Early present from a loving family

[Buteo]

No, it wasn't a certain King Parrot for those wondering, but something else nice that I didn't expect it at all, but really, really needed!

Murphy's law seems to have such control over my life that it's an honest surprise when a series of events come together and things actually turn out in my favour.
This time it was thanks to 4 key factors:
1) my loving family.
2) an urgent need to replace all my video recording & review media.
3) the Photography store having sale.
4) my approaching Birthday.

Background info:
I was going to use my computer to transfer all my home movies from 8mm tape to DVDs. (You know, those import, irreplacable things like our wedding video, baby's first steps, etc,). When I tried to use my Sony TR76 camcorder as a source player, I got nothing but a series of beeps from it. Repair costs would add up to more than I paid for the cam in the first place and while I would get a working camcorder back, the cam is very basic and the 8mm tape media it uses are obsolete and out of production.

I found a way around the faulty source player prob when I tried my Dad's 8mm camcorder, and whaddayaknow it worked!!....
but then my computer decided to chuck a monkey wrench at my ankles and offer me the choice of grabbing only the sound OR the video through the composite inputs, but not both together...
With more professional level equipment, it wouldn't have been a problem except this is 8mm tape & without a Timecode, I can't link the 2 back together properly!
(I have this scene on tape of Judy holding our daughter as a toddler just after she's had bath. LA is wrapped in a big towel while she watches herself. She tries talkin her babytalk, then she tries singing to her reflection in the mirror. When Daddy surprises her with the camera, she looks at her reflection, then back to me and laughs soooo sweetly it would bring tears to the dead. It's one of my most treasured memories... but the whole clip kinda loses a lot of it's appeal when the sound is outta sync like a badly dubbed Kung Fu movie!)

I thought of using a different capture method and so tried a couple of other devices - a Dazzle unit, then a Pinnacle Moviebox Plus external USB. However, the resulting video quality was so ridiculously low I gave up & returned each of them in turn.
When I called the local places that do video transfers, I was told that with the # of tapes I have to do, it would cost me around $2000!!!!!!

My final remaining option was a new camcorder with Analog to Digital pass-though conversion capability. I was thinking it would be another reason to upgrade my video equipment to a 1080i HiDef cam, but after researching dozens & dozens of cams, I was surprised to discover there's only one camera left on the market that can do what I need.

Anyway, my parents decided to do me a huge favour (while saving some $$ with the store's sale) and give me an early present. I'm now the proud owner of a Sony DCR-HC96.

No, it's not a 1080i model... but so what!
It's the top of Sony's line of MiniDV tape cams - a very nice unit with some good features:
16x9 touch screen LCD panel,
Super Steady Shot to reduce or eliminate shakes,
Night Shot for low light (2 Lux) recording,
Super Night Shot Plus for no light (0 Lux) recording,
4x3 or 16x9 mode,
3 MegaPixel stills.

Gracie so nicely posed to provide an example of the still pic feature. Works pretty good I'd say.

I'm still reading through the manual & experimenting...
(See ladies, some of us guys actually DO read the manuals)
Once I've figured out how to use the different features, I'll move on to doing all that video transferring.....
gee, there's only 56hrs of tape to do.

[catschair]

How cool! Miss Gracie looks lovely, as well.

[jimpierce7]

sweet!!!! Good picture too!!

[ROYJOY]

yea, thats all greek to me. good luck though. hope you dont loose any of those precious memories.

[Buteo]

Originally Posted by ROYJOY

yea, thats all greek to me. good luck though. hope you dont loose any of those precious memories.

Not that I can speak or read greek, but I've got a pretty good grasp of english and video & camera technology - if ya tell me what parts of my post have escaped your understanding, I might be able to translate them for ya....

[Buteo]

Well I got some of the tapes transferred over!
Just in case anyone here wanted to see that little clip of baby LA giggling.....

HERE IT IS!

Isn't that cute?
I think so!