A little over 20 years ago, more like 23 (It seems like 40), I wanted a video camera so badly my teeth ached. Of course it could have been poor dental hygiene. But either way, I was like a little kid wanting his first bicycle. I could just picture all the wonderful things I could do with one of those cool things that not only gave you color video that you could just watch on your TV and not have to have developed and drag out a screen and projector to watch in a darkened room. And, it also had audio. I mean it was cool. I get goosebumps now just thinking how awesome it was. Somewhere I scraped together about $1300. And I drove back and forth from R.C. Willey to Stokes Brothers to get the best price and make them match or beat the other guy. The compact VHS had just been introduced, so the camera was much smaller than the full size VHS, and who cared that the little cassette only took 20 minutes of video. Most video events such as birthday parties or games or whatever were actually only about 10 to 15 minutes of actual video time anyway. And the cost of a cassette at around $10 or $12 was still a huge amount cheaper per minute than buying film (no sound) and having it developed. Super 8mm film was only 3 minutes per roll and an hour of film with cost of film and developing was probably over $100. And you had to wait until it got developed before you could watch it. With a camcorder you could watch it instataneously, with no developing costs. So back to the price matching game. Willey's and Stokes Brothers both had exactly the same camera, except Willeys had it in black with the Zenith name on it and Stokes Brothers had it in red with the real manufacturers name on it - JVC. I got Stokes Brothers to give me the red JVC for the same price as Willey's black Zenith. I was cool!!!!! If you ever watch the original Back to the Future movie, Doc' Brown is using the exact same model camera that I bought. I got some wonderful video over the years with that camera. It allowed us to capture many memories that we still treasure today. The phrase "I don't have to Kathryn" has become a part of our families favorite quotes which would not exist if it weren't for that camera. We have video of family reunions and loved ones long passed as a result of that camera. Was it worth the $1300 I paid? Absolutely, every penny of it. Oh, by the way, as I was running back and forth to compare camera's and negotiate price I burned up probably at least a dollar's worth of gas at about 35 cents per gallon. Since then I have spent many thousands of dollars on video equipment. I don't remember what ever happened to that little camera, I probably sold it for a few hundred?
Today I opened the paper and here is a Compact VHS with a lens at least 5 times better than the one I had, a color flip out view monitor and a hundred other features they hadn't thought of on my first VHS-C. I'll let the ad speak for itself.
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