A lot of people buy a used camcorder for one reason: there's a box of tapes in the closet and nothing left in the house that plays them. That's a good reason to buy one, as long as you buy the right one. The tape decides which machines can play it, and so does the TV system it was recorded in. Get both right and almost any working camera of the right kind will do. Get either wrong and the camera is no use to you, however good it is.
First, identify the tape
The cassette usually says what it is on the label or the shell. These are the ones you'll meet.
- Video8 and Hi8: small 8mm cassettes. Hi8 tapes say Hi8 on them; plain ones are Video8, sometimes labeled 8mm or standard 8.
- Digital8: recorded on the same Hi8 or Video8 cassettes, so the cassette alone won't tell you. If the tape came from a Sony camera labeled Digital8, it's a Digital8 recording.
- MiniDV: small cassettes marked DV or Mini DV.
- VHS-C and S-VHS-C: compact versions of a VHS tape, marked VHS-C or S-VHS-C.
- Full-size VHS: the ordinary home video tape. Some early camcorders, like the RCA CC421, recorded straight onto these.
Video8 and Hi8 tapes
Any Hi8 camera plays both Video8 and Hi8 tapes. A camera that records only Video8 usually can't play Hi8, so if you have even one Hi8 tape, buy a Hi8 camera. The Sony CCD-TRV128, one of the last analog Handycams, plays both, as do the older Hi8 models in our Hi8 and Video8 section.
Many Sony Digital8 cameras also play analog Video8 and Hi8 tapes, and that's often the better buy for an archive. Sony's manual for the DCR-TRV120 says that when it plays an analog tape it sends the picture out of the DV jack as digital, so the tape can go into a computer over FireWire. The first Digital8 cameras from 1999, like the DCR-TRV310, already played analog tapes. But several later ones, including the DCR-TRV250, TRV260 and TRV280, can't play analog tapes at all, so check the model before you buy.
Digital8 tapes
A Digital8 recording needs a Digital8 camera. An analog Hi8 or Video8 camera can't play it, even though the cassette fits. Sony adds a warning about tapes recorded in Digital8 on a standard 8mm (Video8) cassette: play them back on the camera that recorded them, because they may show mosaic noise on another camera. Any working Digital8 model from our Digital8 section is the place to start.
MiniDV tapes
MiniDV tapes play on any MiniDV camera or deck of the same TV system, with one catch. Sony warns that a tape recorded in LP mode may show mosaic noise or broken sound on a different camera or deck. If your tapes are LP, the same model that made them is the safest player. A MiniDV camera with a working FireWire port, like the Sony DCR-TRV27, also lets you copy the tapes to a computer as exact digital files.
VHS-C and S-VHS-C tapes
VHS-C is the easy one. The tape inside is ordinary VHS, so with a VHS-C adapter cassette it plays in a regular VHS deck. A VHS-C camcorder plays it too, but if you have a working VHS deck, the adapter may be all you need. S-VHS-C is pickier. A standard VHS deck can't play an S-VHS recording properly, so you need an S-VHS deck, a deck with S-VHS quasi playback (which shows it at VHS quality), or an S-VHS-C camcorder.
NTSC or PAL
This is where people go wrong. TV systems differ by country. The US, Canada, Mexico and Japan used NTSC. The UK, most of Europe, Australia and China used PAL. Brazil and Argentina used their own PAL variants, and France and Russia used SECAM. A tape plays properly only on a machine of the same system. Sony's NTSC manuals say an NTSC camera's playback needs an NTSC TV, and Wikipedia notes that on incompatible equipment a tape plays, if at all, in black and white or with a rolling picture.
So if your family's tapes were recorded in Europe, Australia or the UK, you need a PAL camera. Sony's PAL model numbers end in E, like the DCR-TRV27E. We cover a few PAL models for exactly this reason, like the Sharp VL-E660S ViewCam. One more wrinkle: a PAL camera's screen will show the picture, but to watch it on a US TV you'd need a multi-system TV. For copying to a computer it matters less, because DV handles both systems and many capture devices take PAL too.
Power is the easy part. The Sony AC adapters we checked are rated for 100 or 110 up to 240 volts, so a foreign camera works in a US outlet with a plug adapter.
Look after the tapes first
Old tapes are more fragile than the cameras. The Library of Congress warns that analog videotape wears every time it plays and can become unplayable, and the Council on Library and Information Resources notes that a deteriorating tape can shed its binder onto the heads and clog them. It also warns against home remedies like baking tapes, which can do more harm than good on video formats.
So test any new-to-you camera with a blank or an unimportant tape first. If the picture is clean and the tape ejects without trouble, move on to the family tapes, and capture each one once, at the best quality you can, rather than watching it over and over. Store the originals cool, dry and on edge. If a camera starts chewing a tape or the picture breaks up, stop at once. Our used camcorder checklist covers what to test, and getting footage off a camcorder covers capture.
If you just want the tapes digitized
A camera isn't the only route. If you have a handful of tapes and no interest in shooting, a transfer service may make more sense than buying, testing and reselling a camera. But if you have a big archive, want control over the quality, or want to shoot new footage too, a working camera of the right format pays its way. Browse every model by tape format and TV system in the catalog.
