Remembering our favorite SD cameras

I shot with tons of old betacams, U-Matic rigs, Hi-8 and other formats over the years. But the first video camera I purchased for work (not including the videotap camera on my Aaton LTR54) was a JVC GY-DV500 around 2002 or so. A professionally-styled 1/2" 3-CCD MiniDV camera for $5000, including Fuji zoom. For what it was and the price it was actually a pretty amazing little machine, and it paid for itself in just a few weeks on a TV series I was shooting. Next camera was a DVX100 and again it paid for itself in no time. That was stolen and I needed an HD camera for a job so the only real choice for me at the time was the Sony Z1U. Not a fantastic camera, but it could shoot every format I needed for paying clients at the time - HD60i, HD50i, SD60i 16:9, SD60i 4:3, SD50i 19:9, SD50i 4:3. No 24p or even progressive scan, but I just rented that when I needed. The Z1U shot so many formats for paying gigs it was crazy, and aside from a couple of jobs when I first bought the camera, I think everything I ever shot with it for years was SD.

Oh, almost forgot. For music video work my actual first SD camera was a companion to my Aaton. It was the Fisher-Price PXL2000, with 99 glorious monochrome lines that recorded onto an audio cassette. I modified it to output an SD composite signal on a BNC (a common mod of the day for those of us that used the thing) and we usually recorded onto a Mini-DV or Hi-8 deck (my memory is kinda fuzzy on this, just like the camera's pictures).
 
Another vote for the PD-150. Fresh out of college in the late 90's and working for TV stations as a news
videographer/editor, I used to dream about being able to actually afford the gear and start my own business.
Then along came the PD-150. It was my first personal camera and the tool I used (along with FCP) to start
my path to 'ditching the man' and working for myself. I still have that camera and a DSR-11 deck and they
both still work. I actually recently transferred a few hundred DVcam tapes to digital files as I had some stuff
that I wanted to keep.
 
Like many others, I picked up a camera when it came out. For $100 how wrong could you go? I think I paid twice that to have a technician modify it by skipping the RF modulator and pulling straight SD baseband video out to a BNC connector that was mounted to the back of the handle area. For what it was it made pretty nifty effects, but I pretty much abandoned the internal cassette recording from the start. Anything mechanical was sure to fail first on that little piece of plastic. I recall the movie Nadia shot the main character's POV dream sequences on the PXL2000 (or something like that -- it's been a few decades).
 
Tinroof said:
OK this is easy. It was an Ikegami 79E from the 1980's. No chips but three Plumbicon tubes. Also had no built in recorder but one needed to wire it into a separate deck. It was the mainstay of the ENG industry for many years and was just a beautiful thing to behold. I have not-so-fond memories of lugging the camera and 1 inch reel to reel deck around the streets of NYC on many occasions. Don't miss it all all though.

http://www.golden-agetv.co.uk/img/equipment/56b.JPG
Click to expand...

For an unknown reason, I have both in the basement at work. Not sure if either camera or deck still works.
 
I was working for a big broadcaster when the first DV cams came, I got to play with the Sony PD150 but really it was the Canon XL1 that I fell for and purchased myself.
I also loved the Sony Z1, what a camera I still have one.
 
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