Detailed look at the awesome Sony CCD-V5000 camcorder!
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- Опубліковано 20 сер 2024
- The Sony CCD-V5000 camcorder from the early 90s is what I would call a milestone in camcorder history. It has many unique features and functions, that I would really like to see on some of today's camcorders!
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I had two of these back in the day, for shooting events and industrials. They were hard to come by when they first came out, as I recall. Many of them suffered from backfocus issues, but I was lucky enough that mine did not. Those NiCad batteries were a nightmare compared to the tech we have today. Used one of these along with a Sony EVS-900 deck for editing. The '900 had an odd mode where you could record 24 hours of digital audio on a single Hi8 tape. Not particularly practical, but hats off to the clever Sony engineers of the time. To me, this unit is the pinnacle of Sony industrial design for the time, and it still looks good today. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
DOES IT HAVE A LOCK ON THE LENSE AS I CAN NOT SEE ANYTHING THROUGH THE SCOPE
the good old days when you had real buttons instead of cryptic menus 😀
I wish they would bring back those good old days! Compare this CCD-V5000 to the current Sony HXR-MC2500! Despite having the same shoulder-mount case, it has almost no buttons at all!
@@DrCassette My Panasonic HC-X1000 has many features available as external knobs and buttons. There are a few features buried in menus, like zebra-stripe on the viewfinder and infra-red mode, but most the commonly used settings regarding iris, shutter, gain, focus, white balance, ND filters, audio inputs and levels, are available on the camera body.
The HC-X1000 is not bad, but it is not a shoulder-mount camcorder. And from what I have seen it is no good in low light. At least not in the 4K mode.
If I remember right, the thing that really made this camera particularly useful in its era is the fact that it had a built in TBC (Time Base Corrector). A TBC was necessary if you had a Video Toaster system (basically the first low-cost all-in-one video edit system) and wanted switch between more than video source at a time during editing. I grew up around video production and had a Video Toaster when I was about 15 years old. This Sony camera and the Canon L1 were the two hot cameras at the time. I had an L1.
I used one of these for over 18 months back in the early 90s and it was a great camera in its time.
I once had a Sony digital 8 camcorder (it's still stored in reserve) and it also has the VTR function. This is a fantastic feature: it lets you operate the camcorder as a "normal" video recorder (hence the numerous video input possibilities), so you can record from any external source and then play back the tape on this unit or an external VCR. My D8 unit actually allowed me to digitalize the input signal which then can be further edited on my PC. I.e. it can be used to process old analogue recordings e.g. from 8 mm video or even VHS, after you copied them onto D8. On the unit you show, the digitalizing function will not work as this is an analogue system, but in its haydays it could in fact substitute a much larger VCR and make recordings in much better quality than VHS (equivalent to S-VHS, in fact).
Many camcorders have the feature, and was perhaps even more common on older camcorders, as VCRs were expensive. You likely didn't need to copy tha analog recording to Digital8 tape first, many or all allow you to "pass through" the analog input to firewire on the fly - though you may need to enable this option in the menus.
Pcm was for Audio dubbing like music, so you could mix the 2 channels. the compartment was for simple headphones that came with the camera. It was a fantastic unit.
Im sitting here looking at my V5000 that I bought in 1991.
It wouldn't fully boot up when I last tried to use it about 10 years ago.
It was awesome in its day!
Great video...! Finally a detailed walk round of a high-end Sony Prosumer Hi8 camera. I have a CCD-V6000 and it too had been hit by leaking or dried up electrolytic caps. I'd love to find someone that can re-cap it for me as it's in good shape and there are so few of these that are still working now. Totally agree about the physical buttons. Try setting the audio levels seriously on a modern Prosumer camera. It's a 60 seconds job vs. 5 second on these great old machines. Thanks again for the insight into these awesome cameras.
My first camera. It was made back in 1990
The VTR + was the operate the VTR in camera mode. No need to put the switch to VTR, just slide the VTR + and press the stop button and the VTR is now able to fully useable, playback, rewind, etc. It would also allow the camera head to stay on, leaving the camera on while shutting off the play/pause. Back then if the camera was pause for 5 min the camera would shut off, to save the record and playback heads and tape. This camera had so many work arounds. Edit search was great if you like edit in cam. Narration Mic. The limiter of this cam was the lens. The digital effect were a gimmick but very cool also. Strobe was used many times. TBC was very cool and made this cam to die for. No other camera in this time had VU meters and PCM audio.
With the VTR function you could actually use the camcorder as a video tape-recorder to record from an external source.
The analog audio gauges look awesome!
I always wanted to see one of these up close. thank you DrCassette! It's too bad about the surface mount caps because it's in pretty good condition otherwise.
Int/rec was interval recording AKA Time Lapse
Thanks for the info!
Beautiful and brilliant camera, such a great shame they had some bad components, 📽❤ thank you for this Video DC
I used to use this camcorder for wedding videos back in the day. It had a great raft of inbuilt digital effects so you could freeze the last frame of one scene and cross dissolve, in-camera into the next. A great camera to enable as much in camera editing on the day as possible. Hi-8 dropout could be an annoyance. Fuji dual layer metal particle gave the most consistent results whilst the Sony Metal evaporated gave the max resolution but were dropout prone. The whole camera was a joy to use. Had a Sony 3CCD Hi-8 for a while but it wasn’t shoulder mounted and hired an industrial Sony DXC-325 camera with a Hi-8 back which sadly really showed up the failings of the format.
I've got the CCD-V6000E PAL version. I didn't know it has massive problems with SMD Capacitors until yesterday 7th March 2024. So today, next day, I got my camera out. The monochrome viewfinder was unstable, yes the foam inside the microphone had perished, the rubber eye piece is still alright. I couldn't start up the camera, though the tape drive door opened. When I can find my Hi-8 tapes I'll try and see if it'll play one, of course not a valuable one, that alone would be great, I'll then be able to copy over all my Hi-8 tape originals to DVD/Digital format. Sadly I'm prepared for the fact that it probably won't playback any tapes.
Interestingly I bought this 1991/92, can't remember exactly how much I paid but it was a big investment around £1699 at the time.
In 2002 it wouldn't play tapes so I took it to Jessops who repaired it for £300, I thought it was just the tape head, on the receipt I found in the box, it mentions on the parts list a 'capacitor pack' so I guess they would have been replaced, seems it was a known problem with this camcorder, which goes to show that paying a premium price for this 'prosumer' camcorder didn't guarantee getting highest quality electronic components, which is what we'd have all thought. Anyhow next Camcorder I got, was a Canon XM2 in early 2002, which was/is SD broadcast quality, even sold some video to a Canada TV company it was good enough.
So with the capacitors replaced perhaps it worked for longer, I did however notice lots of buzzing noise coming through the built-in speaker, so it's got lots of electrical interference going on in the system. I'll update when I try a tape in it in the next few days, if it doesn't play a tape I'll have to get a Hi-8 recorder deck (with TBC) so I can copy my original camera tapes over to DVD/Digital format where I could now re-edit them on a laptop which I couldn't have done in the 1990s.
I love these older CCD series camcorders. I actually had one myself that suffered from bad capacitors. It's a shame that so many of these amazing camcorders meet such a fate.
What a nice camera, it’s quite a different beast then my dad’s old “steady shot” Sony consumer hi-8 camera from 1995. I do see a lot of similair design cues in styling and nomenclature in the button labeling. I also spotted at least one sony arrow on the case revealing the location of a possible screw. Classic sony design, a lot of small buttons who’s function is not directly obvious without reading the manual.
@Retro Tech Kid No, it's a different model number, the CCD-TR2000-E.
Just to point out, the V5000 had a 2/3" sensor, not 1/2"
Awesome. I recall using and selling them, the chip tended to have very limited exposure range, ironically some of the smaller handycams seem to have great exposure latitude 😎😎😎 Still an amazing product for the time so much better than the vhsc camcorders of the day.
Absolutely, Hi8 was superior to VHS-C and even to most S-VHS-C camcorders!
I have the RCA Newvicon color video camera from 1984 that someone gave me a few years ago. I also have the Signature 2000 from the early 90’s that I bought a few years ago for $20.00 and they are both big. The Signature 2000 takes full size VHS tapes and RCA requires a separate VCR to record to.
I remember wanting one of these so bad when i was in highschool. I still want one of these tho
The shutter speed of 50 would refer to 1/50th of a second, corresponding with the field rate of a PAL signal. You cannot have a slower shutter and maintain this field rate. The higher shutter speeds would be good for well lit action shots if you want to avoid motion blur. Indeed, the analog VU meters are wonderful. I am curious if there is a setting where you can record different audio sources on the analog HiFi and the digital PCM channels. Regarding the small compartment on the back, my guess is that it was designed to house an accessory that came with this camera, perhaps a set of earbuds that could be plugged into the headphone jack.
You actually can drop the shutter speed below 1/50th of a second, with a little trick: Repeating the same frame several times in the recorded video. For example, on a 1/25th of a second shutter speed, two consecutive frames will be the same. But I guess that requires digital processing that technology back then was not capable of. Although, having a digital time base corrector this camcorder should have a frame buffer somewhere in its system... I would guess you could get different content on the PCM and HiFi tracks, by using the audio dub feature.
Thank you for the review it help lot understand why my lately aquired Sony Hi8 pro CCD-V6000E did not work even it looks as unused.
Thank you for your in-depth review!
I´ve never got this camera - last highlight for me was the Sony CCD-200 E .................. it was awesome this time!
I still have mine, bought in 1992. IMPRESSIVE CAMCORDER.
Mine has bad capacitors that must to be replaced. One day I´ll do it for sure! :-).
Thanks to share.
Asier.
All of these camcorders sadly have bad capacitors. Don't wait too long before you replace them. The electrolyte leaks out of the bad capacitors and causes corrosion on the circuit boards and other components!
@@DrCassette
Hello! Thank alot for your advice!
Best regards,
Asier.
I had the V6000E, love it.
Wonderful piece of equipment. Too bad it’s dead. Is it something that you will be working on or is reapiring it out of the question?
There is one guy who managed to successfully repair a CCD-V5000. He documented his work on a blog. If I recall correctly, he had to completely disassemble the camcorder, replace over 70 SMD capacitors and repair various bad traces on the circuit boards that the electrolyte from the leaky capacitors had corroded. This is not a project I would want to get myself into. Since making this video, I have sold my CCD-V5000. I had it sitting on a shelf as a show piece for years, but now I need to reduce the size of my collection.
I also have a Sony CCD-V5000E camcorder and it died from the shitty smd capacitors. I decided to completely restore it by replacing all these capacitors (there are 72). Maybe the videos I'll make to help me put everything back together I'll post on youtube one day. I already got the service manual to order new capacitors.
72 SMD Capacitors that's a lot, but a video would be interesting to at least see if it's worth me considering to attempt it or I maybe I just buy a working Hi8 video recorder/playback deck (hopefully not with SMD capacitors) to copy my 1990's video productions over from instead.
Are those SMD capacitors large or small? Or even micro sized ie not possible to desolder and remove without specialist desoldering equipment, lest I wreck surrounding components on the circuit board(s). I think I may go and find my boxed up 6000 and try it out, if it's dead, then I'll have to consider repair it, but I don't have a service manual, so wouldn't even know what SMD Capacitors to buy to replace with. Maybe just buy an Ebay Hi-8 replacement Record/Player deck purchase. I never even thought the camera would been broken, this is just because of Sony's own design, this wasn't even a cheap camera, this was a huge investment by me at the time, it was somewhere around £1499-£1999 if I recall correctly, that's alarge amount of money now even, more than I paid for my Canon XM2 3CCD Mini-DV in 2002.
I was literally only just thinking I should put my Hi-8 productions onto DVD and maybe upload to UA-cam, lest that literally become landfill, some of them were community production videos and documentary type productions I made for my production portfolio for backing up my applications to Higher Education.
Until I saw this UA-cam video today, I wasn't aware of this SMD Capacitor issue, at all. I even had my Sony CCD-V6000E PAL repaired around 2000 due to it's recording head having failed, that was -in hindsight now- probably a waste of money, I doubt that Jessops would have happened to replace the SMD capacitors, but heck who knows (-: .
This CCD-V6000E was my first ever video camera bought in 1991/92 it came with a 10x Zoom whereas the 5000E only had an 8x Zoom, I was a big film fan in the early 80s Super8 was better than VHS camcorder stuff ironic that I could probably copy my Super8 to DVD (digital) more easily now than I can 1990s Hi8 tapes.
Hi8/SVHS did improve video resolution from 240/250 lines to 380/400 lines and colour signal processing on camcorders and video recorders. I've had two S-VHS recorders, still got a JVC, had a superb Panasonic recording (camera to edit) deck, though it failed around 1999 after 8 years regular use, but it was a swish deck with job/shuttle control on both the recorder and the remote control. I also used the professional Hi-8 all in one portable Hi-8 video unit twice, had to rewrite my Consumer Re-Writeable TC to Sony Semi-Pro RTC (Rewritable Time Code) to frame accurately edit from my Sony 6000 tapes, which was a pain.
Great work and very helpful info. Thanks a lot.
FYI, the little door at the rear of the shoulder mount opens a compartment (this was shown but Dr Cassette said he had no idea what it is for) where you can store the rubber caps that came with the camera to cover and protect the audio/video sockets on the rear next to the power/battery mount.
Thanks for the info!
@@DrCassette You're welcome. Sadly, I have one of these (with carry case, remote, pistol grip attachment, external mic hotshoe extension) and sundry tapes I can no longer play - no idea what's on them - because of its age. Tape transport works fine, but nothing in viewfinder when in camera mode and no output when in VTR mode. I assume it's the usual bad capacitors and wish I knew someone with the skills to repair it. Sigh.
@@george57l The viewfinders can at least *sometimes* be easy to fix - on a Panasonic MS4 camera I have it only took replacing a single capacitor (albeit there was some display before, but only showing a white line). Normally CRTs can be dangerous to work on, but these tiny ones seem to generally or always use much lower voltages.
@@DoubleMonoLR Thanks - but even a single capacitor is beyond my skill set. And seeing as there was zero output in VTR mode I suspect the issue may not be merely viewfinder related. Hey-ho. It's still in the attic, gathering dust.
I know someone who still have the NTSC 8mm version (grey) of this camera with the PCM audio and all. It still work and has NO CAPACITOR ISSUE!
The "8mm version (grey)" is the predecessor of this camcorder called the CCD-V200. It's a different, older model, and therefore it may not have capacitor issues.
I still have my one boxed up in my loft - waiting for me to have some time to swap out the capacitors. I also have a CCD-VX1E which I have already swapped the capacitors on. I bought it back in 1990 when it was £1900 (or £4700 in today's money).
Ive got one of these sitting in my basement in the padded toolbox I kept it in ever since I bought it. It doesnt work no doubt because of the capacitor problem.
I dont think i ever fully utilized all the digital effects and features this unit had, there were too many of them. I liked the luminance key feature so you could insert live action people onto a captured digitial image. I put my sister into record album cover pictures
If I recall correctly you could actually use all those digital effects on video playback as well, so you didn't have to burn-it in while recording video on the camera. Though you could add different two effects first one in camera and a second digital video effect on playback (likes #1 posterisation and then #2 strobe or trail and you could have three different levels, some of those features were very powerful, would be great for doing Music Videos, something you could only get on an expensive post production video effects generator.
I do remember using the video input feature, quite rare on camcorders and the EU put extra import duty charges on them because they were considered as a video recorder as well.
I used the video input feature to copy TV programmes via my Panasonic S-VHS recorder (great deck) off live TV with S-Video quality (380-400 line resolution) and edit them back onto S-VHS to compile things I wanted to keep. I must admit though Hi-8 never recorded video S-Video from TV signal as good as the SVHS recorder which was fantastic, but not worth me paying to get a new recording head fitted it was hundreds of pounds. Hi-8 always quite grainly and not as high resolution. But my Sony CCD-6000E PAL was a great camera and I learnt a lot using it and made some great videos which helped improve the lives of many people in my home city, housing and anti-poverty documentaries, reports and submissions from 1991-1995. I also did note there was some colour fringing noticeably on Yellows on camcorder footage.
Whoa! A PAL camcorder with an input? That was REALLY unique. Inputs on PAL cameras were usually removed (and in the case of Firewire, disabled) to avoid having to pay for the European VCR import tax. I guess this camera was indeed for the "money is no object" crowd.
I bought a Sony DCR-PC7E Mini-DV camcorder in 1998 where I had to use a service remote to enable digital recording from the computer via IEEE-1394. Of course I didn't have a service remote so I used a program that I found on the Internet that allowed you to send codes to the LANC connector via the printer port. Good times :-)
The high end top of the line PAL camcorders always retained their record input. The Sony DCR-TRV900 for example kept its inputs and Sony instead created the DCR-TRV890 that had no inputs and was therefore a bit cheaper.
In Europe, but not everywhere. Here in NZ, and almost certainly Australia, recording from the input was common. Almost all of my PAL camcorders have AV & DV in and out.
BEAUTIFUL unit. Too bad about the capacitors, this unfortunately befalls many interesting devices from the past...
I had always wanted to get one of these!
I found mine on a flea market some years ago...
Your info is slightly wrong. the rocker zoom was 3 speeds. The sensor was 2/3 not 1/2. It was very good in low for it's time. Cat eyes 2 lux.
Shot many weddings and freelance videos with one of these!
that little compartment @ 15:29 would be for a wireless audio transmitter for say a lav mic or stick mic :)
Thank you sir. a question Can i convert this camera cassette recorder with SD memory?
If you can find a V5000 that still works and does not have problems with bad SMD capacitors, you can connect a portable SD card based video recorder (such devices are available from China on Ebay) to the AV outputs of this camcorder to record to SD card.
That would be a project. This camera had S Video out for the best possible picture quality at the time.
the last little door is for holding the spare battery maybe ? I guess. ( edit : its for the headphone )
Nice Video!
Thank you :)
I loved the VU meters
Sony used this style of VU meter on various different products throughout the 80s and 90s.
I have one of these! :)
Does it still work?
What a wonderful piece of hardware.
It's a Sony, of course.
Should be nice a test footage, what do you think :-)?
As I said in the video, unfortunately these camcorders will not produce anymore good test footage unless all SMD electrolytic capacitors are replaced. This particular camcorder is almost entirely dead, all it will do is operate the cassette mechanism.
@@DrCassette Oh, that's sad...
Well, it's a good camera to collect!
Thanks you for the answer!
He said it is non-functional literally like 30 seconds in... Why do people comment without watching the fking video first??
@@hellion9547 Probably, i've lost that part. Sorry for that.
But, is necessary to be so angry?
@@DrCassette
If my Sony CCD6000E PAL would operate the deck that would be good enough for me, as I could at least copy my Hi-8 production from 1991-1995 to DVD/Digital. The camera itself was great, the digital effects were actually superb, you couldn't get anything like them without a post production video effective unit. I'm going to find mine tomorrow and power it up, if it doesn't work then c'est la vie, I didn't know it had this 'SMD Capacitor' problem until I saw this UA-cam video today )-: how depressing that is, I kept the camera because I want to transfer the original camera tapes to DVD at some point, just not motivated myself enough to do it yet...
Unfortunately this camera suffered from poor video quality. The image was too soft and greenish even though it's audio quality was superb.
When the VX1000 true digital 3 CCD camcorder appeared, this camera basically lost its value. The small VX1000 camcorder revolutionized the video production world by rivaling even Betacam SP cameras.
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.
In the years when they made the V5000/V6000, Sony also offered smaller high-end handheld models that had many of the same features. I would assume those would have a similar picture quality, however, keep in mind all these models including the V5000/V6000 are affected by bad SMD capacitors. The chances of finding functional ones are very low.
The design looks pretty similar to the DSR200/VX9000 - Like a shoulder mounted, eng tier version of the VX1000. Probably their top end V/HI8 camcorder in a fullsize body? also have you seen the EVC X7 and X10 - C-Mount interchangable lens, handycam based camcorders? originally sold for "video surveillance and montioring" but later marketed for filmmaking, probably found a niche for using C mount lenses for video over 16mm.. doesn't seem broadcast quality, though.
been trying to get one for ages, they're super unusual - unfortunatley every V8 and HI8 camcorder i'be used has had bad caps, or tape transport issues :(
The CCD-V5000 came out before Sony started this thing of putting their top of the line Handycams into big shoulder mount cases. The V5000 has no Handycam counterpart, the top of the line Handycam of that time was missing quite a few features of the V5000, the sophisticated audio section for example. I haven't seen the EVC-X models before, clearly they are very rare, and possibly never got introduced into the European PAL market where I am based. Unfortunately all late 80s/early 90s Sony camcorders have bad SMD capacitors. They didn't get the chemistry in these capacitors right back then, so it doesn't matter how much the camcorder was used, or how well it was stored, the capacitors go bad. These generations of camcorders unfortunately are lost.
@@DrCassette any video links on how to repair these SMD caps?
@@azizybiz818 There is a blog entry on the internet that features photos.
Does the SOny CCD-V800 have the same issues with bad capacitors? Someone offered me this camcorder and I test it with the original charger, but, unfortunatley, the charger didint work cause of capacitors issue. So now I'm trying to get a new charger to check if the camera is working, that is, buying a brand new charger from a dude in other province only to check that the camera works. But if the capacitors issue is true in this model, is it worth it all the work? Thanks for all the info brought here
Unfortunately the Sony CCD-V800 will most likely have capacitor issues too. I have not come across any broken Sony chargers yet, so that camcorder along with the charger must have been stored under very bad conditions.
what does the NR effect actually do, I'm currently trying to research it but can't find anything :/
It's not really an "effect" as such, it's Noise Reduction, as mentioned in the video. One example of video noise is dots moving around/dot "crawl" in the image.
I had this camera. It died because bad capacitor issue
Repair it? Or no time to learn SMD rework?
There is one guy who managed to successfully repair a CCD-V5000. He documented his work on a blog. If I recall correctly, he had to completely disassemble the camcorder, replace over 70 SMD capacitors and repair various bad traces on the circuit boards that the electrolyte from the leaky capacitors had corroded. This is not a project I would want to get myself into.
@@DrCassette Certainly sounds involved, thanks for the information Dr!
@@DrCassette I wonder how many hours the blogger put into the repair you mentioned... I will not seek out his BLOG, but a repair video for this camera would get my attention!
Somebody one day might produce a repair video, but it certainly won't be me.
@@DrCassette Agreed, just imagining all the camera work, lighting and editing that would be needed for a video like that would easily double or triple the project's total time, suicidal thoughts
I found one with al.the accessoires
Probably all SMD capacitors should be replaced (~90 pieces). All are leaking. :( Not a simple task.
Yes, all the SMD capacitors indeed need to be replaced.
I bought one supposedly 'working' from an ebay seller in the US........nope it was buggered!! Thankfully Paypal refunded me.
These camcorders all need the SMD capacitors replaced.
I have this in PAL from UK
Bought new 1990 came to Canada 1991 and not used it since. Pristine condition but still in case.
No use to me but I have a lot of hi 8 tapes that I have to convert to dvd
Unfortunately even this never-used camcorder will be affected by the bad SMD capacitors...
Would love to have seen some footage… but otherwise decent video.
I think I explained in the video why the camcorder does not work...
Why peaple shoot black movies wid this camera when it has a gain switch?
The gain switch is always a compromise. The picture gets brighter, but there is also a lot more noise in the video.
Wlasnie dzisiaj do mnie dotarla ta kamera, kondensatory do wymiany, bede z nia walczyl, kupilem ja za 50 euro.
Good Luck!
Does anyone know how to get it to play tapes
Was a really good camera, against the horrible and basic models that Panasonic did with S-VHS system... Selling MS1 (no Hi-Fi, old CCD, bad mechanics) until 1993, offering MS4 until the system died (horrible optical system, no vumeters, no v-in, no ears output, no real CTL counter, basic plastic noisy build, stupid 12v charger 20 years old, slow zoom, the same mechanic system...).
Pity that V5000 wasn't S-VHS or C mode.
The Panasonic camcorders indeed were not nearly as advanced as the Sony camcorders at that time, but they have proven to be a lot more reliable. While almost all Sony camcorders of that time have long since failed due to bad SMD capacitors, the simple big fullsize VHS Panasonic camcorders are only now starting to more commonly have problems.
Little compartment for nd filters.
Yes, you could use it for filters...
Can you put in a spare battery in that compartment?
No, the compartment is way too small to fit in a battery.
Bad capacitors 😒