First ever consumer miniDV camera: JVC GR-DV1

[macgregor]

I finally got my hands onto the very first consumer digital camera ever produced. These things sold for $3000 in 1996.

"JVC created the smallest, lightest camcorder on the market in the process, with picture quality that surpasses the best consumer analog camcorders. "
Talk me about 4K now...

I had to go through some headaches to get this JVC DV1 back to work.
While the unit was in good condition I had to source a new battery.
Also this camera didn't come with a digital port so I had to find a newer hdv camera that would let me play a DV tapes. Then believe it or not finding a computer with fw400 wasn't easy, and no one has mini ieee394 cables anymore. So I had to order a new cables. I ended up using a 2002 iMac which has the fw port. Which of course didn't have any capture software. Good luck finding 15 year old software. But anyway, I succeded and finally here it is, rejoice with the image quality:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjRXo-7FE84

 

[Hunter Hampton]

looks great.

 

[Bubble]

omg...i remember this one. I bought this one from "The Good Guys" store. So much memories.

 

[firehawk]

Wow! That's neat! I was still shooting analog in 1996 and editing with a flying erase head. I don't recall being aware of mini-dv until 1997.

 

[David W. Jones]

My original Mini-DV camera, a Panasonic AG-EZ1 has replaced my Bolex as a defacto desk piece.

 

[Greg_E]

There are min-dv computer drives that you might be able to track down and put in a USB enclosure. Sony made them for data backup as well as transferring video data. There are plenty of cheap DV decks out there as well, some of them still function and should have firewire output.

Remember that mini-dv used a lubricant on the head side of the tape, these lubes were not compatible between the different brands of tape. Choose a tape brand and stick to it! Some tapes are better than others.

Now you need to find a 1.33x anamorphic and maybe a 2x to "modernize" the look.

On Windows you need WinDV or DVio or a few other old transfer softwares, should still work on Win10 but I might be wrong. Biggest issue is lack of Firewire but you can always fix this with an old laptop or tablet for $100 (or less) and add a PCMCIA firewire card. Desktops are easier since almost every board still has one PCI slot available. The Firewire to USB devices meant to get DV from a camera may have never worked, never owned one to try.