I recently bought a model Sony CCD -FX700e Hi8 (1992) and changed its capacitors in total about 89 capacitors with new tantalum capacitors, tedious enough but the camera is fully functional and that makes me happy ❤️
Nice to find someone dedicated in fixing something yes if you can do it yourself at no labour costs then yes it’s fun to see the results . But yours is a Hi8 so produces a more usable picture
I've got a couple of similar sony models i want to do this job on. They're fantastic camcorders and feel amazing in the hand. The perfect camcorder, if you believe in such a thing.
I hope you are around when I work on my TEAC 2340R reel to reel that is stuck in rewind mode. bought in 1976, played two years and failed into rewind mode. I put it back in the box to add to my project list. Next year I should have my electronic shop up and running. I may contact you then!
That was my first camcorder that I bought on Nov 22, 1989! The camcorder's long gone, the heads got all munged about 5 years later, but I still have the case (which was *included* )!
I got one of these POS Handycams (F201) as part of a lot including a JVC GR-C1. Of course, I only bought it to get the GR-C1. Probably the only decent VHS-C camera from Junk Very Cheap. Have you ever seen VHS abbreviated as "Very Horrible System"? My F201 doesn't even produce a picture in the viewfinder.
@@KylesDigitalLab yes the upper drum can be used on any other model that uses the same type. I did that on that home deck that had the PCM adapter with it. The heads were broken so I took an old head from a scrap camera and it worked perfect except that it was originally a 3 head and I replace with 2 head so no slomo or freeze but record and play perfect.
I'm in the process of repairing a similar model, mine is the CCD-F50. When I first got it the camera wouldn't power up even on a full battery. I tore it down and couldn't find anything visually wrong with it. Fuses were both good and then I hooked it up to my bench supply and managed to get the side LCD display to turn on and after pressing eject the motor started moving but didn't open up the chassis. Now I'm stumped about how to proceed, as the motor will spin up if I give a head start with a spin but then acts as if it's just gotten to the end of the tape. My guess is there is something wrong with the board for the motor but I'm not sure. It's technically worthless to fix but I figured I'd use it to practice some repair skills. Do you have any suggestions? I couldn't find your email on your main UA-cam page btw.
RIP Sony Cam-corder! Still hurts to see that mechanical tape transport and oodles of analog circuitry pass it's expiration date when 97% of it is still as good as the day it was born. This unit looks to have had very low hours too from it's condition. I do understand though it's time has come.
@@crashbandicoot4everr yes the old penny behind the fuse trick. My dad who was a fireman responded to many fires caused this way in time to save the foundation.
As soon as I saw that picture through camera mode I thought 'that's not gonna last long those caps are gonna start leaking all over the place' the trouble with these camcorders compared to the sub-compact designs is that there are just too many caps inside
Never seen A/V inputs on an analogue camcorder here in the UK. I had a complete re-cap done (under an extended guarantee) on a similarly aged Canon E-850Hi camcorder back in the 1990s, and they still all work fine today. However as is often the case, the CCD gave up, so it's good only for playback now anyway. It's just not worth trying to fix a camcorder of this sort of age. However later Digital 8 camcorders, particularly those that support analogue playback, are still very much worth repairing.
It’s still sad when these cams die but I remember when they were only 6 years old being brought in for repair and then having to tell the customer it’s beyond economic repair this has definitely done well to still be around. I also remember juts opening the cassette door and giving cams a sniff if it smelt of cat pee that would mean the end of the job.I still have loads of interesting video kit to go through.so would agree this is not worthy of time sad as it is.
Digital 8 transports could record a picture that was equal to any mini DV camera. The problem is Sony did not want to undermine their more expensive mini DV cameras so they put a crap camera on the front end. Digitally was initially marketed as a way for people to move to digital that are already invested in 8 mm and high eight as the initial digitally cameras could play back analog recordings which made them very desirable especially for those in the archiving business because they can play 8 mil High eight and digitally. Later cameras dropped the ability to play analog. I guess if it was your first camcorder and you had no reason to ever play analog this might have been an option for the budget minded person, but really the only reason to use digital 8 was for that backwards compatibility for playback, if you didn't need to play analog 8mm tapes then just go to DV because the camera was so much better. Of course all these look like crap compared to even the cheapest camera you could find today because they are all 480i resolution.
@@12voltvids I'm more interested in using a digital 8 camera for entertainment c this and I ask which is the best camera from the digital 8, although what I notice is that they have crap sensors from the previous video8, Hi8 models
@@amatorev They all have crap sensors. Sony did not want to undermine their mini DV camera sales which had higher resolution sensors. They did have one that was marketed as a megapixel camera but that was only when you took stills and save the images on memory stick when it was in video camera mode it was cropped to 250k pixels to effectively limit the quality because they did not want them looking as good as the mini DV cameras of the same time frame. What I used to do was plug a broadcast camera into a digital 8 using the s video in and audio in and record onto a digital 8 tape from a three chip broadcast camera the quality was unbelievable
Which company actually manufactured this camera. Was it a J.V.C. camera badged by Sony ? I ask because they are competitors. Brilliant and educational servicing videos.
These capacitor issues on old Handycams are a real bummer, as Sony had a lot more aesthetic variety in their cameras back then. I love the CCD-SP7 but I've never seen a working one and I probably never will either.
I have a big jvc camera that cost me 7500 22 years ago. It is a junk video camera now but it sure wasn't cheap. Second most expensive camera I ever bought. It's now just a decoration in my media room.
Those Sony camcorders from that era pretty much most, of not all have bad SMD capacitors and usually almost always destroy the traces. I avoid them at all cost. Only ones worth fixing are the digital 8 with analog playback capabilities. I rather do a whole transport rebuild and alignment on the digital 8 camcorder, then to waste hours changing capacitors and cleaning and fixing traces on those older black ones. I have yet to come across one of those that not had capacitors leak out on those. The DC to DC converter love to smoke on those. Usually I just rip the chassis and heads out of them for parts for more valuable decks I rebuild.
Why do you think i chucked it so fast. I was cleaning out my shop and tossing stuff I have no interest in fixing. You are right digital 8 with analog playback are the only ones worth saving and the home hi8 decks.
You dared to switch it on, Now it's deader than it already was :-D. I didn't really expect it to do anything, There must be another dave out there recapping for playback only. Another Dave, I'm frightened lol,
I still have my Canon 8mm camcorder that I bought in early 1998. I wish I'd had a AA battery pack for it like that Sony one. It came with a little 20-minute battery, and I bought a couple of like hour-and-15-minute batteries for it the next day, all of which got to the non-rechargeable stage about 6 or 7 years later. I'm kind of surprised that hipster millennials and gen-z folks at least aren't big on these old camcorders; I'm guessing that quite a few of these people were filmed as kids by their parents using these things.
Some are. Have no idea why. I sold a bunch of old tapes to millennials and gen z that are trying to recreate their youth with VHS analog cameras. Us boomers couldn't wait to trash this analog crap.
Believe it or not, many years ago when I was working at a service center, one of the other techs wrote that on a repair job for a customer. I think it was a case of he had repaired the unit, it sat there a long time and forgot to fill out the service report. Not remembering what he'd done to fix it, he put that on the report - even more hilarious, the customer picked the unit up saw the report and the joke had gone over their head.. lol
Like you say nobody’s willing to pay even 100 bucks for a good 8mm camcorder. Tell you what, if you come across a good working early 90s camera (Sony CCD-TR CCD-V CCD-F) series camera that works (you think can be recapped and working for a while) send me a message and I will buy it for up to $400 Canadian. I really want to early 90s handycam that’s working but nobody’s willing to recap any for me.
@@12voltvids Well I know someone who has a recapped Sony CCD-F77 which was recapped around 2002 or 2003 still perfect working order, just won’t sell it to me. So recaps can last ? No ?
@@vcrguy1686 if you get to it before they leak corossive liquid on the board which soaks into the internal layers and eats away the copper. Problem is you don't know until you change them. I put 140 into a ccdv5000 and 2 weeks later intermittent problems. Never could solve it. 5 hours of work and I had to refund every penny. This happened more than once. After being bit a few times it was sure i will recap it. Here is the price. No warranty on the work. 9 out of 10 the board was shot on all those Sony and canon camera. 100% dumped the camera and bought a new one.
I recently bought a model Sony CCD -FX700e Hi8 (1992) and changed its capacitors in total about 89 capacitors with new tantalum capacitors, tedious enough but the camera is fully functional and that makes me happy ❤️
Nice to find someone dedicated in fixing something yes if you can do it yourself at no labour costs then yes it’s fun to see the results . But yours is a Hi8 so produces a more usable picture
I did that on my ccdv5000 back in the day. Then I sold it. It had about 140 caps
I've got a couple of similar sony models i want to do this job on. They're fantastic camcorders and feel amazing in the hand. The perfect camcorder, if you believe in such a thing.
I hope you are around when I work on my TEAC 2340R reel to reel that is stuck in rewind mode. bought in 1976, played two years and failed into rewind mode. I put it back in the box to add to my project list. Next year I should have my electronic shop up and running. I may contact you then!
That was my first camcorder that I bought on Nov 22, 1989! The camcorder's long gone, the heads got all munged about 5 years later, but I still have the case (which was *included* )!
I got one of these POS Handycams (F201) as part of a lot including a JVC GR-C1. Of course, I only bought it to get the GR-C1. Probably the only decent VHS-C camera from Junk Very Cheap. Have you ever seen VHS abbreviated as "Very Horrible System"?
My F201 doesn't even produce a picture in the viewfinder.
The f201 was from the leaky cap era. Throw it away it isn't worth even attempting to repair.
@@12voltvids Yeah I was just wondering if maybe the heads/mechanism could be used to fix another camcorder. It's not worth re-capping obviously.
@@KylesDigitalLab yes the upper drum can be used on any other model that uses the same type. I did that on that home deck that had the PCM adapter with it. The heads were broken so I took an old head from a scrap camera and it worked perfect except that it was originally a 3 head and I replace with 2 head so no slomo or freeze but record and play perfect.
I'm in the process of repairing a similar model, mine is the CCD-F50. When I first got it the camera wouldn't power up even on a full battery. I tore it down and couldn't find anything visually wrong with it. Fuses were both good and then I hooked it up to my bench supply and managed to get the side LCD display to turn on and after pressing eject the motor started moving but didn't open up the chassis. Now I'm stumped about how to proceed, as the motor will spin up if I give a head start with a spin but then acts as if it's just gotten to the end of the tape. My guess is there is something wrong with the board for the motor but I'm not sure. It's technically worthless to fix but I figured I'd use it to practice some repair skills. Do you have any suggestions? I couldn't find your email on your main UA-cam page btw.
Surface mount electrolytic caps and of course the traces on the board that are damaged by the leakage.
RIP Sony Cam-corder! Still hurts to see that mechanical tape transport and oodles of analog circuitry pass it's expiration date when 97% of it is still as good as the day it was born. This unit looks to have had very low hours too from it's condition. I do understand though it's time has come.
The chassis will be kept as the drum is probably still good. I'll keep the little crt viewfinder as they are too cool.
I see three fuses on that DC-DC converter board. Wouldn't surprise me if one or more went pop...
I see one that had a big junk of copper wire bypassing it too.
@@12voltvids Oh great stuff. Reminds me of idiots who jump fuses using pieces of aluminum foil on old household circuit breaker panels.
@@crashbandicoot4everr yes the old penny behind the fuse trick. My dad who was a fireman responded to many fires caused this way in time to save the foundation.
As soon as I saw that picture through camera mode I thought 'that's not gonna last long those caps are gonna start leaking all over the place' the trouble with these camcorders compared to the sub-compact designs is that there are just too many caps inside
Never seen A/V inputs on an analogue camcorder here in the UK. I had a complete re-cap done (under an extended guarantee) on a similarly aged Canon E-850Hi camcorder back in the 1990s, and they still all work fine today. However as is often the case, the CCD gave up, so it's good only for playback now anyway. It's just not worth trying to fix a camcorder of this sort of age. However later Digital 8 camcorders, particularly those that support analogue playback, are still very much worth repairing.
The digital 8 with analog playback are the only ones worth fixing but fortunately they don't have the capacitor issue they the old ones did.
It’s still sad when these cams die but I remember when they were only 6 years old being brought in for repair and then having to tell the customer it’s beyond economic repair this has definitely done well to still be around. I also remember juts opening the cassette door and giving cams a sniff if it smelt of cat pee that would mean the end of the job.I still have loads of interesting video kit to go through.so would agree this is not worthy of time sad as it is.
Yes condemned many a camcorder. Bad caps, dropping damage, sand in the mechanism, water in mechanism. Lots were condemned withing a few years.
What would happen if you put the Energizer ultimate lithium batteries in there with a blow up the camera
They would be fine.
The camera was good once in time when this video format was new
interesting to see such a camera inside.
Never owned such a low end camera myself. Ccd-tr81 was the lowest end camera I ever bought.
which model is better than digital 8 cameras?
Digital 8 transports could record a picture that was equal to any mini DV camera. The problem is Sony did not want to undermine their more expensive mini DV cameras so they put a crap camera on the front end. Digitally was initially marketed as a way for people to move to digital that are already invested in 8 mm and high eight as the initial digitally cameras could play back analog recordings which made them very desirable especially for those in the archiving business because they can play 8 mil High eight and digitally. Later cameras dropped the ability to play analog. I guess if it was your first camcorder and you had no reason to ever play analog this might have been an option for the budget minded person, but really the only reason to use digital 8 was for that backwards compatibility for playback, if you didn't need to play analog 8mm tapes then just go to DV because the camera was so much better. Of course all these look like crap compared to even the cheapest camera you could find today because they are all 480i resolution.
@@12voltvids I'm more interested in using a digital 8 camera for entertainment c this and I ask which is the best camera from the digital 8, although what I notice is that they have crap sensors from the previous video8, Hi8 models
@@amatorev
They all have crap sensors. Sony did not want to undermine their mini DV camera sales which had higher resolution sensors. They did have one that was marketed as a megapixel camera but that was only when you took stills and save the images on memory stick when it was in video camera mode it was cropped to 250k pixels to effectively limit the quality because they did not want them looking as good as the mini DV cameras of the same time frame. What I used to do was plug a broadcast camera into a digital 8 using the s video in and audio in and record onto a digital 8 tape from a three chip broadcast camera the quality was unbelievable
@@12voltvids hmm which model it was?
@@amatorev
Which model was what?
Which company actually manufactured this camera. Was it a J.V.C. camera badged by Sony ? I ask because they are competitors. Brilliant and educational servicing videos.
These capacitor issues on old Handycams are a real bummer, as Sony had a lot more aesthetic variety in their cameras back then. I love the CCD-SP7 but I've never seen a working one and I probably never will either.
Slim to none.
JVC = Junk Video Camera? Or is it Junk Very Cheap, or both!
I have a big jvc camera that cost me 7500 22 years ago. It is a junk video camera now but it sure wasn't cheap. Second most expensive camera I ever bought. It's now just a decoration in my media room.
Those Sony camcorders from that era pretty much most, of not all have bad SMD capacitors and usually almost always destroy the traces. I avoid them at all cost. Only ones worth fixing are the digital 8 with analog playback capabilities. I rather do a whole transport rebuild and alignment on the digital 8 camcorder, then to waste hours changing capacitors and cleaning and fixing traces on those older black ones.
I have yet to come across one of those that not had capacitors leak out on those. The DC to DC converter love to smoke on those.
Usually I just rip the chassis and heads out of them for parts for more valuable decks I rebuild.
Why do you think i chucked it so fast. I was cleaning out my shop and tossing stuff I have no interest in fixing. You are right digital 8 with analog playback are the only ones worth saving and the home hi8 decks.
You dared to switch it on, Now it's deader than it already was :-D.
I didn't really expect it to do anything,
There must be another dave out there recapping for playback only.
Another Dave, I'm frightened lol,
I have several of those five years ago that were working fine and I sold them.
I still have my Canon 8mm camcorder that I bought in early 1998. I wish I'd had a AA battery pack for it like that Sony one. It came with a little 20-minute battery, and I bought a couple of like hour-and-15-minute batteries for it the next day, all of which got to the non-rechargeable stage about 6 or 7 years later. I'm kind of surprised that hipster millennials and gen-z folks at least aren't big on these old camcorders; I'm guessing that quite a few of these people were filmed as kids by their parents using these things.
Some are. Have no idea why. I sold a bunch of old tapes to millennials and gen z that are trying to recreate their youth with VHS analog cameras. Us boomers couldn't wait to trash this analog crap.
Nothing ventured means nothing gained or in other words it never hurts to try.
Why just so I can throw it out. It went pop as something catastrophic happened.
I wonder why everything went curvy in '88. 🤔
Mid 2000 motherboards for computers, bulging spewing caps
Carey Holzman comes to mind
This camera is dead, but hey, you got a really small CRT viewfinder to mess around with it! 😉
10:26 I can take it off your hands, sir. How much are you asking?
You can have it. I'm tossing it in the trash
Faulty flux capacitor.
Believe it or not, many years ago when I was working at a service center, one of the other techs wrote that on a repair job for a customer. I think it was a case of he had repaired the unit, it sat there a long time and forgot to fill out the service report. Not remembering what he'd done to fix it, he put that on the report - even more hilarious, the customer picked the unit up saw the report and the joke had gone over their head.. lol
Video camera
Like you say nobody’s willing to pay even 100 bucks for a good 8mm camcorder.
Tell you what, if you come across a good working early 90s camera (Sony CCD-TR CCD-V CCD-F) series camera that works (you think can be recapped and working for a while) send me a message and I will buy it for up to $400 Canadian. I really want to early 90s handycam that’s working but nobody’s willing to recap any for me.
Neither am i because the electrolytic that leaks out eats the traces. Even recapped they don't last.
@@12voltvids Well I know someone who has a recapped Sony CCD-F77 which was recapped around 2002 or 2003 still perfect working order, just won’t sell it to me. So recaps can last ? No ?
@@vcrguy1686 if you get to it before they leak corossive liquid on the board which soaks into the internal layers and eats away the copper. Problem is you don't know until you change them. I put 140 into a ccdv5000 and 2 weeks later intermittent problems. Never could solve it. 5 hours of work and I had to refund every penny. This happened more than once. After being bit a few times it was sure i will recap it. Here is the price. No warranty on the work.
9 out of 10 the board was shot on all those Sony and canon camera. 100% dumped the camera and bought a new one.
Maybe you should be repairing more modern electronics instead ......