Sony U matic?
Hello all- I just found a place that is GIVING away Sony Umatic players and recorders. My question is, what use are they? Is Umatic still being used? Thanks
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Giving away is good. What model numbers? If they #2850's and 2860's they are good for boat anchors. If they are BVU's you got something worth a little. The 5000 and 7000 series are worth very little. The 800 and 900 series (BVU) are still used in many facilities today.
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Jeff- They are VP-7020 , and if you're interested, I'll post the place for you. The page say that they are "In servicable condition- the heads were checked before putting them in storage".
The reason I asked about them, is that I'm not familiar with Umatic. I assume that it is, or was, a high end format like digibeta and 3/4? |
Umatic is 3/4"
Fond memories of the BVU-110 so-called "portable" deck; about sixty pounds or so it felt, we had them at UT-Austin when I was in school. As undergrads we were privvy only to the very short six-foot cam-to-deck cables, try following your camera operator with a 110 slung around you on such a short leash without running him over. The graduate students rated the much more leisurely twenty-footers. Those were the days... |
U-Matic and 3/4 are the same thing in the early to mid 80's U-Matic SP was brought out (higher band width) and remains in use today. The 7000 series is regular 3/4 to the best of my memory. Not interested, but thanks for offering and posting the info.
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Thanks for filling me in on the older equipment. If it isn't DV, it's before my time or over my head...
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Hey!
I'm interested in the U-Matic decks. I have a lot of old legacy footage. Richard |
Richard- Here is the place
http://broadcast-usa.com/miami/ |
We had to get a 3/4" dub made a year or so ago for some TV station in a little town out in central Kansas, so some decks are still in use. Most dub houses still have at least one 3/4" deck, and I know of one large post house whose big agency clients still have 3/4" players. There are some things in the world that really should go away but don't.
Chris...my memories are of carrying the 110, plus a 3-tube camera with a battery that weighed as much as a DSR250, and an O'Connor 50 tripod, by myself, up and down hills, shooting exteriors and interiors at industrial locations all over the country. I had back surgery about 10 years ago. If I did the same kind of shooting today, I could get better results with a PD150 with all the batteries and tapes I'd need for a week in one little Portabrace bag. I used to carry around a 24" X 36" case full of 3/4" tapes, enough of those 20 minute suckers for 3 or 4 days. Excess baggage charges on every flight I took then would have paid for my tape stock for a year these days. The good ol' days...weren't. |
I hear you guys. There's precious little to reminisce about fondly when it comes to video technology. For me, starting with the 1/2 black and white Sony Portapaks, through the 2-piece VHS consumer and industrial setups and up to a BVU-110 3/4" recorder banging around your waist, the two piece systems were inferior in every way to today's DV gear--especially ergonomically! And think about the difficulties of shooting with tubes versus chips--those who came into this with the DV wave, imagine having to worry about pointing your camera at a bright light or glint and permanently burning the tubes (requiring hours of "burning out" if you were lucky, or expensive service if you weren't). I left a camera on the ground for 5 minutes once, not realizing it was pointed at a chrome car bumper and thus photographing a glint from the sun. Picked it up and discovered a big nasty burn in the image that never went away. UGH!
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Thanks for the lead guys. I just ordered one.
Richard |
How does one get the video onto a Umatic? Is it RCA, S-video, or something even more archaic and difficult? I realize there is more out there than just firewire, more than I will ever use. Also, how expensive are the 3/4 tapes?
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Depends on the deck, some have 26 pin input, all have bnc composite, and some have S video also. And they have a dub cable to go from one 3/4" deck to another.
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The decks they are giving away are rack-mount, and play only. They have already given out all the desk top models
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If they're players only, then there's not much you can do with them if you don't have a boat. Somebody might come along one day with a 3/4 tape and may want you to make a VHS dub or something.
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