[net.video] 8mm query

heneghan@ihu1m.UUCP (Joe Heneghan) (07/23/85)

I have been researching video products for about 1/2 year
as I am planning to " get in to it ". Yesterday I went
to VIDEO KING where the salesman showed me an 8mm camera
made by GE. It was totally self contained: film (the
cartridge was the size of an audio cartridge), player,
battery in the handle, and it was incredibly lite. Has
anyone in netland had experience with this? It seems like
quite a unit.
			Joe Heneghan ihnp4!ihu1m!heneghan

copp@petrus.UUCP (07/25/85)

Before you buy the 8mm video outfit by GE, look into the just-announced
Sony cameras.  Reading between the lines of the video magazines,
the Sony camcorders make the earlier GE, Kodak and Polaroid models
look sick.

wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (07/30/85)

I have seen statements like "8mm will have 50% of the home video market
by <date>" recently. Does this sort of thing mean that the industry
seriously expects that all the people now producing prerecorded
videocassettes in both VHS and Beta will add a third format -- 8mm -- to
their inventories? This seems wildly unrealistic to me.

I keep thinking of 8mm as the "Elcaset of video".... Great technically,
but too late, too much of a struggle against entrenched competitors, and
what is there already can work well enough to fill the need.

I can see 8mm surviving for camcorder-type devices, at about the same
relative level to other video tape formats as microcassettes are to
other audio tape formats. 

But, then, I'm no highly-paid marketing consultant... :-)

Will

scooter@genie.UUCP (Scooter Morris) (07/31/85)

I have recently purchased one of the Sony 8mm camcorders and
have been very happy with it.  My only complaint so far is the
ability of the mike to pick up sound at any distance from the
camera.  Since the mike is removable, I'm sure this is a
solvable problem, but I haven't investigated it further.

				Scooter Morris
				Genentech, Inc.