I've ended up (that's the best way to describe it) with two older video cameras that I had decided I was going to sell.
One of them was given to me at work. They were going to throw it out and was told to take it or it was going into the trash. The other one was from a former roommate who didn't want it anymore.
I'm short of cash (what's new?) so I thought I'd look into selling them. You can now cue the "Mission Impossible" theme.
Electronic items are one of the few things that are expensive to buy and end up being worth a fraction of their original value not long after.
I understand now why I ended up with them. They are both JVC VHS-C camcorders. One of them shows a manufacture date of 1994 on the bottom. That's 16 years ago!
Its amazing how far camera technology has advanced in that period of time. They don't have flip out screens, they used rather large tapes (basically smaller VHS tapes), the viewfinders are flip out pieces that you look through a hole and the picture is in black and white. They tape in color and the cameras themselves have words like "digital" on the side but what we now consider digital is not what they did at the time.
The camera I got from work did have a tape in it. It was a video of kids performing on stage at a Mix-FM Baby Fair from years ago at some point. There was also a couple minutes of some sort of parking lot carnival.
I looked up the model numbers on Google and found one that was on sale on e-bay. The starting price was $4.99 and it had no bids. I'll bet they both cost close to a thousand dollars when they were new.
Having them in my possession is an odd blast from the past. Unfortunately I think I'm going to end up tossing them in the dumpster unless I can find someone to give them to who wants them. Maybe someone will want to hold on to them for 20 years and they'll be suitable for donating to a museum.
Anyone need a couple of paperweights?
