- I've been meaning to write a blog post on this topic for quite some time, but have kept putting it off... imagining getting into some perfect frame of mind on a perfect day with all other conditions also being perfect. I write that in sarcasm, but it's not entirely nonsense. There are times when you're in a settled frame of mind and everything just kind of falls into place and you slide into a comfortable writing space. But those times are rare, so expecting them in order to write is kind of like saying "I'm not going to write anything any more"... which is more sarcasm, but - again - not entirely sarcastic. And so I have decided, this Tuesday evening, to fall back on what I learned when I was... ten or something. (I think I've written about that before - how I discovered the key to writing is to just begin writing anything, and then the words generally keep coming.) The other element in the background is I'm feeling frustrated today. Frustrated about what? None of your business! ;) So I figure writing will help distract me from my frustration!
- Time to get to the subject the title promises - the Sony CCD-V700 and Sony CCD-V800 Hi8 video (tape) cameras I used for most of my 1990-93 videos. The basic thing here - the thing I want to get up on the screen and into the wires, is that I'd like to say "Thank you!" to the designers and engineers of those two camera models (which are very similar). Among the cameras on the market at the time, they looked pretty good, and the balance of the camera when you had it on (as in "on your hand" since you slipped your hand into a space with a padded strap against the back of your hand) was quite good. For its time, it was a really great machine. I had one CCD-V700 and two CCD-V800 machines, as I was taking video on nearly a daily basis, and the complicated and delicate machines would sometimes need to be repaired. I don't fault the machines for that - they were mechanically complicated with a lot of moving parts and weren't really designed to be used as heavily as I used mine.
- About that - heavy usage - I actually began by being rather careful with the first Hi8 video camera I bought (a Sony CCD-V900), carefully putting it away in a special case when not recording something, but the common frustration of putting the camera away, and then suddenly seeing something I wanted to take video of led me to just going out with the camera hanging by its neck strap from my neck so it was always handy to use. The next step was I would turn it off right after recording some scene or other, and then I would see something else I wanted to record, and have to quickly turn it back on. At some point I began to leave it on longer and longer, assuming that the mechanical wear of fully shutting it down and powering it up over and over was (possibly - I thought) worse for the life of the camera than just leaving it running (meaning the head drum was spinning and the tape was paused).
- But I have drifted from my intended topic. The more time goes by, the more I appreciate the existence of those machines at that time. In the year 2022 (as I write this), everyone records everything all the time, but I often saw things back then that I strongly felt should be recorded for future viewing, and much of that now only exists as recorded images, having long since disappeared from the current times we now live in. Also, I now realize that even if I had been very careful with the cameras and only used them on special occasions, they would not have been usable now (probably not at all, certainly not in practical terms), so I'm increasingly glad I used all four (CCD-V900, CCD-V700, and two CCD-V800s) heavily - basically using them until they were all broken (after having them all repaired multiple times within the first year of buying them new).
- ....... Okay, there it is I guess. Not special sparkling text, but it expresses some of what I wanted to say at least, so I'll post it.
- Now to cook that fish I bought yesterday (but was too tired to cook) before it goes bad. I'm tempted to put it off again, but fish doesn't keep so long, so... under the flame it goes!
- [... passage of time...] Fish! Cooked and eaten! How was it? Great! Fantastic! Really really good! Now to explain how I cooked it and what it was, I have to do research. How was it cooked? Under a flame! Um... is that broiled? [Consulting a dictionary - a dictionary I say! Not the Opinion-net. My dictionary says: "to cook by direct heat, as on a gridiron over the heat or in an oven under the heat; grill: to broil a steak". Huh. I guess it's right, but the heat can be over or under the item being cooked and both methods are called broiled? Huh..... What kind of fish did I eat? さば！ What's that in English? No idea! Time for more research. [Consulting a dictionary....] Mackerel だって！ I knew the word "mackerel" and I knew the word さば, but didn't ever make the connection between the two before. Anyway, cooked with the flame overhead, no oil, and then with lemon, salt and pepper, it tasted really quite nice.
- Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
- Tokyo
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