laughable by today's standards) work that made good money for a college student. As prices kept rising on video equipment in the early '90s, I think I sold the Sony for about what I paid for it to someone who, like me, was using it to start out. Hi8 still had a few years before Mini-DV came out. Fun times.
I wanted one of those so bad but they still were really expensive and when i was able to afford camera's thec had moved on. i got to play once with one back in 2003. I loved it!
I had this camera brand new back on Dec 1991 or 92. The output S Video signal was sharp as long as you used the Hi8 PRO TAPES (blue case). Then, we used to transfer to Umatic, Betacam, SVHS even to 1 inch tape. It was the way to create a perfect copy. The Hi8 to Hi-8 copy was trash! The camera had glitches with the tape guides once a year and had to be recalibrated. Good memories.
Thanks for the video - and memories! Only disposed of our old V5000 a few months ago - UK PAL model. Found batteries but not the charger so wasn't able to see if it would power up. Solid bit of kit which I greatly enjoyed using - though shared your bemusement at Sony's inclusion of effects features that you'd only want in an edit suite. Minor niggles - the zoom motor would be picked up by the onboard mic, though that's probably not unusual. And the tripod mount was plastic-based, still 'wobbled' noticably even with a pro Manfrotto head. I added a good sized lens hood, which besides its function, seemed to 'finish' the V5k's appearance and make it look more professional. Was always surprised Sony didn't include that for such a premium product - but as with the single CCD, they were careful not to impinge on the (hugely profitable) market of their ENG cameras. Trivia: It was quite expensive in the UK as it would record from its input plugs, so attracted import tariffs for VCRs rather than (much cheaper) cameras - almost no other camcorders had that feature. Putting this information to use, I discovered it could be used to backup (ahem) VHS rentals and bypass the copy protection - whereby the picture would cycle between dark and light, if you attempted a VHS-to-VHS transfer.
i bought one of these mail order back in 1991 and I still have it. It doesnt work , probably because of that capacitor problem. It has SO many features and effects like luminence keying and solarization and other stuff. Hi8 doesnt look all that amazing today vs 4K but back then vs a VHS camcorder it was AMAZING
Awesome video as always my friend. What a lovely old unit it is.. I would love a working one of these but as you correctly say (unless fixed like yours) I wont find a working one. I seem to remember my older brother had one of these for a short time in the 90's and it was having issues then so they did not last long before starting to mess up due to leaky caps :(
Hi Great video! I do have the big brother of this one, the CCD V6000 and when I refurbished it it took me a month to do so I end up buying two more just to fix one. All those crappy caps made a mess, well some mechanical parts were also broken. So refurbishing one of those is a really long process. Greetings
@@techtoremember8096 Hi Well I was a repaire man back in the 90’s in a electronic shop in Marseille (France) and I haven’t forgot how to solder, the repaire was done well but very slow. I do have some old camcorders in my collection as well from beta to micro mv. Greetings
The black streaks are more likely from very worn heads or some electronics issue with the recording or playback circuitry. The effect is something that's can happen when there are issues with the modulation or demodulation of the video signal going to or coming off the tape and can occur on standalone VCRs too.
The black wisps are tape dropouts. Common with hi8. Especially older tapes. Particles flake off causing the dropout you see on the screen. I worked a lot in hi8 back in the day.
8:26 , I read in a VCR repair book that black lines around the edge of objects in bright background , sign of worn video heads. I am not sure usually camcorders head doesn't go bad because they are not used as heavily as VCRs. But I noticed in the pause and slow motion picture was not so good. I am not sure maybe something else.
Yes I think you are correct. They are not tape dropouts because they are only exhibited in the high contrast areas. My original feeling was that it was something to do with the CCD processing the light /dark values in the image since that seems more logical than a video head. Why would a video head be sensitive to light values ? That’s the part I don’t understand but it may be ! Thank you for your input. It may be the case
@@techtoremember8096 Might also be capacitors in spite of the overhaul. I've similar vintage cameras that have black lines in bright areas. My Sony V801 (bought new) went dead when the capacitors had fully rotted, but as the caps started to go bad, it had similar lines, initially in the SVHS output. The heads on the V801 wore out within 5 years of fairly normal use, unless shuttling and punching in video inserts shortened its life. I have a V5000 that's quite dead now, in spite of briefly snapping to normal, and outputting a clean picture. Because the caps are in terrible shape, the camera stinks of fish soon after powering on.When the caps go bad, in the case of the V5000, the audio is distorted, the level meters snap back & forth, and the CCD barely shows anything except the vestiges of a bright light aimed at the lens - essentially a murky light blob.
Interesting analysis. It very well might be a cap issue of some sort. That v801 you speak of apparently had the worst cap issue of any Sony camcorder ever made. I had one too. It’s ashame Thanks for your input !
@@techtoremember8096 I used the V801 to tape some corporate and arts work during the early1990s, whereas a friend had the V5000 for corporate work, and used it for several years. I imagine the V5000 reeks of fish more than the V801 because of more capacitors, but I'm not surprised the V801has a bad rap - I think it started to go downhill in the early 2000's, first displaying faint vertical lines to the left of the frame which were especially visible when gain was cranked up. The heads wend bad again round 2006, and the loading mechanism a couple of years later. The composite out remain clean for a while, whereas the Y/C output streaked and had high contrast issues.
Interesting. I know when my 5000 starts to smell of fish I will have a problem ! Makes sense what you said as I think for environmental reasons they used a fish based oil for the capacitors in that time period and man was that a fail!!! Your insight is appreciated
4:35 those work for only very little time. 25 minutes if you take it off the charger and instantly put it in your V5000 to record a very long scene if it's interesting enough.....1 minute if you wait a while (like 15, 25 maybe even 30 minutes) before recording. I don't have that heavy duty battery yet,....just the one for VHS-C cams
Yeah. So far the heavy duty one is way way better -I also take the battery off the camera when not using as I think it slowly drains if it stays attached. Thanks for comment
Amazing video. I own the "older brother", the V6000 (which seems to be exclusive to PAL countries). Its caps survived for much longer and its image quality is lovely, but I fear it needs a fully capacitor replacement soon. Will have to do that after I finish repairing the CCD-VX1 (PAL version of the VX3) that's still in my workshop right now.
@@techtoremember8096 The V5000 was also sold in Europe, but they're less popular now since their caps are shoddy and have failed in 95% of still existing units. I always considered the V6000 to be an "upgraded" PAL-only variant of the V5000, since it had RC time code and a slightly different design (especially the top handle), but they were both sold at the same time (around 1992, if you can trust Sony's catalogue from that year). And, yeah, I got quite the collection of retro technology (camcorders, tapedecks, a R2R etc.) that I try to keep running.
@@techtoremember8096I can help you there - the 6000 followed the 5000 fairly quickly - months or just a year or two. Essentially the same camera, but it added Genlock sync.
Very nice cam indeed.....in my opinion, V5000's on-board mic sounds a lot like that of the Canon ES2000......sorry in advance if I'm invasive asking this but how long have you had your refurbished V5000?
Hi, what are your favourite budget old camcorders? I want to get one, but cant decide. It should be cheap, reliable (no leaky caps etc.) and there should be the possibility to digitalize. Maybe you could recommend some me some?
Hi, can you recommend a Hi8 camera that makes similar videos as the V5000/6000 but is more portable and you don't have to carry it on your shoulder? The other Hi8 cams I see on UA-cam don't take such soft colorful smoothe pictures and all have such a hard sharp aesthetic.
wonderful presentation, you repaired it; was the camera yours? or did you buy it? I will also buy the V6000 model from eBay, and I will repair it, it is a beautiful camera like the vX1, VX3
Thank you ! I wish I could repair these cameras myself I bought it from eBay from someone who already had it serviced. Good luck with your 6000 But yes , beautiful camera. I will review Vx3 in the near future so stay tuned. Thank you for the thumbs up !
That's a good question. You have to get lucky and see if you can find someone in your area. If its an issue with leaky caps, many independent guys won't even touch it as there's too much work involved. I am in the NY/Long Island region and have a guy I can recommend but I don't know if you're local to that area. There used to be someone called Dr. Sony on ebay would work on this but I heard he was out of commission for a while but he might be back now. You can try searching for him on Ebay. It wont be cheap . I think I inquired and it was $300 or $400 at least to service it. I would suggest doing a google search in your area and see if you can find anything. Best of luck.
Does anyone know what happened to Dr. Sony also highly recommended on this channel? I shipped a v5000 for repair over a month and never heard back nor has he responded to any of my emails. Is he ok?
I received an automated email once I submitted the order on his website. But no response to emails sent to his email address I even sent a message via eBay “contact seller” option and left a voicemail. If anyone can help me get in touch with him I would very much appreciate it.
@@CycloneCordVHS I received a reply to my email on Ebay that he was in the hospital for a few months and will be back sometime in January. Don't have any more details, but let's all wish him a swift recovery.
@@techtoremember8096 Correct, 60 images per second. For display on a progressive-scan system you need to deinterlace into 60p, each field into a separate frame, this is what every flat-screen TV set does.
I used to see a lot of these when I would be out covering stuff with my V99 in the early '90s. I was doing lower end corporate work and weddings. It wasn't pro by this camera's standards but it got decent enough results for what I was looking for. Far better than either VHS or 8mm in general. Frankly, lighting and adding my own music to the videos did wonders and separated my work from others. Coupled with a good VHS deck, which I got for a good price from a buddy at an electronics store (Sony something, but I've forgotten the model), I could do OK (though laughable by today's standards) work that made good money for a college student. As prices kept rising on video equipment in the early '90s, I think I sold the Sony for about what I paid for it to someone who, like me, was using it to start out. Hi8 still had a few years before Mini-DV came out. Fun times.
I wanted one of those so bad but they still were really expensive and when i was able to afford camera's thec had moved on. i got to play once with one back in 2003. I loved it!
The 80's voice killed me.😂
Haha thanks!
I had this camera brand new back on Dec 1991 or 92. The output S Video signal was sharp as long as you used the Hi8 PRO TAPES (blue case). Then, we used to transfer to Umatic, Betacam, SVHS even to 1 inch tape. It was the way to create a perfect copy. The Hi8 to Hi-8 copy was trash! The camera had glitches with the tape guides once a year and had to be recalibrated. Good memories.
Ah yes the blue case ! Good memories indeed Yes Hi8 to Hi 8 wasn’t usually the best way to go with all the dropouts. Thanks for the comment
@@techtoremember8096 : I travelled with that camera all over my country. Yes, dropouts 😱🤣🤣
1991 is the year it was made?
Yes. I bought it on December 1991.
This brings back alot of great memories, particularly of my first camcorder, the Panasonic PV330 which had those cheesy, but cool special effects.
Those were the good ol days !
Love it, have it❤
Thanks for the video - and memories! Only disposed of our old V5000 a few months ago - UK PAL model. Found batteries but not the charger so wasn't able to see if it would power up. Solid bit of kit which I greatly enjoyed using - though shared your bemusement at Sony's inclusion of effects features that you'd only want in an edit suite. Minor niggles - the zoom motor would be picked up by the onboard mic, though that's probably not unusual. And the tripod mount was plastic-based, still 'wobbled' noticably even with a pro Manfrotto head.
I added a good sized lens hood, which besides its function, seemed to 'finish' the V5k's appearance and make it look more professional. Was always surprised Sony didn't include that for such a premium product - but as with the single CCD, they were careful not to impinge on the (hugely profitable) market of their ENG cameras.
Trivia: It was quite expensive in the UK as it would record from its input plugs, so attracted import tariffs for VCRs rather than (much cheaper) cameras - almost no other camcorders had that feature. Putting this information to use, I discovered it could be used to backup (ahem) VHS rentals and bypass the copy protection - whereby the picture would cycle between dark and light, if you attempted a VHS-to-VHS transfer.
Hey that’s great info ! Thanks for sharing
i bought one of these mail order back in 1991 and I still have it. It doesnt work , probably because of that capacitor problem.
It has SO many features and effects like luminence keying and solarization and other stuff. Hi8 doesnt look all that amazing today vs 4K but back then vs a VHS camcorder it was AMAZING
Awesome video as always my friend. What a lovely old unit it is.. I would love a working one of these but as you correctly say (unless fixed like yours) I wont find a working one. I seem to remember my older brother had one of these for a short time in the 90's and it was having issues then so they did not last long before starting to mess up due to leaky caps :(
Hi Chris ! Yes. Sad but true. If you want a working one you have to put some money into it to get it going - thanks for the comment and support !
Hi
Great video!
I do have the big brother of this one, the CCD V6000 and when I refurbished it it took me a month to do so I end up buying two more just to fix one. All those crappy caps made a mess, well some mechanical parts were also broken. So refurbishing one of those is a really long process.
Greetings
Hi! That’s incredible that you have the know-how and ability to replace those caps. Did you do it professionally ? Thanks for your like and comment !
@@techtoremember8096
Hi
Well I was a repaire man back in the 90’s in a electronic shop in Marseille (France) and I haven’t forgot how to solder, the repaire was done well but very slow. I do have some old camcorders in my collection as well from beta to micro mv.
Greetings
The black streaks are more likely from very worn heads or some electronics issue with the recording or playback circuitry. The effect is something that's can happen when there are issues with the modulation or demodulation of the video signal going to or coming off the tape and can occur on standalone VCRs too.
That makes sense ! Thank you. I was wondering I why I always see it on high contrast areas
The black wisps are tape dropouts. Common with hi8. Especially older tapes. Particles flake off causing the dropout you see on the screen. I worked a lot in hi8 back in the day.
I have 2 of these
Impressive
Thank you !
8:26 , I read in a VCR repair book that black lines around the edge of objects in bright background , sign of worn video heads. I am not sure usually camcorders head doesn't go bad because they are not used as heavily as VCRs. But I noticed in the pause and slow motion picture was not so good. I am not sure maybe something else.
Yes I think you are correct. They are not tape dropouts because they are only exhibited in the high contrast areas. My original feeling was that it was something to do with the CCD processing the light /dark values in the image since that seems more logical than a video head. Why would a video head be sensitive to light values ? That’s the part I don’t understand but it may be ! Thank you for your input. It may be the case
@@techtoremember8096 Might also be capacitors in spite of the overhaul. I've similar vintage cameras that have black lines in bright areas. My Sony V801 (bought new) went dead when the capacitors had fully rotted, but as the caps started to go bad, it had similar lines, initially in the SVHS output. The heads on the V801 wore out within 5 years of fairly normal use, unless shuttling and punching in video inserts shortened its life. I have a V5000 that's quite dead now, in spite of briefly snapping to normal, and outputting a clean picture. Because the caps are in terrible shape, the camera stinks of fish soon after powering on.When the caps go bad, in the case of the V5000, the audio is distorted, the level meters snap back & forth, and the CCD barely shows anything except the vestiges of a bright light aimed at the lens - essentially a murky light blob.
Interesting analysis. It very well might be a cap issue of some sort. That v801 you speak of apparently had the worst cap issue of any Sony camcorder ever made. I had one too. It’s ashame Thanks for your input !
@@techtoremember8096 I used the V801 to tape some corporate and arts work during the early1990s, whereas a friend had the V5000 for corporate work, and used it for several years. I imagine the V5000 reeks of fish more than the V801 because of more capacitors, but I'm not surprised the V801has a bad rap - I think it started to go downhill in the early 2000's, first displaying faint vertical lines to the left of the frame which were especially visible when gain was cranked up. The heads wend bad again round 2006, and the loading mechanism a couple of years later. The composite out remain clean for a while, whereas the Y/C output streaked and had high contrast issues.
Interesting. I know when my 5000 starts to smell of fish I will have a problem ! Makes sense what you said as I think for environmental reasons they used a fish based oil for the capacitors in that time period and man was that a fail!!! Your insight is appreciated
4:35 those work for only very little time. 25 minutes if you take it off the charger and instantly put it in your V5000 to record a very long scene if it's interesting enough.....1 minute if you wait a while (like 15, 25 maybe even 30 minutes) before recording. I don't have that heavy duty battery yet,....just the one for VHS-C cams
Yeah. So far the heavy duty one is way way better -I also take the battery off the camera when not using as I think it slowly drains if it stays attached. Thanks for comment
New vid nice 👍
Thanks for the thumbs up !!
Amazing video. I own the "older brother", the V6000 (which seems to be exclusive to PAL countries). Its caps survived for much longer and its image quality is lovely, but I fear it needs a fully capacitor replacement soon. Will have to do that after I finish repairing the CCD-VX1 (PAL version of the VX3) that's still in my workshop right now.
Awesome ! I think the 6000 is the Euro version of the 5000! Sounds like you have some great equipment
@@techtoremember8096 The V5000 was also sold in Europe, but they're less popular now since their caps are shoddy and have failed in 95% of still existing units. I always considered the V6000 to be an "upgraded" PAL-only variant of the V5000, since it had RC time code and a slightly different design (especially the top handle), but they were both sold at the same time (around 1992, if you can trust Sony's catalogue from that year). And, yeah, I got quite the collection of retro technology (camcorders, tapedecks, a R2R etc.) that I try to keep running.
@@techtoremember8096I can help you there - the 6000 followed the 5000 fairly quickly - months or just a year or two. Essentially the same camera, but it added Genlock sync.
Ah good to know ! Thanks
@@TomCro73 It also had a 10x zoom instead of 6x.
7:25 this actually looks dope
Yeah there are some cool effects !
Very nice cam indeed.....in my opinion, V5000's on-board mic sounds a lot like that of the Canon ES2000......sorry in advance if I'm invasive asking this but how long have you had your refurbished V5000?
I had it about 6 months but bought from someone who had the refurbishing done (so I didn’t do the refurbishment first hand ) thanks for the comment
Hi, what are your favourite budget old camcorders? I want to get one, but cant decide. It should be cheap, reliable (no leaky caps etc.) and there should be the possibility to digitalize. Maybe you could recommend some me some?
I like the Sony digital 8 models !! You can digitize easy and no Leaky cap issues - look at the trv820 I’ll be reviewing that one soon
Hi, can you recommend a Hi8 camera that makes similar videos as the V5000/6000 but is more portable and you don't have to carry it on your shoulder? The other Hi8 cams I see on UA-cam don't take such soft colorful smoothe pictures and all have such a hard sharp aesthetic.
I did a review of the Sony VX3 with a similar picture and much smaller. Feel free to check it out
Thanks. I take a look on it
wonderful presentation, you repaired it; was the camera yours? or did you buy it?
I will also buy the V6000 model from eBay, and I will repair it, it is a beautiful camera like the vX1, VX3
Thank you ! I wish I could repair these cameras myself I bought it from eBay from someone who already had it serviced. Good luck with your 6000 But yes , beautiful camera. I will review Vx3 in the near future so stay tuned. Thank you for the thumbs up !
I have 2 of these cameras and tons of old footage but can't find a deck or camera to play back with that PCM track etc.
Have you looked at the EVS-7000? I have a video on that Hi8 VCR
I will check it out! Hard to find one but I can look. Thank you!
@@techtoremember8096
No prob !
11:42 here’s another idea, do a video on the Canon ES2000 !!
Haha. Not a bad thought !
This was my first (pro) camcorder
Great memories
Do you know who refurbishes this particular camera?
That's a good question. You have to get lucky and see if you can find someone in your area. If its an issue with leaky caps, many independent guys won't even touch it as there's too much work involved. I am in the NY/Long Island region and have a guy I can recommend but I don't know if you're local to that area. There used to be someone called Dr. Sony on ebay would work on this but I heard he was out of commission for a while but he might be back now. You can try searching for him on Ebay. It wont be cheap . I think I inquired and it was $300 or $400 at least to service it. I would suggest doing a google search in your area and see if you can find anything. Best of luck.
@@techtoremember8096 Thanks for the info!
1:09 how long have you had your VX3 for?
About 2 years but it recently started developing a problem which you will see in a soon to be released video
Does anyone know what happened to Dr. Sony also highly recommended on this channel? I shipped a v5000 for repair over a month and never heard back nor has he responded to any of my emails. Is he ok?
Did you get a confirmation that he received the item and did you track the package ? That is very concerning
I received an automated email once I submitted the order on his website. But no response to emails sent to his email address I even sent a message via eBay “contact seller” option and left a voicemail. If anyone can help me get in touch with him I would very much appreciate it.
@@kg5491 A friend of mine and I have both sent emails to Dr Sony regarding another Sony camcorder, neither one of us have gotten replies from him too
I too want to know what's going on with him. For all I know he's likely retired but idk for sure
@@CycloneCordVHS I received a reply to my email on Ebay that he was in the hospital for a few months and will be back sometime in January. Don't have any more details, but let's all wish him a swift recovery.
16:9 mode
I have one of these for how much could I sell it
Depends if it works or not
Why not 60p?
It records in analog format. Interlaced so technically 60i!
@@techtoremember8096 Correct, 60 images per second. For display on a progressive-scan system you need to deinterlace into 60p, each field into a separate frame, this is what every flat-screen TV set does.
😢
Why are you crying ?
Good review, but why bother the geese? Let them exist peacefully
You are right
Seriously??? Oh well, there's always one!
Haha not sure what his beef was- she only walked over to them They flew away voluntarily lol
lol My phone does video far better then this old Sony ccd cam.....
Amazing what years of technology can do
You should see what the average consumer VHS camcorder put out back then. at the time those didnt look very good!
You’re right but they were such a novelty you had to have one !