The Tyco VideoCam TVC-8000

My cousin Chris got one for Christmas in 1996. We were doing "radio shows" at the time, which were recorded on cassette, microcassette, and VHS-C. The Tyco VideoCam became the fourth medium. He got a couple of years out of it before losing interest. His VHS recordings (I didn't make dubs for me) were destroyed by flood water during Hurricane Sandy.

Hahaah that is a pretty neat toy

A lot of the home consumer cameras of the 1980s didn't have recording capabilities either. The VCRs of that era often came in two units, one that was a tuner and the other for playing/recording VHS. You could put the other half in a carrying case and use a special cable to connect it to a camera. My dad had a Panasonic like this which he made most of our old family videos on. I think some of the ones your showed in those old catalogues may have been of this variety. If you ever find one in a thrift store, it would be a cool video for sure.

If this camera is from around 1995, when were the first "color kids camera" published? Was a color CCD so expensive in 1995? I know I had a analog PC camera in this time, but I can not remember the price I paid :-)

(I'm sure there are other infrared cameras out there at a similar price point, I just doubt they'd have the retro flavor. :) )

The infrared sensitivity on this makes it a potentially interesting tool even for contemporary use. It'd be great for, for example, testing the blind spots on a remote control. Just hook it up to a laptop, turn off the lights, and see where that clicker flashes.

The infrared insight was really interesting. I had no idea a camera like this could pick up light like that.

It would be kinda cool in a horror movie.

This was a great episode! I liked the way you came up with the conclusion about the different lighting conditions! 💡👍

I like it.

Now I'm going to stare at that pixel next time I'm watching this video! :D