So I’ve got two new rigs up, both old Sony camcorders I’ve had laying around. The TRV8 is my dad’s old Digital8, the one he filmed me with growing up. The TRV308 is a Hi8 I found on eBay once I realized the same exact rig would work for it.
Took me forever to figure out though. There’s decent info out there on going tapeless with these, but nothing concrete on whether one DVR would actually cover both camcorders, so I researched this thing to death before pulling the trigger. The PowerPlay DVR is what made the most sense for me. It’s an FPV recorder that takes the 3.5mm A/V feed right out of the camcorder and writes it to a micro SD card. It’s such a good feeling to shoot without the worry of corrupting your footage because a tape malfunctions.
Took the TRV8 to Tennessee and it did not disappoint. Something about pointing a 25 year old camcorder at a mountain and getting back footage that feels like a memory instead of a video file. You really can’t fake that in post. Got a bunch from that trip I’ll be posting soon.
Also gotta say, shooting this stuff gets kinda creepy. Hi8 especially. The TRV308 is grainy and smeary enough that normal footage starts looking like evidence of something. Empty rooms, hallways, anything at night, it all reads found footage right away.