this is a vhs-c video tape in 2003 despite being about 20 years old at the time
and an antiquated analog system it was still one of the most popular formats
used by camcorders at the time these tapes cost about five dollars each
and also in 2003 for one thousand dollars
you could get an entire digital dvd quality video camera that was actually slightly
smaller than a vhs-c videotape this is the panasonic d-snap camcorder model sv-av100
and yes it really is a fully functional dvd quality camcorder that was available in 2003
for one thousand dollars
some articles at the time over enthusiastically called it a credit card sized camcorder
but that would need to be an awfully tall stack of credit cards
and what's really revolutionary is the format it uses because at the time in 2003 sony's
smallest camcorders recorded onto micromv video tapes while this thing records onto sd cards
first a quick look at the features of this camcorder
many of which would remain uncommon on video cameras of its size for years to come first of all
10 times optical zoom with electronic image stabilization which actually works really well
a stereo microphone very uncommon feature on this size of camera flip out two and a half inch lcd
which also can be flipped around to face to front and notice here input source camera or
line that's right you can use this to do video capture from an external composite video source
and you notice these controls are at a weird 45 degree angle
that's because panasonic designed them to be used either when the camcorder is being
used vertically to record video or when it's positioned horizontally to play back video
and yes it even includes a remote control
on this side is where the battery goes it's a flat lithium-ion battery i have two of
these original panasonic batteries and they both hold a good charge
on the front there is a multi-function jack which serves as headphone output for live monitoring of
recording as well as listening to playback of clips you recorded an av input and an av
output there's the usb port and under this one is a dc power input for charging the
battery and speaking of the power supply it's about the same size as the camcorder itself
unfortunately there is no tripod mount but it has a nice flat surface on the bottom so
you can leave it with the lcd panel closed and use it to record you won't be able to
see what you're recording but it will still record even with the lcd closed
aside from only supporting a 4:3 aspect ratio because in 2003 very few people had widescreen tvs
the video and audio quality of this camcorder is equally as good if not
better than the standard definition camcorders that panasonic was selling as late as 2010.
i have to talk over this clip because i had music playing on my car radio when i
was recording it but i happened to see this bright yellow motor trike
on the highway so i pulled out the d snap and started recording it you can see even when i
zoomed it in to get a closer look the electronic image stabilization did an excellent job
if anybody can identify this motor trike please leave a comment telling me it's make and model
here's some indoor test footage from the panasonic d-snap camcorder recorded
under bright lighting and how about that for a very 1970s headphones box there's a sony handycam
i used to record the first part of this video i think this camcorder probably gives it a run for
its money in terms of video and audio quality even though the handycam is several years newer
speaking of sony it wasn't until 2006 that they finally saw the light and released their first
camcorder that did not record onto videotapes or discs it was this model here the dcr-sr100
which also cost a thousand dollars and it recorded onto a built-in hard drive so even
in 2006 sony was still not on board with the idea of recording onto solid state flash memory storage
and here's how it does under what i would consider to be typical
indoor lighting not fantastic but pretty good for a standard definition camcorder of 2003
i have no idea what kind of crazy music jazz 88 is playing right now
so if this was back in 2008 when youtube did not yet support
widescreen or high definition i would have been thrilled to use this as my camcorder
here it is connected to my sega genesis and capturing sonic the hedgehog in stereo
but one limitation is that it will not let you do video capture from sources that are macrovision
encoded if you try it just beeps and shows copy inhibited on the screen
around here we can at least watch the movie even if you can't capture it
it can also take still photos the maximum resolution is only 640
by 480 but that was normal for standard definition camcorders
so in 2003 for such a small and light camcorder
the panasonic d-snap has excellent video and audio quality and very useful video capture capability
in fact there will be nothing else like it for years to come the real reason why it
was not a success in 2003 was not because of anything wrong with the camera itself
is because sd card technology was not advanced enough yet to make effective use of it
when this camcorder was released in october 2003 it included a 512 megabyte sd card which on its
own had a retail price of 349 dollars and at the highest quality setting of this camcorder it could
record about 10 minutes of video and with this one gigabyte card which didn't even exist yet when
this camcorder was first introduced i can record 21 minutes of video at the highest quality setting
in fact this was so early for recording video on two sd cards that the currently available
sd cards at the time did not have a high enough data transfer rate to record dvd quality video
onto them and the sdhc format and the class system of speed ratings was not introduced until
2006 so panasonic had to invent their own proprietary high-speed format for sd cards
and unfortunately these proprietary high speed panasonic sd cards are not forwards compatible
with the newer industry standard higher speed sd cards like this one
so if i pop this two gigabyte fujifilm card into the camcorder
it complains that this card cannot record in mpeg2 mode which limits us to much lower
resolution video it does say if the card was working we would get 43 minutes of recording
time but if i try to press the record button it just complains and gives the error message again
so in order to use this camcorder at its highest quality setting you have to use these proprietary
high-speed panasonic cards now in 2005 panasonic introduced what they called pro high-speed sd
cards but i don't know if they are compatible with this camcorder i was not able to find any
of those it took me quite a while just to find this one gigabyte high speed panasonic card
another problem is that in 2003 most computers and video editors did not yet support the mpeg2 video
files that this camera records especially since it uses a weird mod file extension not to be confused
with the amiga music files in this case it stands for movie on disk but you can just rename those to
mpg and they should work fine in any media player or video editor program that supports mpeg2 video
or you can use the sdcopy program that i did a video about back in 2009 to automate the process
so that's the pocket-sized panasonic d-snap sv-av100 camcorder from 2003 a product which
was just too far ahead of its time in fact i think if it had been released around 2006 when industry
standard higher capacity sdhc cards were available and when youtube was starting to make the use of
these small video cameras much more popular i think it would have been a much better success