Evolution of Film Cameras...

Miniature Univex 8mm Movie Camera, 1939

16 MM Keystone Surveillance Movie Camera

1940's Rervere Miniature Movie Camera

Abraham Zapruder 8MM JFK Assassination Camera, 1963

Bolex Laillard 16MM Movie Camera with Zoom Lens, 1970s

Zenit Covert Video Camera 1970's

As technology moved forward, portable video cameras became something that every television news organization wanted. In 1983, Sony came out with the first truly portable video camera. In 1984, Sony came out with what they called the HandyCam camcorder. This was a new 8 mm video format. One tape could record for two hours.As video surveillance developed, a High 8 video format developed which became the standard for shooting covert video footage. Pictured to the right is an older High Eight video camera made by Sony. It featured a 10X zoom, could take extended optical zoom lenses on the front of it and featured what was called "steady shot."

Sony was one of the first again to get into the digital camcorder market in a big way. Pictured on the left is my old Sony Digital HandyCam. Notice that Sony keep the slogan Handycam from this first small VHS camcorder they released. This early digital camcorder featured a 120 Zoom, and had what Sony called "Night Shot".As digital camcorder technology moved forward, they became better, smaller, cheaper and with more features. Digital camcorders have now morphed themselves into multi-functional cameras in which they can perform in many different ways.