Beta Home Video Camera - Sears Wish Book - 1982

 

       Whenever you see a web article or blog entry about old technology, they tend to take an almost superior tone as if to say, "Look at what idiots we were, using computers the size of a room just because that was all we had at the time." I prefer to look at items like this with appreciation of where we've been and how far we've come. This particular entry holds a warm place in my heart because I'm a huge home video enthusiast.  If you look closely at the above picture, you'll see a camera on the left (it's easy to miss since they made the curious decision of showing a black camera on a black background), with two decks to the right. It was difficult to get all of this because it took the entire catalog spread and it didn't all fit on the scanner, but I had to get it all. You see, not a single piece of this was optional equipment. If you wanted to make home videos, you needed all of those pieces. You could buy them separately if you needed to, but it was in your best interest to buy them all at once. They gave you $500 off if you did that. To buy the pieces separately cost $2689.90. To give that context, the average price of a new car was $7,983. The average yearly income was $21,073. It's a miracle that home videos caught on long enough for the technology to improve. Video cameras had been around for a while, but having a portable deck was a big deal (since, before that, you were pretty much tethered to your home deck.)
     I had to get a new camcorder this year. It fits in the palm of my hand. The battery came with a choking warning.