**Which cameras have you owned or used?**

Going through my store this afternoon - I opened what I thought was an empty case and found this - the Ampex A CVR-300 version of the Sony Betacam I bought in the mid 90s, when I could afford it - I think it was by then 5 years old. The price new in 1989 was $30,000+ I think I paid about ten grand? Something in that region - which was amazingly expensive, but it did pay for itself in a couple of years, and was very reliable. I suspect it would power up fine if I plugged it in - but with my bad shoulder now I couldn't use it - the weight is just wild! I'd forgotten how heavy it was. cvr-300-small.jpg
 
paulears said:
Going through my store this afternoon - I opened what I thought was an empty case and found this - the Ampex A CVR-300 version of the Sony Betacam I bought in the mid 90s, when I could afford it - I think it was by then 5 years old. The price new in 1989 was $30,000+ I think I paid about ten grand? Something in that region - which was amazingly expensive, but it did pay for itself in a couple of years, and was very reliable. I suspect it would power up fine if I plugged it in - but with my bad shoulder now I couldn't use it - the weight is just wild! I'd forgotten how heavy it was. View attachment 135692
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Whoa, that brings back some memories! I laugh at all of those who only were weaned on Handycams and DSLR/Mirrorless, they don't have a clue what heavy and bulky used to be. I shot with the Sony versions of this one (BVW-300/400) quite a bit back in the day. These were positively sleek compared to my first Betacam, I think it was a BVP-70 with the BVV5 back. Any of those dockables were BEASTS! So big and heavy. Heck just the AB Bricks alone just to power these were, what, 6lbs, just for a battery? It's a wonder I don't have back problems today, so many years of lugging these around shoots and airports.
 
puredrifting said:
Any of those dockables were BEASTS! So big and heavy. Heck just the AB Bricks alone just to power these were, what, 6lbs, just for a battery? It's a wonder I don't have back problems today, so many years of lugging these around shoots and airports.
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Don’t forget the lead-acid battery belt to power the Frezzi.
 
puredrifting said:
Whoa, that brings back some memories! I laugh at all of those who only were weaned on Handycams and DSLR/Mirrorless, they don't have a clue what heavy and bulky used to be. I shot with the Sony versions of this one (BVW-300/400) quite a bit back in the day. These were positively sleek compared to my first Betacam, I think it was a BVP-70 with the BVV5 back. Any of those dockables were BEASTS! So big and heavy. Heck just the AB Bricks alone just to power these were, what, 6lbs, just for a battery? It's a wonder I don't have back problems today, so many years of lugging these around shoots and airports.
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Yep. That's why I laugh when I read people on boards like this complaining about the size and weight of a lot of today's cameras. "The C300 is too big!" Hahahahahaha... Yeah, the first Betacam I threw on my shoulder as an intern was a Sony BVP5/BVV5 and a BVW-300(the chief had it and the rank 'n file guys had the dockables). Shot Lord knows how much on BVW-300A's, 400A's and D600's. Like everyone else back then, I had Anton Bauer bricks for my Betacam, as well. 5 1/2 lbs each and only 65 WH(nicad's). BUT, what these cameras had(and our current full size ENG cameras today) that the toys don't... They balanced on your shoulder perfectly and had physical switches in the right places to make adjustments instantly without diving 10 pages into a menu to adjust audio. Yeah, they weighed 20lbs-30lbs depending, but because they were designed from the get-go to sit on your shoulder, it took very little effort to use them that way.

Missed the battery belt by at least half a decade or more. But the time I picked a cam up in the mid 90's, everyone powered their Frezzi's off of the on-cam battery.
 
I've owned my share of cameras and I guess this would be a fun place to post all of them. This list is from 2003-present so please excuse the length. I put a little "*" by my favorites.



Currently Own

-*Sony F23 with SRW1/SRPC1 Recorder

-GoPro Hero 5 Black w/ Karma gimble

-GoProHero3

-JVC GR-DVM90U (the very first camera I got way back in 1999. Still works!)





Previous Cameras (in no particular order)

-*Panasonic AJ-HPX2700 Varicam

-*Sony F900 (owned version 1, Slash 3 version, and Panavision /3 Version)

-*Sony DSR-PD150 (my first prosumer camera. i learned all the basics of composing an image on this one. holds a special place in my heart)

-Panasonic AG-DVX100/100A/100B

-*Canon XL2

-Sony HVR-A1u

-Panasonic HVX200 (my first foray into high def 11 years ago)

-JVC HD110u

-Canon XL1s

-*Panasonic HDC27 Varicam (both F & H models) [The in camera frame ramping feature was my favorite thing! beautiful camera!]

-*Panasonic SDX900

-Canon HV20/30/40

-Nikon D90 [my first "HDSLR". had it all of 7 days and returned it.]

-*Panasonic HMC150

-Canon 7D

-Canon 5D Mark II

-Sony FX1 & Z1u

-Sony HC52 handycam (used as a deck for my mac years ago)

-Canon T1i/t2i/t3i

-Sony PD100A

-Pentax K-x

-Panasonic GH1/GH2/GH3/GH4 [the GH4 is probably the best HDSLR i've worked with and im not a fan of those cameras]

-Sony NEX3N/5N/7

-Sony Z7U

-Sony a6000/a6300

-Panasonic G7

-Panasonic HS9

-*Red One MX (the only thing i hated about this camera was it's boot up times)

-*Sony FS100

-*Sony F3 [was able to get some "alexa-like' images out of this thing. beautiful]

-Blackmagic Cinema Camera 2.5k

-Blackmagic Pocket Camera

-Nikon D3200

-Panasonic AF100

-Nikon D5200



I did a lot of camera re-selling and trading in my teen years to get my hands on as many different digital cameras as i could and i was very blessed to have a family who supported me in cinematography when i was younger. :)
 
In order of owning:

Sony TRV900
DVX100
DVX100A
DVX100B (currently own)
GH2
GH3
GH4
GH5 (currently own)
GX85 (currently own)
GoPro Hero 7 Black (currently own)
Canon HF-G60 (just purchased)
 
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Today cleaning out a cupboard in the store - I came across two flight cases - one has ANOTHER of those Ampex cameras in it, but with a Fujinon lens, and the other has DXC-537 camera bolted to a Hi8 back end. I'd forgotten I'd had that for a while. I've also just thrown away a few Sony handicaps of various vintages - none of which worked, yet the ancient ones still do!
 
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