How to get this look? (VHS / early video)

Drew Ott

Drew Ott

Wish I were banned.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BzwCxYRlmGG/?igshid=7086jwwu5i1r

Call me crazy but I think it’d be fun to shoot with a VHS type camera. I think it’s pleasantly old like 8mm film.

How would you go about creating this look? Buying a VHS camera might be sort of expensive because you’d have to buy tapes, a way to digitize, etc. Is the first generation of DV cameras bad enough quality to emulate this look? I can’t even remember anymore.
 
Drew Ott said:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BzwCxYRlmGG/?igshid=7086jwwu5i1r

Call me crazy but I think it’d be fun to shoot with a VHS type camera. I think it’s pleasantly old like 8mm film.

How would you go about creating this look? Buying a VHS camera might be sort of expensive because you’d have to buy tapes, a way to digitize, etc. Is the first generation of DV cameras bad enough quality to emulate this look? I can’t even remember anymore.
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2 points of reference with samples
 
There were various degrees of tech involved in analog home video gear. From the 70's up until the early to mid 80's, tubes were used (with various trademarks such as Newvicon, Trinicon, Saticon and the like). These were replaced with CCD's not long after the camcorder form factor replaced the two-piece systems with decks. The tube cameras had a much more distinctive look, where highlights would smear and streak and sometimes burn the tube permanently if you weren't careful. What was common about all of these cameras was relatively bad low light sensitivity and a tendency to desaturate quickly in those scenarios. Also the color balance shifted continously, and sometimes you'd get swaths of different colors in one corner of the frame (often green).

It's rare to find a truly vintage camcorder or two piece setup with the deck portion in good mechanical condition. What may be worth looking for is a camera that has a composite video out, where the footage can be captured externally via a recorder. Many of the two-piece setups used a proprietary multipin cable that provided camera power and returned video, but some allowed you to break out the video via RCA presumably for simultaneous monitoring onto a TV. I bought several '82 manufacturerd Magnavox cameras with Saticon tubes that had those breakouts off eBay and married them to Datavideo firewire recorders that had a dongle for composite video in. Those recorders died a while back--it's getting trickier to find recorders that can intake an analog composite signal without a converter to SD-SDI (and even then, not that common--the old Atomos Samurai Blade will do it). I used this setup on a few projects, most notably this Key & Peele sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlxkcewBEe0

That said, the tape recordings often added their own muck to the image, via skew, dropouts and tracking errors. One trick to emulate older footage is to shoot with a more recent camera like MiniDV, and run the recordings through a couple of generations of VHS recording. For another Key & Peele sketch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k-Dd71CqnM&t=22s) we used relatively late model SDX-900 cameras for the opening video sections, which were subsequently run through VHS to add the vintage look. After we cut away to the Alexa "behind the scenes" cameras, the next time the video footage is seen at 1:12 it is camera native without the VHS.
 
I don't think VHS or betamax had 'a look' - at all. They just had a low resolution compared to the difference with SD, which just looked like broadcast on your TV. There was a definable line structure, and the inevitable occasional skew to a few lines near the bottom, and of course occasional dropout. If you pop a gentle blur onto HD footage sparkle up the red content a bit and turn the contrast down a bit - that looks remarkably like 240 line VHS. The blurring of edges kind of does it. Not sure it's a look to emulate though?
 
Drew Ott said:
Call me crazy
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You're crazy :) I hate that look, hated it all the years that it was all I had to shoot with (well, Super VHS), and I hate that many memories were preserved in such an atrocious format. Many people know that the horizontal resolution was 240 lines (per picture height, so actually a total of 320, people had a weird way of expressing resolution back then). But that was luminance only! The chrominance was only 30 lines! Even Super VHS color was only 30 lines. Only its luminance resolution was 400. I'm so glad to have moved on. I still have some old VHS tapes that I should digitize soon, to preserve them, and I'm not looking forward to it that much.

However, I will grant you the nostalgia, and you are not alone. The 80s in general have enjoyed a resurgence in pop culture. For me though, it's more like PTSD ;)

Buying a VHS camera might be sort of expensive because you’d have to buy tapes, a way to digitize, etc.
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It wouldn't be that expensive. You could probably find a camcorder and tapes on eBay for less than $100. Then you just get one of those RCA-to-USB adapters for around $30.

But it might be easier to shoot with your normal camera and just apply a post-production filter. This one by Red Giant looks good, https://www.redgiant.com/products/universe/vhs, but it looks like at least $30 a month (you can't buy it outright, you have to subscribe). If you do a search for something like "vhs filter", you'll probably find something cheaper or even a tutorial on how to do it for free by some recipe of settings your editor might already have.
 
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combatentropy;1986812547This one by Red Giant looks good said:
https://www.redgiant.com/products/universe/vhs[/url], but it looks like at least $30 a month (
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Not super impressed with that plug-in. The tape artifacts look pretty good, but I don't really buy the color rendition. And they have not done their research well. They say they profiled the JVC KY-1900 camera "the exact model camera that Marty McFly used to record Doc Brown in “Back to the Future” which is not accurate--that one was the JVC GR-C1, an actual consumer camcorder, whereas the 1900 was a three tube industrial model with a broadcast style lens. I own several of the 1900's and used them on other Key & Peeles (not going to be a bore and list them here). Very different look than the classic VHS camcorder of that time.

I have many hours of home video footage from early 80's shot on multiple cameras that I begged, borrowed and stole access to--that era is forever burned into my mind with a very specific set of attributes so I'm picky about the emulators!
 
Great info, Charles, thanks so much. It sounds like it’ll be pretty involved to get the setup I’m looking for just to use for fun. The idea of shooting MiniDV and running through VHS might be the easiest option, or the Red Giant could also possibly work. Of course the easier the method I choose, the further I get from the authentic VHS look.
 
Also worth mentioning is the VHS Camcorder phone app which does a pretty good job of approximating the look you are going for, for minimal cost.
 
combatentropy said:
The chrominance was only 30 lines! Even Super VHS color was only 30 lines. Only its luminance resolution was 400. I'm so glad to have moved on. I still have some old VHS tapes that I should digitize soon, to preserve them, and I'm not looking forward to it that much.
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Yes, the bad colors are virtually unrecoverable.
 
I had a project a couple of years ago to do a short "retro" bit for a promo... wound up powering up my old HV30, which sent an HDMI signal to an Atomos Ninja. Still didn't look sufficiently crappy, so wound up adding some noise etc in post. I haven't been able to find the piece online and know I don't still have it on my hard drive
 
This is a look that I like a lot too. It's kind of a hobby of mine. There's something refreshing about creating an image that is fundamentally flawed in multiple ways after striving for a high level of polish on client work. I think the audience's emotional response to it is different. My theory is that it forces them to focus on the story/performance. I haven't been able to bring myself to spend any real money on this look though so most of my experimentation has been at the consumer end of the scale. Recording to VHS and then re-digitizing would be an interesting way to achieve the look with just about any camera.

From the camera side, take a look at the Lumix FZ47. It's unique in that it has a single 1/2.3 inch CCD sensor that records 1080P to SD cards and has full manual control (the 1080P is VERY soft and full of artifacts, but has an interesting look to it). 24x zoom but 29.97 only. It can be had for around $75 on eBay.

Another option is the Canon S95 or G12. They both have the same 1/1.7 inch CCD, but the G12 has a little more reach and an articulating LCD, while the S95 has a faster starting aperture. I have the S95, which I bought for around $50. It's a 720P camera but 24fps. No manual control while shooting video but you can hack them with CHDK, which gives you manual control and the ability to zoom while rolling. You can also double the bitrate, but I haven't seen a discernible difference. Unfortunately I've found that you can only focus at the beginning of the shot (and you have to start-stop once before you can even do this).

Good luck, and I hope you'll share what you come up with.
 
Drew Ott said:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BzwCxYRlmGG/?igshid=7086jwwu5i1r

Call me crazy but I think it’d be fun to shoot with a VHS type camera. I think it’s pleasantly old like 8mm film.

How would you go about creating this look? Buying a VHS camera might be sort of expensive because you’d have to buy tapes, a way to digitize, etc. Is the first generation of DV cameras bad enough quality to emulate this look? I can’t even remember anymore.
Click to expand...

I hate SD blown up on a big modern digital TV. I got excited about VHS and MiniDV, did some tests. Things looked great... at first, then i put them on a TV and the stair stepping artifacts bothered me. The scan lines are so low res, they is all i see.

In the end, we shot 720. Still has the low res vibe, but none of the bad stuff.
 
QuickHitRecord said:
This is a look that I like a lot too. It's kind of a hobby of mine. There's something refreshing about creating an image that is fundamentally flawed in multiple ways after striving for a high level of polish on client work. I think the audience's emotional response to it is different. My theory is that it forces them to focus on the story/performance. I haven't been able to bring myself to spend any real money on this look though so most of my experimentation has been at the consumer end of the scale. Recording to VHS and then re-digitizing would be an interesting way to achieve the look with just about any camera.

From the camera side, take a look at the Lumix FZ47. It's unique in that it has a single 1/2.3 inch CCD sensor that records 1080P to SD cards and has full manual control (the 1080P is VERY soft and full of artifacts, but has an interesting look to it). 24x zoom but 29.97 only. It can be had for around $75 on eBay.

Another option is the Canon S95 or G12. They both have the same 1/1.7 inch CCD, but the G12 has a little more reach and an articulating LCD, while the S95 has a faster starting aperture. I have the S95, which I bought for around $50. It's a 720P camera but 24fps. No manual control while shooting video but you can hack them with CHDK, which gives you manual control and the ability to zoom while rolling. You can also double the bitrate, but I haven't seen a discernible difference. Unfortunately I've found that you can only focus at the beginning of the shot (and you have to start-stop once before you can even do this).

Good luck, and I hope you'll share what you come up with.
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Was thinking about the psychology of image making, while reading the Sony F23 “Public Enemy” thread. Btw, apparently rec709 is public enemy #1.

If VHS makes the audience connect with the authenticity of the piece or subject, then it is great. If early days 1080p small sensor rec709 makes the audience connect with the content, then it is great. But ‘Public Enemy’ looking all videoy, probably didn’t help it connect with the larger audience.
 
Drew,

If you watch this trailer on something larger than a 50”, you might see the stair stepping. Might not bother you though. I half expected it on MiniDV, but when i also saw it on VHS, is when i went for simulating.

(The image on the video, looks to be a photograph, but the trailer is all miniDV)
 
Hi Charles, Which VHS camcorder app have you tried and recommend? There are multiple apps in the App Store. Thanks.

CharlesPapert said:
Also worth mentioning is the VHS Camcorder phone app which does a pretty good job of approximating the look you are going for, for minimal cost.
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CharlesPapert said:
It is called VHS Camcorder, this one:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vhs-camcorder-retro-80s-cam/id679454835

I'm not sure of the difference between that and the free version called VHS Cam, maybe try the free one first.

Wow--there are so many ripoffs now! This was the first one so I'd rather support that developer (Rarevision), he's a good dude!
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This app is awesome! Even the zoom feature looks like VHS zoom.

I’m glad to have learned about VHS technology, but for now, this app meets all my needs.
 
James0b57 said:
Was thinking about the psychology of image making, while reading the Sony F23 “Public Enemy” thread. Btw, apparently rec709 is public enemy #1.

If VHS makes the audience connect with the authenticity of the piece or subject, then it is great. If early days 1080p small sensor rec709 makes the audience connect with the content, then it is great. But ‘Public Enemy’ looking all videoy, probably didn’t help it connect with the larger audience.
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Totally agree, Public Enemy #1 was distracting and looked terrible to my eye. But that trailer you posted looks like it be a fascinating film to watch. I'll have to try to see it on a big screen if possible. Then I'll know if there is anything to my theory past the initial novelty of the look.
 
Thank you Charles! Would rather support the original develpoer as well. At $4.00, this is a no brainer. Do you also have a recommendation on apps for previous decades...50's 60's 70's look? Thank you again sir.

CharlesPapert said:
It is called VHS Camcorder, this one:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vhs-camcorder-retro-80s-cam/id679454835

I'm not sure of the difference between that and the free version called VHS Cam, maybe try the free one first.

Wow--there are so many ripoffs now! This was the first one so I'd rather support that developer (Rarevision), he's a good dude!
Click to expand...
 
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