Odds 'N' Sods with the TR200E (1997)

March 1997. NEW Sony TR2200E - to - Panasonic mono VHS Edit Deck. NEW titler in evidence!

The start of a new era with an upgraded camcorder, a shiny Sony TR2200E Hi8, with great colour, sharpness and stability. And affordable too, as the new DV format remained rather expensive just yet. Think powerful ever-so-slightly rough-around-the-edges diesel we compare favourably to bright and shiny EV's today. Hi8 would not only do, it would have to do very nicely as the next step in my upgrading path. The Panasonic S-VHS 900 deck would have to wait for purchase. This Camcorder picture upgrade was remarkable and instantly evident, even on the VHS edit deck's taping - onto this, the stereo Hi8 sound was unfortunately reduced to mono of course, but even that was a clear improvement. I was on my way.

This was simply a play, the first part being shot in the garden early one morning after returning home from work and unable to wait any longer. It must have been the last of a run of nights, otherwise I wouldn't normally be wasting sleeping time! (The only other times I did this was going on holiday in 1999 after being shafted by a colleague at work, and the funeral of Diana which, at the time, seemed to grip the entire country, but that's another story.) It really is merely testing the camera out and nothing more. You could say a lot of my early videos followed a similar format!

The pathway Dad was building finally connected the top of the garden to the rest of it, including a small storage shed behind the main one, and later shelving in the greenhouse. He was industrious!