My Retro Camera Addiction

Over the past two months I've accumulated a number of interesting (and functioning!) "retro" camcorders, including the world's first camcorder with an interchangeable lens!

This week I want to take you on a journey through time to uncover some of the awesome stories that these cameras have to tell. This is a VERY visual episode, so if you want to see everything, you can join me over on Patreon for the video version.

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S5E10 | Series Episode 94

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:24

Hello and welcome. My name is Tom. This is the Enthusiasm Project season five, episode 10. And today I am gonna make good on the promise I made last week. And what was that promise, you ask? Sorry, I just my brain exploded trying to like I start on such a momentum and then it just falls apart. But anyway, in last week's episode, I said that this upcoming week was going to be a very visual episode. And so what I'm gonna do is my very best to make this as auditorily interesting as possible. So if you're listening to the audio version, which is how the vast majority of people listen to this show do, um you'll be able to understand and experience everything in the way that I would want you to. However, um, since it is going to be very visual, if you want to see the video version, that is where uh YouTube channel memberships and Patreon come into play because I upload video versions of podcasts there. I know it sounds like a shameless self-plug, but it's also like that's the way to get access to the video things. And the reason that today is going to be so video visual is because we're gonna be talking about cameras. And I know it's sort of like a shift from where we've gone, but if you remember earlier this year, uh, or I guess it would be season four, the last batch of episodes, I had a couple episodes where I talked about trying to find a new camera. I ended up getting the Sony A7S3, which is the main camera that I'm using right now, and I still use my Canon EOS Rs as well alongside of it. And using both of those systems together has actually been really fun. There's definitely, you know, like some hurdles to overcome, and I I understand the logic and the argument behind using one single camera system, but at the same time, it's been very fun to sort of like prove to not have to pick a side in the great camera wars, which are a thing that exists. Um, but it has been interesting though, I gotta say, as someone who has basically just been a Canon user, like I used Sony camcorders growing up, but as soon as I went into DSLR territory, I went with Canon and stuck with them from you know the XTI, which was not a video camera, just a DSLR, all the way up through the you know the EOSR. Um, so that was especially as cameras started being able to do video, that was kind of what I stuck with. And for a long time, Canon just kind of crushed it, you know, like they were the they were the ones to go to, and then other companies sort of popped in. So now being having been a Canon user for a long time, still being a Canon user, but now also being a Sony user, it's very interesting to see these two different perspectives. And something that I want to talk about next week, I know we're just starting this show, and I'm like, hey, next week's episode is gonna be about something else. But next week, I want to talk about newer camera stuff. So Canon R3 was just announced this week. Sony has a ZVE10, there's lots of rumors of the A7 IV. There's there's a lot of stuff happening in the camera world right now that's very exciting and very advanced and crazy high-tech. And so what I actually want to do is sort of go in the other direction today. We're not talking about the high-tech or at least current high-tech, we're just talking about state of the art from way back when, which makes me feel bad when I refer to these as retro cameras because uh some of them were ones that I had new and ones that like I wanted because they were the best of the time, and now it's like that's a sweet vintage camera, bro. And I'm like, uh, time is tough. Uh so anyway, the the purpose behind this is because I think it's interesting, and so I want to share that with you because I think you'll think it's interesting as well, but also to kind of like uh break down something that I'm working on for a future video. If you have been around for a while and watching things and listening to things, I think it's going on two months now. I've had a love affair with this thing right here, which is the Canon XL1. And if you're um if you're not familiar with the XL1 or you're just listening to the audio only version, it's a big it's a big old camera from Canon. It's it was their like foray into the world of like they've done broadcast camera stuff for a very long time, obviously, and they've they've done photo cameras for many, many years. But this was their first like not studio level professional camera, but also not consumer camera. It's like a little higher end than prosumer was at the time. So the XL1 came out in 1998, and um the big deal with it is that it's a three-chip camera, so it's a three C C D camera, and that's a very big deal because on older cameras, so the XL1's a digital camera. Uh well, it's like sort of digital, it's mini DV, so it takes tapes, but it's technically digital. You could connect it through FireWire to your computer. Remember Firewire? Uh you could you could do that, but it also just records to tape. But the big deal was, and if you're somebody who used old cameras, a three C C D camera, because this is none of this stuff is HD or anything, but basically the way that it worked was cameras, instead of having the image sensors that we have now, what they had was were chips that that uh like broke apart the primary colors, red, green, and blue, RGB, and then smashed them together to make images. And most cameras, and basically every camcorder that you might have used, just like consumer camcorder, is a single chip camera. So all the colors go into one chip, it breaks them apart, and it does that. Higher end cameras at the time, three C C D cameras, they had three chips, one for each color. And I don't know the exact science behind this, so I could be entirely wrong. But basically, there's like a prism inside. So if you've looked at like, you know, what is it, Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd's album with the light coming through the prism and then splitting off. There's a prism inside here that breaks the light into three colors, and then each color goes into its own chip and gets processed that way, and then combined into a final image. So it basically just means you have better image quality, better colors, better low light performance. You have essentially the processing power for lack of a better term of three cameras in one. Um, whereas all the normal camcorders that we used at the time, you know, they just didn't have the same thing. And so that's what like a lot of professional video in the late 90s, early 2000s, or even throughout the the main the mid-90s looked like with three C C D cameras, probably even into the 80s, actually. I might be misspeaking on some of my dates. So, anyway, the reason I bring this up is not just to bore you with technical details on cameras, but it's when the XL1 came out, it was a very big deal for a very specific reason. Being, and if you can hear this because I'm trying to make this an audio experience, aside from me bumping the mic, what you actually heard was me taking off the lens from the camera. And there is a very, very, very, very tiny, I don't know if you would, I guess it's a sensor up in there. I mean, it's it's looks like the the size of like a smartphone sensor or something. And then the lens that comes with the camera is a actually a really nice broadcast lens. This one is 5.5 millimeters to 88 millimeters, f1.6 to 2.6. Um, and it's got cool stuff like a built-in ND filter, built-in stabilization, autofocus. It's a really, it's a high quality, like I guess that's not translating to audio very well, but it's a high quality like metal lens. And but that's it right there. The fact that I can change lenses. This was a not hundred thousand dollar camera or fifty thousand dollar camera that lets you change lenses on it, which is absolutely insane. And it was the first time that Canon had, well, I thought it was the first time that Canon had done something like that. And it was really the first time that they they presented it to the professional market that way. And so one of the big marketing campaigns for the XL1 was that they actually used it to film a commercial for one of their other like consumer cameras, and then they did a whole behind-the-scenes video of this, and it was on the Canon website and like early internet video that looked terrible. But I remember trying to watch it many times because it it blew my mind to think that potentially it was like a $5,000-ish dollar camera, which was way more money than I would ever have as a kid, but it felt like it was within the realm of possibility. Like, you know, if I saved up birthday and Christmas money, I could end up with one or two hundred dollars. And then if I like did odd jobs and worked, I'm talking about being like 13, 14 years old, did odd jobs like working yard work, that kind of stuff, you know, I could earn a hundred dollars, fifty dollars a month, something like that. So it's like the calculations of okay, how do I get to 5,000 so I can get this camera? Because I wanted to have that legit camera, the Canon XL1. It became my dream thing. And it's it was right at the time that like we got the internet at home. So like dial up internet so I could go to Canon's website and check it out, and actually printed out a picture of the XL1 on our whatever like that HP desk jet printer was that everybody had. Like it just came with every computer in the world in the 90s. Uh, printed out a picture of this camera on that and put it on the bulletin board that I had in my bedroom, and that was there. I think I put that up in middle school, and it was there basically like all through high school. And I it was just like I guess it sounds like manifest, like what is it, like the secret, you know? You put up the thing, your vision board, and all that stuff. But it was really just like I was so fascinated by this camera, and I knew I could never have one, and it wasn't the kind of thing that they just had on display in stores so you could go see it. So I never actually got to use one or touch one or anything, and it just was like this object of like obsession that I wanted so badly, and I never got one, and I never got to use one, and then time went on, things changed, these cameras became obsolete. Well, actually, I'm gonna pause right there on that story and take you back to 2012. Actually, I'm gonna take you back a little further to the year 2000. So the XL1 is my camera of you know, of desire. At the time, I actually had a version of this camera here. So this that I'm holding uh is a Sony F35, which is an 8mm handicam from 1989. I don't have the exact one. I honestly like it, it got lost to the ages. Um, but my parents had a Sony handicam just like this that was borrowed from my grandparents, and this was the first camera that I ever saw, that I ever saw video from that I ever used. It was the one they used to like film my third birthday party or you know, whatever, and to take on family vacations. And it was the first time I remember four years old, it was this camera was the camera that I got to hold and like look through and press record on and walk around the house and and you know, take videos and then play those videos back on a TV that day. And that was the thing that that like changed everything. And I remember we were on a trip once staying at a hotel, and there was a balcony, and my dad took the camera and went over the balcony and was just using the crazy slow zoom that's on the camera, and was just zooming in so the camera was going down towards the ground, and he was going like, Oh, I'm falling, I'm falling. And I freaked out, thought he was falling, and he's like, No, no, no. And then he played it back on the TV and was like, see, it's like a joke, like a special effect. And I was like, oh. So then every time I had a camera, I did the like I'm falling zoom joke because I thought it was the funniest thing in the world. But that was the first time I was like, Oh, it's not even just about pointing and showing what you're what you have, you can actually do like creative stuff with these cameras. And and this camera, too, specifically was really good for stop motion. So all through like elementary school, middle school, this was the camera that my friends and I used to make movies. Unfortunately, that one is I don't know what happened to it, but I found I have a video on my YouTube channel about this. In 2017, I found one on eBay, and it was brand new, like still in the box from 1989. So I did an early, early, early YouTube video where I got the box and I unboxed it, and it's crazy because it's in perfect shape. Like this camera was never used, it still has all the stickers on it. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. It was just in the box and like it just sat there for you know almost 30 years and never got used. And I'm sure parts went bad inside of it or just sort of disconnected and rotted away, and it just it powered on, but it you can't see any images. You could zoom and you could see the lens zooming, so it's trying to do stuff, but you can't get either through the viewfinder or the output, like any video output. So kind of a bummer because I really wanted to like see that. But having the camera and just being able to like hold it and feel it brings back so many memories to me. Because I don't know if you remember the the 90s and and probably the 80s too. Camcorders were so huge, like people would just film stuff for long periods of time. It wasn't like we're now you take out your phone, you push record for a few seconds and you stop. It was like, I have a 60-minute tape, I'm going to film for 60 minutes, and I don't know what I'm filming. It's literally just like walking around, it's like very low-level vlogging of just this is what I'm doing, this is where we're at. I'm gonna film the entire boat ride that we're on or whatever, bus ride. And that was just such a thing. Everyone having like their camcorder bag and just always having a camera ready to go, and like every you know, camcorder dad had like their little camera kit for every family event and stuff, and I just absolutely love that stuff, and it's very, very near and dear to me. And so being able to just sort of get this little artifact, even though it's not the exact one, was really, really cool. And the reason I did that on eBay was because prior to that, I had bought another camera on eBay in 2012, and this is where I'm talking about the year 2000. So this Sony F-35, which the one we had was, you know, it was showing its age, it had been used on a lot of vacations, a lot of trips. It belonged to my grandpa and then to my parents, and it and then to me, and it was just using showing its age, and so it it didn't work that well anymore. And I always wanted a new camera. And there was um in August of 2000, I have a weird memory for this stuff. In August of the year 2000, uh, I was there was like a lot of weird things just sort of happening that I was dealing with that were very stressful and very frustrating, and like it was it was really tough. And my mom felt really bad for me. And we didn't have a lot of money, like she wasn't making a ton of money or anything. Uh, and I remember one day I came home and there was a box on the living room table that was a Sony camcorder box, and I recognized that box because I would like if I ever went to Walmart or Best Buy or whatever, I would like look at the not just the cameras on display, but the boxes on the shelves, and just like I memorized what the boxes looked like. I did the same thing as a kid with the original Nintendo Entertainment System, the NES. I had dreams where I was like getting the box and opening the box because I wanted a Nintendo so bad, and then I got one and it was great. Um, but anyway, my my mom had like this camera cost $350 at the time, which was a lot of money, like basically one of the most expensive things I owned, and she just felt bad. I was just about to start high school, like it was like the first week of high school, and she was just kind of like, you need a win. Like, here's a here's a camera, and I I loved it, and it became like my camera for everything. It was the best camera. It also has a flip-out screen, Sony camera with a flip-out screen from the year 2000. Come on. Uh, the image quality is not great on it. I can uh actually connect this so for those of you watching, you can see what I saw way back then. Um, but this is a this is a little Sony handy cam. If you're listening to this, it looks like every Sony handy cam. You can probably imagine a little camcorder that you you stick in, you know, your hand and you hold up and you point it at stuff, and that's that's pretty much that. And uh, if you're watching the video version, you can see footage from it right now. There's uh I do have a little wide angle adapter on there, so there's the there's me and beautiful, I don't know if it's 480p or 220 or something. Uh, but it's you know, video quality is not uh amazing, but this is what all of my movies, all of my projects, all of that stuff looked like back in the day. And it's uh it's really tough too because when you're editing with analog cameras like this, this is an eight millimeter camcorder. When you're editing with analog cameras like this, you're editing tape to tape. And so every time you you record something from one tape to another tape, you lose some quality. It's like generational quality loss. And if you're trying to do multiple cuts and then add in music, sometimes you're going back and forth multiple times, and then by the end, your the video you made is like you can't even tell what's on screen. And that's what most of my like movie projects looked like at the time because there was no computer editing, it wasn't a thing. What is it, non-linear video editing? But this, I mean, oh my god, I cannot tell you how much I loved this camera, and it was it just lived with me. I remember having it in my backpack at school. I remember um anytime I went anywhere, the camera was just with me. Anytime I ever did end up with like money, like if I had a little bit of birthday money or something, that's when I'd be like, I'm gonna buy a new battery, I'm gonna get more tapes, I'm gonna buy a little microphone for it. The wide angle lens adapter. Like it's oh my gosh. Um, I cannot tell you the positive like experiences I had with this camera. Sorry I keep bumping into the microphone. I'm just very, very excited. But this thing, it's just, I mean, it's the image quality is not amazing, but in terms of camera, it just meant a lot to me. But this is a frustrating thing that I think some people don't remember. Or maybe you remember it, but especially like my I remember my high school students had no understanding of this because the retro aesthetic, quote unquote, the VHS filter is very popular now, like things that look like that. Even buying up old cameras is popular because they they have that certain look to them and people think that it's really cool. And I get that, but when that's the only option you have, when I have the option to shoot in 4K on the Sony A7S3, and then if I want to, I can go into old analog 8mm stuff. That's really fun. When old analog 8mm is all that you have, and this is as good as things could possibly be. If you're watching the video, I am in my my studio with video lights, it's super bright in here. Like, this is the best filming environment, the best quality we're gonna get for this stuff, and this is pretty much, you know, this is as good as it's gonna get, and it's not it's not amazing. That's where something like the Canon XL1, which it's not even gonna, you'll see, it's not gonna compare to the Sony A7S3, but that's where it was like, oh my gosh, like I as a person can do broadcast quality stuff because now an individual can buy you can buy a Canon Rebel or a Sony A6400 or something for relatively cheap and have a camera that's gonna film incredible quality video that you could like literally put in a theater. It it really does depend on your skill behind the camera. Whereas no matter what you're doing with something like this, it's never gonna look good enough, you know, to put in a movie theater or or anything like that. It's not gonna be mistaken for professional quality stuff, but that doesn't mean it wasn't fun. Plus, it has night vision, which is a weird thing, uh, and it's super cool. And I love this camera very, very much, and I used it a lot. And then this is this is a sad part of the story. In 2005, so five years after I got the camera, um, one of my friends asked, this was like a year out of high school. I graduated high school in 2004. So 2005, one of my friends asked if he could borrow my camera to film a wedding. Um, just like not as like the actual photograph, like wedding filmmaker, but just friend was having a wedding, was like, hey, take video at the wedding, okay. Um, and this is a thing where I didn't want to loan out my camera because that was like my camera. That's my thing, it's my sidekick. And I didn't want to loan it out, but I wasn't using it and I wasn't planning to use it, so I felt guilty. Like, well, why should I not loan it out? Wouldn't that be like wrong of me and selfish and greedy of me to say no, you can't use this, and then it just sits in a bag and isn't getting used when it someone could be benefiting from it. Um, the same thing happens with scheduling, and I've I have a YouTube video all about this, but I've noticed that I and other people can often feel like if someone says, Hey, are you available to do something at this day and this time, and you look at your calendar and there's nothing there, you can almost feel obligated to say, Yes, I'm available. When that's not even the case. Because even for most people, a blank day on your calendar, like if you look at whether you keep a paper calendar or a digital calendar and you see a blank day on there, it doesn't mean sitting on the couch and doing nothing. It probably still means a full workday, but just with no specific meetings or appointments or things. And Also, sitting on the couch and doing nothing is an important thing to do, or you know, time away from stuff, unscheduled time is an important thing. But for so long, I felt like if somebody asked me to do something and I was available on that time, I had to say yes because otherwise it was selfish or greedy. And that's not the case. So I know we're talking about old retro cameras right now, but I'm here to tell you like you don't have to feel obligated to do those things. And in my case, I had a friend who asked to use my camera, and I felt obligated because I wasn't planning to use it. So I said, okay, and I let him use the camera. And then it was, you know, like a week later or whatever, I was like, hey, can I get my camera back? And he was very being very like, oh yeah, uh, I just, you know, I left it at the groom's house, so we'll go pick it up and I'll get it back. It was very like, why aren't you just giving me my camera? Uh well, it turns out, and I didn't know this at the time, uh, because I can be a naive person sometimes, but it turns out my friend had a drug problem, a very serious drug problem, and drugs are expensive, and so he sold my camera for drugs, and I never saw it again. And that was devastating to me because that was uh my camera, which I liked, but also beyond that, because at that point we're talking 2005, an eight millimeter handy cam. Like, there were nicer cameras available, there were digital cameras and stuff, but it was my camera, it had a lot of sentimental value to me, like it I tr it lived with me for five years for half a decade, and it was given to me by my mom, who like really, really had to sacrifice and go out of her way to buy something like that, and to have that just like sold to some weirdo for drug money, like it really I know that happened like 16 years ago, but I still feel bad and sad about it, and it it sucked. So, anyway, I never got the camera back. However, years later in 2012, this is where the story, I know we're 24 minutes in and the story is starting. Uh, this in 2012, I went on eBay because I had all my old eight millimeter tapes. I had just moved into a new apartment, I had boxes that had all my old tapes and had no way to play them. I was thinking, like, oh, I should maybe I could find like an eight millimeter VCR or tape deck on eBay or something. And then I was like, oh, I'll just buy an old camera because they're all over eBay. I mean, they still are, but 10 years ago or nine years ago, they really were. And then I was like, oh, I could look up my camera. And then I looked up the Sony TRV37, and there were a number of them on eBay. I found one that was in like perfect working condition, perfect physical condition. I ordered it, it works great, and that's the camera that I'm holding right now, and the one that I've been showing footage from. So it's it's in the exact same condition as my actual camera, but it is not my actual camera because mine um was stole for drug money, uh, which is very frustrating. But anyway, having this was really cool. So I was able to use it to convert and play back tapes and then also just sort of have some fun with it. And I'm sure you've seen, you know, whether it's episodes of the couples table or even did a whole video about it. I've been incorporating these older cameras into streams and stuff lately just for fun. I know it does, trust me, it's not going to compare to the image quality of this, but there's there's a very tactile, fun thing about these cameras, and it makes me really happy, like, especially when you go on eBay and you can find all these cameras for relatively cheap. I think this was under a hundred dollars with like a battery and cords and charger and everything. You can find them for relatively cheap prices. And if you can get some use out of them, I think that's cool because a lot of times all this stuff is just gonna sit in a closet and rot, like my brand new old Sony camcorder that never even got taken out of a box, and by the time it did, it didn't work anymore because it had been so long. To me, that's kind of tragic. And so, all these things, if there's a way to use them or get something, some use out of them, I think I think that's a worthwhile thing. So I did that in 2012 and it worked out great, and I still have the camera. I've actually had this one twice as long as I've had my like my real one, quote unquote. Um, and then so that was in 2017, that's why I had the idea of like, oh, I bet I could go on eBay and find that other old camera, and I got that. And so that put it into my mind that eBay is an option to find like old things. Basically, you can recreate elements of your life, especially if it has to do with camcorders and retro video gear and stuff. You can find it for relatively affordable prices. That brings me back to the Canon XL1. Because the XL1, as I mentioned, when it came out and was my like main object of desire, was like $5,000. I think depending on what configuration, it could be anywhere from four to six thousand dollars. Um, and it's that was totally beyond anything I could ever afford. But recently, what maybe like two months ago, I went on eBay, looked up Canon XL1, and found this, which is the Canon XL1S. So this looks there's very little difference between the XL1 and the XL1S. Um, I think there's a few internal things, um, but this one came out in July of 2001, and I got it in July of 2021, so it was 20 years old, and instead of being $5,000, it was $300, and it was in great shape. There, it's not hard to find these on eBay, but it is hard to find them in good shape. Um, there's a lot of them for parts, there's a lot of them that are working, but they're really beat up. Mine is actually in very, very clean condition, and it's a cool-looking camera, so I'm really happy about that. Turns out it was from Georgia State University because it came with a bunch of these labels all over it that say, like, your tech fee at work. And then I looked it up and I realized what I think happened, because I would kind of expect cameras from a school, having worked at a school, to have a little bit more wear and tear on them. But what I think happened was that the school probably invested in video gear, like right as these were sort of becoming out of date. So I I would guess that even though this camera was released in 2001, they probably purchased this in like 2005 or so, like kind of in the later time of when it was being manufactured, because you know, a school just kind of orders like they don't necessarily know what the newest, latest, and greatest is. They just kind of order a bunch of gear. And that was right around the time when, you know, there were nicer digital cameras out there that got better image quality. And so there probably weren't a lot of students who were in their media program going to check out a giant camera that was like possibly confusing to use when they could just use something small and simple that got better image quality. And so I have a feeling they didn't actually use these very much because there was basically just dust and stuff on them, but no real wear and tear, or on it, I should say. I can tell it's been used, like there's there's mounts where the tripod's been used, and there's there's not really any scratches or anything. Um, but it worked out great, and it works great, and I love it, and it's amazing. And I have a Canon XL1, and I was so excited about that. I had never even gotten to hold one before, and now I had one of my own that was in like perfect working condition. It's uh it's pretty amazing. So I'm gonna plug this camera in. If you're uh if you're watching the video version, it's got this big old crank on the side of it. This is where you change the functions. You can hear it like chunk chunk. There we go. I turned it on there. It takes tape, so you can hear the tape. It works, like I said, perfectly. And it came in this crazy big metal case with like all these accessories, um, batteries, charger, like it's it's in perfect shape. And I love this camera, and it's so ergonomically like awesome. And the image quality, not the Sony a7 S3, but also um better than I think I might have the ND filter on here, but it's better than the uh I do have the ND filter on, better than the Sony handicam. Like it really looks like uh if you watch an old 90s documentary or something, this is it it has that same look. There's significantly more clarity, significantly more detail. If I can point it to me, the lens doesn't go super wide. Um, but it's a really, really fun camera. It has like this big giant lens, this big lens hood on it. It's it's one that you can carry on your shoulder and feels super pro. And it's really fun. Like, legitimately, um, I got this camera and I've been playing around with it. I've been taking it like taking it places and using it. It's not just a joke to like get the old camera and go like, oh look, it's an old camera, it's not as nice as the new camera. Like, legitimately, this is one of my cameras now, and it's so fun, it's so cool to have something like this. And it makes me glad to know that this was sitting, you know, this had been sitting in storage for so long, and now like it's being taken outside and being used for stuff, and I I want to make a whole YouTube video about it. So that's this is where my recent I have a problem, and that's what this episode is all about is me coming clean about my retro camera addiction. So I got this camera in July, and I was like, this is amazing. I have an XL1, it's excellent for anyone, and it's Canon's first interchangeable lens, like non-insane movie studio camera. So it's really the precursor to like the current. There's two things you can see from this camera in modern Canon cameras. Canon makes camcorders now, like they just came out with, I think it's like the FXF06, something like that, 706, 607. Um this you can definitely tell is kind of related to those, but you can also tell there's a lot of things that come from this camera and go into Canon's current cinema series, like the C300, 200, 500. Um, a lot of that stuff, like this was sort of where basic elements of those started coming together and how a camera like that should work that has an interchangeable lens, professional capabilities, all that kind of stuff. And to me, that's fascinating. So I want to make a video on that. I turned it off. But then I learned that it turns out this was not actually the first interchangeable lens camcorder. There was another one. The XL1 came out in 1998, but in 1989, Canon released the L one. So there's the XL one, and then there's the L one, which is a completely bizarre-looking camera. Um it's it's very bizarre, and I want to be clear that like I'm not hating on this camera. It's just very unusual. This is the world's first interchangeable lens camcorder, and you can tell because it's like multiple cameras in one. At the time that this came out, the L1, Canon had been making cameras for a really long time, like still cameras, and they'd been making camcorders, but they never made a camcorder that could have a changeable lens. And they didn't really know how to appeal to both of those like audiences. So there's a lot of it, like you it has a handle on the side, and you can hold it like a normal camcorder, but it also has a handle kind of on the back, and you can hold it like a an SLR camera that people would have been used to at the time. So if you're somebody who's used to changing lenses, it kind of feels like that. But if you're somebody who's used to camcorders, it also kind of feels like that. What that means though is ergonomically, it's very, very strange. And it has like there are three record buttons like right next to each other. There's a rocker zoom switch, there's multiple hot shoes, but you also have like you can adjust left and right audio independently. There's buttons and doors just everywhere on this thing. It's just like caked in buttons. Um, but it has some cool things, it has some like nifty effects, it just has a black and white viewfinder. Um, and so anyway, I found out this camera exists, and I'm making my video about the XL1, which is not out yet at the time of recording. That's a still very much a work in progress. I don't know if that thing's ever gonna get done. But I wanted to not just be able to put a picture up on screen and be like, well, here's the XL1, it's amazing, but also there's, you know, boop, here's a picture of this other camera. And I thought, you know what, it'd be really fun to like go on eBay and see if I can find one. It turns out there was something with these cameras, probably just because they were the first of their kind and they're like late 80s technology. There's basically none listed as working anywhere. Um, and there's there's an L2, and there's there's slightly slight variations of it, but they're all pretty much listed as for parts only. And I was like, that's okay. I don't need a working camera, I just want to be able to like show that what it looks like and how it feels in the hand and how it compares to the XL1 and everything. And so I found one for um $40. And it comes with a lens, which is like a really cool, it's a weird lens mount, it's a CL lens mount. Uh but this is an 8 to 120 millimeter f1.4 lens. It's a very bizarre lens, but it's a solid metal lens. I bet you can hear this. Like it's a it's a solid metal, like L series Canon lens, uh, but the camera itself is very plasticky feeling. So it's it's interesting. Like there's a lot, there's a lot that's interesting about this camera. So anyway, I bought it as parts and I got it, and I thought that's pretty cool. And what I decided to do, it didn't come with a battery or anything, but I decided to go on eBay and look for a battery charger, which I found for like 20 bucks and just a little battery for it, and connected those, and then I pressed the power button, and much to my surprise, it turned on. Like it actually turned on. And if you're wondering what this camera looks like, if you remember the beginning of Titanic, Bill Paxton, I get Bill Paxton and Bill Pullman mixed up. Bill Paxton is in their like underwater watercraft, and he has he's holding up a camera and he's like vlogging. He's like filming himself and he's pointing a camera out the window. I always thought that was a really cool camera and I didn't know what it was. It's this camera, it has a different lens on it, has like a wider lens on it, but it's this camera. And as a kid, I saw that and I thought it was a really cool looking, like, what is that, Crazy Pro camera? And I never knew what it was. Turns out it's this one. Oops, I I'm so sorry. I keep buffing the microphone. So anyway, it it it powers on, and I thought that was kind of amazing. I can push the eject thing. You can hear it open up. It even opens up, it will take a tape. Now, as something that's being listed for parts only, the fact that I can power it up and even put a tape and it loads the tape into it is kind of amazing. The downside is there's an issue with the camera where it cannot tell that a lens is attached. And so what that means is in the viewfinder, it's just constantly flashing lens, lens, lens. And even though the lens is attached, it like doesn't sh it doesn't open the aperture of the lens to see through it, and you don't get any images. But if you take the lens off, you can see flashes of light in the sensor. So that told me the camera was picking up information, it just it for some reason is not telling it's not registering that there's a lens attached. And I've cleaned all of the contacts in the camera, cleaned all of the contacts in the lens, and still nothing. It still says the lens error, and you know, it wasn't even supposed to turn on, so that was kind of a bummer. But then I had an idea. So one of the things that I got with my Canon XL1 is a little adapter that lets you use EF lenses with the XL1 because it does not take EF lenses, it takes um XL lenses, which Canon only made like three of ever. And they made this little adapter that you put on, kind of how Canon uses the RF to EF adapter now. They made one of those, and now you can put your Canon EF lenses on the XL1, which is super cool. Turns out that back in 1990, I forget what year this came out. We'll say 1991, Canon made the same adapter originally for the L1. So the L1, in so many ways, is the predecessor of the XL1, which means it's also the predecessor of Canon's modern camcorders, of their cinema series cameras. Like, there's as sort of like unknown and unheard of as this is in camera history world, it's really an important thing. Now it's not a three-chip camera, it's a single chip, it's just an eight millimeter camera. So the image quality, even with interchangeable lenses, is not where the XL1 is. However, you can take this adapter, which again, talking about being a very visual show today, this adapter is the weirdest looking thing. If you've used Canon's EF to RF adapter, it's just a little black circle. It just sort of makes your lens look a little longer. This looks like I don't really know what this looks like. It's like it's like the size of a Polaroid picture. And it's it's sort of like big and beige plastic, and it has the lens mount, but it also just has this big thing on the side, which is very strange because the camcorder itself has like a big handle on the side. So to put this on, you have to like, it's sort of awkward to even you're like putting a square peg into a round hole almost as you're attaching this, and you click it on, and now this already ergonomically strange camera is even more baffling because you have this giant square thing that's just sticking out the side of it. But the cool thing about this adapter though, this is again, eBay has been great. Um, I they're not hard to find, but I think they're kind of rarer items because a lot of them were between $200 and $350. And I got this one for $35, and it came literally in the box, and it even has the price tag from the original camera shop of $269 back in the early 90s. I don't know if it has a manufactured date, but it came with everything, like a little case, um, all the instruction manuals. Like it's basically brand new, but old. I've been lucking out so much on eBay lately, it's been amazing. So now what I can do is I can take something like my Sigma 24mm 1.4. This is the main lens I use with my Canon cameras, and I can connect that to the L1, which is now completely bizarre looking because you have this very unique camera body with this very weird, not ergonomically friendly adapter with a modern Canon lens on it. And then what happened was when I turned it on, it still gives me the lens error. It still says, like, nope, nothing's connected, not gonna work. However, it actually outputs an image. So I think that's this one. Look at that. If you're watching the video version, you're now looking at the Canon L1 with the Sigma 24mm 1.4, and everything is extremely close up. But if I zoom in on items in my shelf over here, it's kind of interesting because the Sigma lens is at f1.4 right now, and the image quality is actually not terrible. Like there's some weird flickering, some weird light haze stuff. Um, but the image quality itself is is not bad at all. Like it could legitimately be usable on like a stream or something. You know, it looks like an old video camera, but I think it's maybe some of the best imagery we've seen today on this show. It's kind of amazing, actually. And you have this super shallow depth of field. Now, the problem with this is the camera doesn't know that there's a lens attached, so I can't actually change any of the settings in here, which means if I want to change the lens aperture, I need to put it on one of my other cameras, change the aperture, and put it back. And it also means like for some reason I can't do um it just I can't do like camera exposure and stuff, it's just like not working. So the camera's not fully functional, but if I press record, it actually does record stuff. And if I play it back, it's very fuzzy. So I think I need to go in and clean out the heads in here, and I think I could actually record stuff with it, but I can still get the output, which is shockingly clear, and there's even these weird like digital effects that you can go through, um, which are like very, very interesting. So I don't know. This one's called Art Freeze, which it's just it's like very, very cheesy, cheesy effects. And I think they had one in here I was playing with it. It was called they have like strobing slow motion effects, they had um must be the overlap one. They have one where it's like a weird gradient, slow cross-dissolve kind of thing. And let's see if I can show this what I'm talking about. Maybe not. Well, it was very very fun to play with, but I'm not doing it now. But anyway, if you're watching the video version, you can kind of see it's really neat to me that a thing that was not supposed to work at all actually does work. So I definitely got my $40 worth here. But also beyond that, the fact that it looks pretty decent when using a good lens really shows you how important a lens is when it comes to like your camera and stuff. And it's it's it's just such a fun, I don't know, I've been having Having so much fun with these, and this is a little like piece of history that I didn't even know about. And it oh wait, what did I do? I don't know what I'm doing. This is a weird piece of history that I didn't even know about, and I'm really happy though, that now I have it, it's powered up, it has a tape inside, it will record. I just need to clean out the heads, and I think I can actually get a recording, like a usable image here, uh, which is amazing. I would love to fix the lens problem so that it can register the lens it comes with, and I can use the zoom feature and everything. But still, the fact that this wasn't supposed to be used at all is really cool. And I think it's really neat that this camera that who knows where this thing had been sitting for so long, um probably not expecting to ever be used again until someone just decided, like, I don't know, put this on eBay, I want to clear out some junk over here. And then I bought it, and now it's like it's literally not only being its image being used, but it's being like broadcast on a podcast, and like it, I don't know, it just makes me feel good when things can kind of have a little more life into them rather than just rotting away forever. So that was a very unexpected detour because I was just like, I'm gonna get the XL1 and it's gonna be fun, and it was, and then it led me down this crazy rabbit hole of the L1. And that was, you know, I don't know when that must have been three weeks after I got the XL1. But my story doesn't end there. Um as I'm working on my XL1 video, it is very cool to be able to show it with like the Sony A7S3 and take all these beautiful, beautiful product shots of like this really cool, you know, piece of camera history and everything, and and that's really neat, and it's really cool to be able to use the camera to to show you know what footage looked like from this camera. But it feels weird to me that that it's kind of you're either only seeing what is essentially analog footage from the XL1, or you're seeing 4K footage from the Sony. And so I started thinking like, well, I wish I had a camera that I could film the XL1 with so that way the whole video, or at least a lot of the video, can kind of have this feel of like I want to use these cameras for something, and so I thought like I could get a second XL1, but that seems sort of unnecessary, and I don't think I'm gonna have the luck of finding something as beautiful as this, as perfect condition. So then I thought Canon actually came out with an XL2, and I looked into those, but some of them are kind of expensive, like seven or eight hundred dollars, and sometimes there are ones that are brand new, they're like literally still in the box, but they're like thirteen hundred dollars. And then I remembered Canon had another camera, which I only ever got to use as a kid in high school once, which is the GL2. I also had the GL1, and the cool thing is, if you notice, there's the L1, XL1, GL2, the L camera, they're all like kind of related in a way. And so the GL2 is the baby brother to the XL1S, which I know it sounds weird because there's a two and whatever, but um the GL2 came out in 2002. There was a GL1, which came out the XL1, and basically what it is is it's another three-chip camcorder, because if you can see right there on the side, they're very proud of this. It says three C C D because that's a big deal. So, image quality-wise, in terms of sensor, the XL1 and the GL2 uh should be the same. The difference is the XL1 has the interchangeable lens and a lot more like in-out ports, audio controls, physical buttons for everything. It's pretty amazing. The GL2 has very has far fewer buttons and no interchangeable lens, but it's also like if you're somebody who did like skate videos back in the day, or you're familiar with the Sony VX1000 or anything, it's that style of camcorder where it's it's got a handle on top with a microphone, it has a flip-out screen that pops out, and it's a very good little like run and gun camera. You know, lots of schools use these. That's why my high school had it, because they're good for little like broadcast things, but even like you know, some TV stations would use them for um not a lot, but maybe for some of like their smaller stations or you know, smaller events, they'd use them for photojournalism stuff. They're very, very easy to use camcorders. And so I thought, like, well, you know what? It'd be kind of cool to like complete this little series and have the XL1 and the GL and the L1, and then I could use the GL2 to film the XL1. It's not gonna look exactly the same as the XL1, but it's gonna look pretty close and it's gonna help the video have that feeling. So I went on eBay. This is all sponsored by eBay, not really. So I went on eBay and I looked up GL2. There's a bunch of them, a bunch of them are broken, a bunch of them are dirty, but I found one that was it like it was a sea of accessories. It was just like every possible thing you could buy for the GL2, and it was um, I think it was $300. And basically what it was was the person, I think they were a lawyer, they said that they bought this camera for $2,000 back when it was new or back when it was current, and then they only ever used it once for a deposition, and then it's been sitting in a closet basically ever since, and now they were selling it. And so I thought, whoa, hit a button. I thought that was awesome because a deposition is a very boring, uninteresting thing, and that means that to film a deposition, you're basically just setting up a camera in an office, or maybe in a courtroom or something, and then you you're just filming somebody talking for a while. Sorry, I was reaching over and plugging it in. Um, so that means the camera was in like perfect shape. It came with all the accessories, even the instruction books and the photos were in like absolutely perfect shape. But the thing that really gave it away to me was on the bottom, um, there were no marks around the tripod hole. It only takes a few times of putting a camera on a tripod for there to be marks on the bottom, and there were none. In this weird reflective light on the video right now, you can kind of see a few scratch marks. And those are actually from me because I've been using this camera a lot. So prior to that, it didn't have any, and I'm not abusing it or anything. It's just like literally, especially older camcorders like this that have sort of plastic bottoms. If you put it on a tripod like three or four times, you're probably going to start to notice some markings from the tripod on there. And so this was a really fun little like I never thought that I would have one of these. I did get to use one in high school and I thought it was super cool. And let's see if I turn it on. And of course, because it was taken care of so well, um, and it was also it meant a lot to me. It was like shipped to me in such like carefully, it was so carefully packaged, and it had like handwritten notes on the box that were like super fragile. Please do not drop that it just it made me feel like it was a camera that was really taken care of. And obviously, then I want to take care of it because the person had it for so long and they took care of it, and I feel like that's an important thing to do, but it also means that it works perfectly. It does take an SD card where you can put one megapixel photos on it. I posted one on Instagram a while ago, but otherwise it's a it's a mini DV taped camera and it works pretty darn well. So, here um, if you're watching the video version, this is footage from the GL2. It has a cra it has a crazy zoom. Um, with the digital zoom, you can go in like here. I'll zoom in on this thing that says live stream on my whiteboard over here. And I am you can see every little smudge, it's very pixelated, but you can see every little smudge. And if I zoom out, you can see that it's like it looks huge, but it's a hundred times zoom. So as I go back, it's really far away. It's crazy. The video has some very insane demonstrations of this zoom. This is a really fun little camera to use. The quality is great. I mean, you know, for what it is, I'm it's not the Sony A7S3, it's not the Canon EOSR, but the quality is really nice, it works really well, it's got a good stabilizer built in, it's really, really fun to use, has a built-in ND filter, it's got the flip-out screen, so I can I could vlog with it if I wanted to. And it actually did come with, which I don't have on it right now, but it came with the um the wide angle lens attachment. So it's like you can take the lens hood off, and there's a big wide angle lens, and then it's it's really, really cool. It's an awesome camera. So now I have this, which is a functional camera to use with my XL1 video, and then I have the XL1, I have all these. I need to stop. Ultimately, that's why I'm making this episode, is because I need to stop. I'm telling you about these things, and that I need to be done with it. I do not need to be buying any more old camcorders, but it's really fun to do this. I do, I have been kind of looking on eBay for uh like 2002 era ENG cameras, like big broadcast news cameras, because I used to work at a TV station from like 2001 to 2005-06-ish. And those are the cameras that we use, and they're like $40,000. And you can sometimes find them on eBay with a lens for like $700, $600. I can't justify spending that because you also then got to like find power and figure out how to get video out, but kind of having like a giant broadcast camera would be really cool. Um, so this has been my retro camera collection, but it's been so fun to like learn about these things and to kind of recapture what I don't want to do is like advocate or showcase, like, look, I'm going and buying a bunch of old crap online. Like, hey, everybody, become a hoarder. Because no, don't do that. But it's kind of neat. Everything from like the the model of camcorder that was the very first camera I ever used in my life and got me like in like I wouldn't be making this podcast or anything if I hadn't used this model of camera when I did, and that's kind of amazing. Um, to you know, being able to just remember, like, oh yeah, the Sony handy cam that I used to always have with me as a teenager and was like a huge part of my life, and I did all kinds of creative stuff with it, to you know, cameras that I never actually got to own when I was younger, but were like dreams of mine to own, to like just other cool ones from the era, and even then going back in like you know, history to find something like the L1 where I didn't even know it really existed, and it it's it's pretty crazy to me because I mean you could take this back further, but obviously just looking at the cameras we have here, you see the L1, which is completely bizarre, and then that led to the XL1, which then also led to the GL1 and two, which then you can still see that influence in cameras that are literally coming out this year, like right now, cameras that are available, you can see the influence from these things going all the way from the L1, where Canon didn't they were trying to figure out how the heck do you even put together an interchangeable lens camcorder to something like I don't know, the C70, like a current generation of those things where it's like they have the form factor and the features down pat like really, really well. I think that's awesome. So if you happen to stick around for 55 minutes of me talking about retro camcorders, thank you. I have nothing else to say other than thank you. I hope that was enjoyable to listen to. It's just something I've been thinking about because it's sort of like this obsession in the past two months kind of came out of nowhere and it was kicked off by the XL1. But it's been so fun. And I hope it was interesting more than anything. But also, if there is a takeaway, if there, if there could be a takeaway, especially if you're an audio video nerd like me, that probably means you had little pieces of equipment that were like on your dream list in your younger years. There's probably a chance you can find some of that stuff that's even possibly in working condition and maybe even in good or at least restorable condition. And then you can you can get and have some fun with it for a pretty cheap price. And kind of like I was saying, it makes me feel good to know that these super cool things aren't just sitting in a storage room somewhere, they're not just rotting away on a shelf, but they're being used and they're being appreciated, and like, you know, they're it's just kind of cool. Like their lifestyle is it, their lifestyle, I don't know what a camera's lifestyle is, but their life span has been extended just because, you know, of I'm enthusiastic about it. And so maybe if there's something like that that you're enthusiastic about, you might want to check it out and see and just sort of see what it's like. You could get, you know, you get your dream camera from childhood for a very cheap price right now, and then go check it out and have some fun with it. But next week, we're gonna we're gonna move into present day and the future and talk about current cameras because I do feel like if I'm going to be, I have no plans on more cameras. I'm just gonna say that right now. But I do feel like if money is being saved or invested in audio video gear, now I should focus more on current things that are going to like, you know, be very, very usable and deliver ultra high quality. So that's kind of what I want to dive into next week, specifically related to the Canon R3. Because as I mentioned at the top of the show, having been a Canon user for so long and now having also a Sony camera, not saying like the whole like camera wars switching thing, but just having a foot in both worlds, the R3 has been very interesting to me because it's the first big release from Canon since the R5 and the R6. And after the R5 and the R6 is when like the A7S3 came out and the ZVE10, like Sony kind of like pummeled the market for a year, and then Canon came out with a new camera. And I've been waiting for the R3, not because I want one, it's way beyond my budget, and it's really just not a camera for me. But there's a few key things about it that I think are clues about how Canon views approaches and maybe will continue to approach the video market. And so as a video person, it's I've been waiting for a few things and I finally got answers to those questions with the camera being released, and so I'd like to talk about that next week. So next week will probably be another camera, camera heavy episode, camera talk episode. But I hope you like that. I know you know there's a lot of camera nerds here who listen. And even if you're not a camera nerd, I hope it's just enjoyable. Sometimes I listen to stuff that I, you know, it's not relevant to me, but I just enjoy it. So if I could do that for you, that would be amazing. And if you have thoughts, you can always send me an email uh via it could be a text, it can be a voice, it can be a video thing to tom at enthusiasmproject.com, and I can include that in a future episode. And you can always connect with me, of course, at SodarnTom on social media and YouTube, or hi, my name is Tom.com, all that stuff. You know, you know where it is. The links are in the show notes, and you can check them out. So thank you so much for hanging out with me. I hope you had some fun, got to see some cool cameras and stuff, and I will see you next time.