pyle@ut-ngp.UUCP (Keith Pyle) (01/29/84)
I purchased a portable VCR and camera in November 1983, and since there have been some questions concerning these two items, I'll throw in my $1,845 worth (the purchase price). I originally intended to buy a camera to use with my current "home" VCR, an RCA VFT650. This unit came with camera inputs and the manual described a "camera adapter" that one would use between the camera and VCR. After some extensive shopping covering about eight dealers, I learned: (1) Camera adapters are not generally stocked since the dealer would rather sell you a portable VCR, (2) Adapters are very specific to the particular VCR/camera combination you will use, that is, if you want the video to NOT be inverted, the pause control to work, etc. (3) The only way to find an adapter is to haul your VCR around to each dealer that has an adapter and try it with one of their cameras - the documentation with the few adapters I located barely mentioned which camera it would work with, much less which VCR's were compatible. At this point, I re-evaluated my plans and began to look at portable VCR's. (My RCA VCR is VHS, so Beta was not considered.) My choice for a camera was ultimately between the Panasonic PK957 by Matsushita and a virtually identical Olympus camera also by Matsushita. These are, of course, just different packages and names for the same item. After some dealing, I purchased the Panasonic PK957 and a Panasonic portable VCR, the PV6600, for $1,845 plus tax. The Olympus dealer had wanted $1,898 plus tax for the PK957 clone and a recently discontinued VCR with slightly fewer features. By pushing the Panasonic dealer, who really wanted the sale, I was also able to secure a discount on future purchases of accessories. After two months of use, I am basically quite pleased with the camera and VCR. The camera has a minimum light sensitivity of 10 Lux (1 ft candle), 8:1 power zoom, auto focus, stereo audio, and electronic viewfinder, and weighs 5.5 pounds. It also has a three color character generator for captioning. The VCR consists of two units, a tuner and a recorder. The quartz tuner has digital channel entry and the unit also serves as the charger for the recorder battery. The recorder has all of the usual "bells and whistles," records and plays stereo audio, and weighs 8.4 pounds with battery. I've recorded several hours worth of tape with the camera under a variety of lighting conditions. The color reproduction is generally very good with a minimum of adjustment. However, the operator and camera can be fooled and the only sure test is to have a color monitor available. (The viewfinder is B&W.) If anyone is interested in further comments or has questions, send mail to: Keith Pyle . . .!ihnp4!ut-ngp!pyle