25 years since my first home video recording! July 27, 2019

July 25, 1994, marked my introduction to video recording. My father Bill replaced a bulky Hitachi VHS camcorder with a compact JVC VHS-C camcorder. Thursday marked 25 years since that day.

The Hitachi had been used for much of the previous nine years to record me and my sister Lauren. Unfortunately, I didn’t like seeing myself on video. I still can’t bear to watch those early recordings. I wasn’t in control and appeared awkward. On two occasions, Dad convinced me that he wasn’t really recording me. The first time, he said the tape was a soap opera; the second time, he said it was a special camera that didn’t tape Michael (as I was known at the time) Chimeri. Of course, he really was recording me.

With this new JVC “Palmcorder,” I was in control. I went into greater detail about that first evening of recording – and the days and years to follow – on the 20th anniversary, but for this 25th anniversary post, I’ve re-rendered the video of the first 48 seconds in progressive mode with the original interlaced fields blended. Here it is:

Thursday evening, to mark the 25th anniversary, I retraced my steps, though not my camerawork. To match the original recording, I rendered the video with jump cuts instead of dissolves, except for where I edited out recording my sister’s car’s license plate. There were many more planes on their path toward JFK this time, which added two minutes to the recording time. Enjoy:

To follow up on the 20th anniversary post, my dad eventually bought a used Canon GL2 on eBay so I could use it for capturing MiniDV tapes for any home video conversion jobs that come along. So far, I used it for an extensive job in February with over 50 tapes dating from 2002 to 2012.

As for the JVC Everio, I only used it for another year and a half, upgrading to a Panasonic HC-V770 in December 2015. I bought a Takstar SGC-598 shotgun mic for it, which I feel has better sound quality than the onboard mic. Of course, a Rode mic would be even better, but the Takstar has worked for me. I’d eventually like to a get a prosumer fixed lens 4K camcorder, as opposed to Panasonic GH5 and GH5S, but I don’t use my current one that often, so it’s good enough for now.