1980-01
Early VHS Camcorder
Full-size VHS camcorders rode on the shoulder from the middle of the decade. Soft, with colors bleeding sideways, tape noise, tracking wobble and a head-switching tear.
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Why the 1980s look like this
The 1980s put a video recorder and a camera in one body. Early in the decade, home video meant a portable recorder on a strap and a separate camera on a cable. The first one-piece consumer camcorder shipped in 1983, the compact VHS cassette had arrived in 1982, and by the middle of the decade full-size VHS camcorders, compact VHS and 8 mm video were fighting over the same families. Super VHS followed in 1987, and a hi-band version of 8 mm video in 1989.
Every consumer tape format of the decade made its picture the same way. Brightness was recorded at modest resolution, and color was squeezed into a narrow band under it. The color could not keep up with the edges, so a red jumper bled into the wall beside it. The tape added a fine, crawling noise, and at the bottom of the frame, where one spinning head handed over to the other, a thin tear ran across the picture. Every copy you made of a tape lost more. A second-generation dub was softer and noisier and wobbled with tracking errors, and that is the copy most people watched.
Camcorders also changed what saw the light. Pickup tubes gave way to CCD chips during the decade, which were smaller, tougher and less prone to burn-in. Early CCDs had their own flaw: a bright light could smear a vertical stripe through the whole frame. In a dark room the camcorder turned up its gain, and the picture went grainy and grey rather than black.
The still camera got automatic too. Autofocus 35 mm compacts with a built-in flash arrived at the very end of the 1970s and took over the decade. The flash sat right beside the lens, so it lit the middle of the frame and left the edges dark. Film went to the minilab, which handed back glossy, saturated prints while you waited or the next day, and quartz date backs burned an orange date into the corner. The disc camera of 1982 used a tiny negative that gave grainy, soft prints. Single-use cameras appeared in 1986, faster integral instant film in 1981 and a wider instant print in 1986, and a cheap plastic medium-format toy camera in 1982.
What the camera rebuilds
At 1980 the CINE side is video, not film. Early VHS Camcorder gives a soft picture with color bleeding sideways, tape noise, tracking wobble, a tear from the head switch and a slight jitter in each line. Every look in the decade is written to a 24 fps file. The formats sharpen as the decade goes on. 8 mm Video Camcorder and Super VHS Camcorder are crisper and bleed less, and Broadcast Component Video is close to clean.
The defects get their own looks. Consumer CCD Smearing draws the vertical smear above and below bright lights. Low-Light Gain-Up Camcorder adds heavy sensor noise and drains the color. Second-Generation VHS Copy piles up tracking errors, noise, specks and the head-switching tear. Super 8 Family Film keeps one reel of film in the box, at an 18 fps cadence.
In STILL mode the compact-camera prints are 3:2 with rounded corners and no border. The flash darkens the corners, and Orange Date Imprint burns the date in orange. The instant styles get their square and wide frames, and the toy camera its dark, leaky corners.
The sound is VHS Consumer Camcorder Audio: the camcorder's own microphone recording onto the tape's linear audio track. On PERIOD it is mono, about 80 Hz to 8 kHz, with tape hiss, a faint motor and very little wow.
Shooting tips
- Film a birthday. VHS-C Home Video at DEGREE 7, indoors, with a few bright colors in the room to bleed. Zoom in and out more than you need to, as everyone did.
- Point at a light. Consumer CCD Smearing wants a candle, a lamp or the sun on chrome in the frame. DEGREE 9 makes the smear longer.
- Make the tape you found. Second-Generation VHS Copy at DEGREE 10 to 12 is the rental tape at the back of the shop.
- Use the flash. Autofocus Compact Flash at night, close to people, against a dark background. Then try Single-Use Camera for the softer, cheaper version.
- Put the date on. Orange Date Imprint prints today's date. Set the camera's clock in MENU to stamp any day you choose.
Before this, the 1970s were the last decade of film as the family's moving picture. Next, the 1990s shrink the camcorder into your palm. The stages behind each look are explained in how it works.
