The "retro camcorder" scam EXPOSED!

[@vwestlife]

ThatOneStreet must've seen my video, because they lowered the price to $70, corrected most of the "2,000's" to "2000s", and removed the night vision screenshot. But they also removed the single one-star review on their site. Speaking of which, I left a one-star review for the camcorder on Amazon, and the vendor (unrelated to TOS) also removed it!

[@abcabc-ro4bc]

Weirdly I see these scams, I always picture a 50 year old chinese man with no teeth, tired of life, smoking on a very short cigarette in a dingy warehouse telling his single engineer graduate, "meh, good enough" whilst spitting on the floor.

[@CSSTPMediaUK]

Weird enough to see a scammer that saw your video and corrected spelling errors and lowered the price and removed negative reviews. 1080p Hi-Def is supposed to be widescreen, not 'fake widescreen', although with VGA mode it'll be viewable on my LG L1730S monitor I have.

[@KeyboardBuster]

Yeah, they are very slick and efficient that way, but amoral and shameless never the less

[@h8GW]

@abcabc-ro4bc Nowadays I might as well expect the toothless man being Indian, Middle Eastern, or Southeast Asian too.

[@Funkteon]

The reason these scams are so effective is due to what I call "Neo-Boomers"-technologically illiterate Gen Z and Gen Alpha kids who were born into a world of iPads and iPhones. Unlike earlier generations who had to learn how to navigate the true, often chaotic, internet, these kids have grown up in a bubble of curated apps. This is similar to how the original Boomers grew up consuming carefully curated media on TV, radio, and in newspapers, leaving them just as unable to spot obvious scams. These post-1995 "Neo-Boomers" share the same media illiteracy as their Boomer grandparents and Silent Generation great-grandparents, making them easy targets for online scams. In contrast, the generations most adept at detecting scams are Millennials born between 1980 and the early '90s, and to a lesser extent, younger Gen Xers. Essentially, anyone born before 1975 or after 1995 struggles to recognise the telltale signs of internet and social media scams. Those born in the sweet spot between 1975 and 1995 grew up in a time when the internet was unsecured and rife with early scams. They had to be cautious with where they entered their credit card details, unlike today's younger generations who, thanks to the internet's clean-up and the shift to cloud-based hosting around 15 years ago which allowed easy reporting of dodgy websites, trust it far more than they should. This fundamental difference explains why some generations are more adept at detecting online scams than others.

[@claudiobizama5603]

I'm officially old enough to see my childhood become a retro aesthetic scam What a time to be alive

[@frankowalker4662]

Childhood ? I was in my 30's. 🤣

[@IDPhotoMan]

@claudiobizama5603 - Bwahahaha..... you're just a kid 😉

[@RockProductionsYT]

@@IDPhotoManyknow shaming kids is how you end up with toxic adults right

[@IDPhotoMan]

@@RockProductionsYT "Shaming"? It was a joke my friend. You take all of life this seriously?

[@beefeeb]

@@IDPhotoMan jokes are usually funny, hope that helps!

[@thedungeondelver]

It's brilliant, when you think about it. The camcorder sucks, so they just market it as "having that retro vhs look".

[@Xyspade]

The irony is they could have marketed it as having the early KZbin digital look, and it would actually be accurate and some people would probably still want it.

[@inglepropnoosegarm7801]

Retro is generally a synonym for cr@p, especially when referring to tech.

[@codyclarke]

@@Xyspade great point

[@ELcinegatto87]

@@Xyspade Yup. Cause that's what the video looks like. Late 2000s dashcam or mid-late 2000s color flip phone footage. The type of crappy 240p, 14-18fps clips that dominated 2006-2007 YT in its first couple years. But it's marketed for AV illiterate Gen Z/Gen Alpha social media influencers that love to conflate 80s-90s things from before their time with the 2000s and 2010s to seem cool and older than what they are.

[@namesurname4666]

​@@Xyspadewould be still better to buy one used

[@JohnCiaccio]

All these knockoff manufacturers miss an important fact: A lot of vintage gear is BETTER then the crap produced today. Built with better materials and easier to repair. Here is a product built worse and has worse output. Like so many other products.

[@GungKrisna12]

Because some people equate vintage with poor quality

[@henrykg]

​@@GungKrisna12The same in analog photography - synonym of grainy and scratched photos. People look for alternative of “digital perfection“

[@thomasschlitzer7541]

It's actually not the manufacturers. They typically produce cheap stuff for the Chinese market that has a hip look. It's western scammers who then buy those products and offer them as "something"-"product". For the Chinese price it's perfectly fine (price on Ali is even higher than the local prices).

[@JohnCiaccio]

@@henrykg True analogue movies were shot in the equivalence of 4k for theaters. As far as audio much of the vintage amplifiers have better performance to their modern counterparts and stills sound excellent today. It wasn’t until the 80’s and the Chinese got involved in manufacturing everything cheap.

[@cassis1018]

Yes, if it wasn’t for the PCBs getting screwed by leaking components it would be a option. Do you really want to buy something that is also poor quality? Hands up anyone who thinks 80s electronics is quality? Absolute rubbish which is why you should stay away from that as well. Consumer electronics is not quality unless it is at least 10 times the price and used by the wealthy. And even they get screwed by bad quality. Using a lie to sell another lie is easy I guess. Nice video. Thanks.

[@20windfisch11]

This is an evolution of the Canomatic scam that was popular in Germany in the late 1990s. There were cheap fix-focus 35mm cameras styled to look like expensive SLRs, equipped with metal weights to make them heavier. They used names like Canomatic, Nippon or Nokina and were sold out of the trunks of cars. The sellers showed the customer a real Nikon or Canon and then sold these at a “bargain” with “50% off” which was still about 500DM which should be around 500-600€ adjusted for inflation today. These cameras were also given as prizes at lottery booths at funfairs or were sold for much more reasonable prices in Asian shops. Today there is no need to use obviously shady sales practices when anyone can set up a shop and do drop shipping but it is basically the same thing.

[@Stealth86651]

Hey I see you've met my speaker guy, guess he moved on to greener pastures lol.

[@dieseldragon6756]

The same scam has been seen in the UK a lot as well; Genuine camera offered to the buyer, opaque bag with „The camera“ in it handed to the buyer on payment. At best the buyer gets a fake item that _might_ work (Costing about 10x what it was worth) but more often than not - Especially in the UK - All the bag contains a cheap bottle of mineralwasser. 🌊🇬🇧💸 And if DM 500,- back then is worth about €500,- to €600,- today, you're putting the DM 444,- I paid for my first (And only) Minidisc unit into a much stärker perspective than I could ever have believed. Especially as DM 444,- was only around £134,- back then... (A similar unit would've been about £199,- (DM 663,33 / €335,-) in the UK at that time.) 😳 Damnit...What I would give to go back then, exchange for as many DM as I could afford, convert to Euro at the fixed rate, and give myself a stable financial means to lawfully escape Brex- _sche*ße_ ... 🇩🇪🏃💨💨💨🇬🇧💩

[@thesledgehammerblog]

When my sister in law moved into her house, the previous owners left behind a projector in the basement that, after some investigation, I figured out to be one of the "White Van" products. I'm pretty sure it wasn't functional at the time, but even if it was it was likely not worth using.

[@lasskinn474]

"Today there is no need to use obviously shady sales " the same 'need' still exists. whitelabel van scams still exist. look, the scam profit margin is in the high profit per a scammed person when it's done IRL, the 'need' for the scam to exist exists just from the face to face conman running the scams. other such popular scams in the same style include leather jackets sold by someone posing as an italian sales representative who need to sell his samples before boarding a plane back to italy etc. the product is secondary - the scam is in the confidence play to make the victim think that they're taking advantage of another persons plight who needs to sell his merchandise quick for whatever sob story reason.

[@worldcomicsreview354]

lol I remember seeing cameras like that when I was at university, circa 2007. But they were only £10. I know next to nothing about cameras, so just texted my brother saying a shop had "Cheap SLRs", he messaged back a while later going "Nah they're just point-and-shoots with ridiculous lenses"

[@donotatme]

Most social media product ads are just dropshipping scams anyway

[@CommodoreFan64]

Yep, and usually marketed to the lowest IQ/class among us, who keep falling for this scam BS!

[@dieseldragon6756]

With the heavy cost-cutting at Royal Mail in recent years, *Drop* shipping is a rather literal expression in these parts... 📦🇬🇧💥😉

[@GuapoFlores530]

What does that mean? Drop shipping

[@v7rses]

@@GuapoFlores530 reselling cheap shit u can get on aliexpress for like 5x the price

[@ChaseMC215]

​@@GuapoFlores530 According to amazon, Dropshipping is a business model that allows you to sell products online without having to own or operate the physical location where those products are stored and processed. In short, you basically buy the contents from one store and then ship them to the buyer, claiming that you made the item. Think Soulja Boy, he sold those SouljaGame systems which are literally just consoles he bought off of AliExpress and they are full of games that he didn't have licenses to. That's dropshipping.

[@steveg5122]

that chirp for the startup is the same one my dashcam uses.... damn it

[@bencesphonecollection9979]

Man my action cam (SJCAM SJ4000) uses that same low quality sony cybershot startup sound.

[@sparksfly13]

same thing on a knockoff GoPRO i was gifted a few years ago...i could never figure out how it got to record video lolll

[@AerinRavage]

My Viofo 139 does it too!

[@ELcinegatto87]

It's literally a dashcam video sensor/chip packaged in a knock off cannon camcorder. Has that circa 2010 dashcam look or if you had a fancy color flip phone in the mid-late 2000s. Nothing like analog.

[@JohnMackweb]

My Walmart dashcam has the identical jellybean circuit board this thing uses to function.

[@frankowalker4662]

The cheap plastic sound it made on the desk when you unpacked it said it all.

[@redpheonix1000]

And the fact that it also has that characteristic cheap shiny look to it.

[@frankowalker4662]

@@redpheonix1000 It oozes quality of the lowest kind.

[@simonlb24]

Yes, it's surprising how much weight you can shed by removing all the useful stuff from something. And I still can't think of any reason to buy one.

[@frankowalker4662]

@@simonlb24 No redeeming features at all. Just an overpriced dashcam in a cheap case.

[@souljaboy.6668]

the pictures look like a fking painting lmao

[@christo930]

The whole premise is false. Early 2000s camcorders did not take grainy soft footage, especially when it was played back on a CRT NTSC TV. I can see calling it "soft" in comparison to a modern 1080p or 4k video, but not grainy.

[@ELcinegatto87]

Yup. The grain would only happen on low-light shots from camcorders from that era. 80s-90s camcorders had some grain but it most mostly high frequency analog noise, not film-esque grain like on a night shot. The other thing wrong about it is the framerate. Probably 30p but the sensor sucks so it looks like 18fps 240p motor razr flip phone footage lol. Nothing like smooth analog 60i or 50i PAL videotape.

[@lasskinn474]

out of focus and color bleed aren't 'softness' yeah. but guys - the nostalgia has the pal/ntsc difference as well!

[@christo930]

@@ELcinegatto87 That is mainly a problem with cheap CCDs. An 800 (edit: probably should be 80s)camera of the era really didn't do that.

[@iwaslego2505]

@@christo930not exactly Y2K but I have an old Sony MINI DV camera that was probably around 700 - 800 bucks in 2004 records super sharp digital video with minimal noise that still looks good.

[@christo930]

@@iwaslego2505 That is exactly what I would expect. There is some kind of weird thing which makes some people misremember such odd details of the past.

[@e.quasselbude]

i recently saw a video of a dropshipper like this, who was using footage of drifting cars in the 90s, _something i cant remember_ , and 9/11 footage to promote the product 💀

[@laurensa.1803]

💀

[@generalant_7789]

💀

[@dimsimroll3832]

AYOWUT

[@WakkoYakkoDot123]

That's an ad you'll never forget

[@h8GW]

The skull emoji is quite ambiguous here

[@SigEpBlue]

"T.O.S" is so cheap, they can't afford the last period in their initialization. 🙄

[@agevenisse3252]

Maybe P.O.S is a better name.

[@thekidfromiowa]

Engrish

[@lowerweb8466]

​@@thekidfromiowa englinese ,chinglish ,chenglish.

[@yobelkcip]

T.O.S: Trashy Offshoot

[@a1white]

Do they even know it’s an abbreviation for Terms of Service?

[@bigloudnoise]

Not surprised it's just a dash cam in disguise. The startup sound it makes when you turn it on is IDENTICAL to the dash cam I currently have in my car.

[@Rainquack]

My Sony Cybershot in the late 2000s made that noise, probably pinched from them, but I'm not 100% sure.

[@uzaiyaro]

“For a limited time get a free SD card adapter!” You mean those things that come for free with literally every microSD card?

[@jonnywishbone4805]

7:20 _Camcoder_ - when there’s spelling mistakes on moulded plastic you know it’s quality

[@Skawo]

Nothing like a product that essentially advertises itself by saying the footage it produces is bad.

[@FabioGnecco]

Oh Hi, Zelda !

[@vask3863]

​@@FabioGnecco That's Link. Zelda is the princess.

[@FabioGnecco]

@@vask3863 NO WAY XD

[@vladimus9749]

I don't get people wanting the soft grainy aesthetic. As a 90s kid, I was always so annoyed that my VHS and camcorder recordings would never come close to what I saw on tv.

[@EgoChip]

Nostalgia. Rose tinted glasses. It depends on what you are trying to achieve.

[@Warp2090]

Vhs and broadcasts on a CRT look similar to me

[@Thiesi]

Same for me. I grew up with all kinds of analog technology, but always felt it was limiting me in what I was able to create with it. Turns out now that we have digital replacements for basically all analog things, the limiting factor is - and always was - more my lack of creativity. Which makes sense - good movies haven't just appeared out of nothing with the invention of digital video recording, and even good music might have existed before any digital audio formats. Oh well, at least I can now admire my own shortcomings in 8K and surround sound at 240 FPS.

[@MrCed122]

A lot of kids who didn't actually lived it. Right now, there's also a big push for old CCD digital cameras, which I just don't get. I was a kid in the 00s, I USED those at the time, I don't want to go back to that because of a "feel" or whatever people are trying to say (really, the difference between CCD and CMOS are so small that unless you know what you're looking for and you're a big photography enthusiast, they look identical for most people), they were just worse, plain and simple. There's certainly charm in using old digital cameras for a few things, I have a lot of funs messing with old Mavicas, and I get that some camcorders can give you a certain atmosphere depending on what you're trying to do and that film cameras really look different from digital, but shitty digital quality from the early 00s, VHS fuziness and noise everywhere? I don't get it at all. I think a big thing is just a big difference in how some people see videography. For a lot of people, the goal of a camcorder is that you DON'T notice it, that you forget that it's filmed at all, so you can just focus on the CONTENT. For others, the picture qality is PART of the content, which is what's becoming popular right now because of Instagram, Tik-Tok and things like that.

[@stevecoatesdotnet]

I was always quite accepting of VHS quality. I suppose the novelty of seeing your own stuff on a TV screen may have been more important back then than the absolute quality.

[@AceTankerHD2]

Such a shame that these companies are banking on nostalgia while also using cheap components at an inflated price.

[@hyperturbotechnomike]

Welcome to the 2020's: decade of slop

[@JohnCiaccio]

@@AceTankerHD2 It’s Chinese manufacturing..

[@MultipleObjectSelector]

​​@@hyperturbotechnomikethat's the whole millennium. And if you talk to someone who grew up just after WWII, that's the late 1970s and onward when Japan started exporting lots of electronics. And if you were to talk to someone who was around to experience the prewar period, then that's probably the late 1940s and onward, when mass produced cheap consumer goods flooded the market to satisfy demand from the newly expanded middle class. And this goes on, all the way back to the point that the means of production scaled beyond individual artisans.

[@dtibor5903]

Companies? Probably just 2-3 people ordering stuff from aliexpress and selling to you. They are exactly like scammers on eastern markets but with western marketing. They probably hired a designer on a freelance website to make their marketing material look streamlined.

[@JORGETECHJorge]

This camera makes photos so bad that they look like paintings, it's actually a bit fascinating to see the results.

[@NotATube]

It's interesting on one level, but pretty much all overdone noise reduction does that. And the only reason they're using that much NR is because they're obviously using a cheap and nasty sensor that would look even worse without it.

[@ConsumerDV]

Digital lomography?

[@lesslighter]

@@ConsumerDV considering how some cheaper lomographs are supposed to be just pin hole cameras....

[@LightTheUnicorn]

It's genuinely depressing that this kinda stuff gets manufactured, as I can't see anyone being happy with this, and the markup? Gosh. You would probably legitimately be better off buying a 2000s flip phone off eBay and recording with it!

[@anonymeister123]

The sound of it when he moves it around during the unboxing and inspection. Sounds like it’s built out of Lego.

[@anonymeister123]

That was harsh. Sorry, Lego. I meant no disrespect.

[@lasskinn474]

personally I prefer the nokia 808 dvd quality aesthetic and retro 41 megapixel camera sensor. ..wait what, I should really get a working bl5c battery to play around with it again. maybe i need to buy a handheld famicom clone to get the battery.

[@superlegendary]

For that kind of aesthetic, probably the best phones to use (IMO) would be the Nokia N93, the Nokia N82, the Samsung Omnia II, the Sony Ericsson Zylo, or even the iPhone 3GS for that matter.

[@lasskinn474]

@@superlegendary n93/n92 and n82 are way over that aesthetic. n93/n92 you can hold them like a camcorder though.

[@noapparentfunction]

“Capture videos that standout!” I'm a huge nerd and poor spacing like that annoys me. When you remove the space the phrase becomes a noun. stand out, work out, break up, etc. are actions. standouts & breakups are things. I'm sorry

[@spyczech]

You know what they meant and English doesn't have a ruling body to say what's right like french or Spanish so get over language being fluid and stuff seeming "poor" to you

[@TayWoode]

Yes, if people can’t spell or use words properly in advertising it shows the level of education of the marketing team. People can say get over it or language evolves but that just shows they are just as uneducated to not even realise the mistakes.

[@IceTTom]

That annoys me to! 😉

[@spyczech]

@@TayWoode you dont know they dont realize it and are doing it as a deliberate choice on bow they talk

[@JSRphones]

I have a feeling they're just using buzzwords like "vintage" and "retro" to try and get away with the poor video quality the camera records. These cheap camcorders have been around for a long time and have never sold. I suspect the same marketing is being used to sell those cheap NES bootlegs / Famiclones.

[@TayWoode]

Overused buzzwords to appeal to the same gullible people who describe everything as “wholesome”

[@nobodyviews]

There’s a HUGE demographic of ppl adoring “terrible” quality media over newer and higher “4K CINEMATIC” looks. I think ppl are fully aware of what this product is and that’s why they want it.

[@dom1310df]

Is it really a retro camcorder if it doesn't have a viewfinder? Don't remember there being any camera without one back in the early 2000s

[@russianbear0027]

It does look much more like something you could buy in like 2009-10 than 2000-2001. The camcorder I had was some Panasonic model recording to what I think was vhs-c and it had a folding viewfinder and a fold out LCD. Though the viewfinder was or at least looked like a tiny screen at the end of the tube.

[@noakeswalker]

To use the wrong size/pitch thread for the tripod mount is just hilarious - you'd think the mould they made from the Canon would have got that right at least...

[@dieseldragon6756]

I had a Vivitar model in 2013 which I _think_ might've been made at the same factory. I never had a tripod, but I'm pretty sure the thread looked like a British imperial type rather than the Metric you'd _expect_ from every country in the World (Except 🇺🇸 and maybe 🇬🇧... 😉)

[@noakeswalker]

@@dieseldragon6756 Well unless I've missed something, just about all consumer grade cameras do use an 'Imperial' thread size 1/4" - 20 UNC, ie 1/4" diameter and 20 turns per inch. I've made several adapters with this thread too. I don't _think_ there's ever been a metric thread used, and so it's one size that really does fit all, for a change ! :o) Much larger cameras use a 3/8" - 16 UNC thread I believe, but that's unlikely on a consumer camera, I think...

[@dieseldragon6756]

@@noakeswalker I think the typical „tripod“ for consumer „cameras“ nowadays is a „selfie stick“, isn't it? 🙃

[@CptJistuce]

​@@dieseldragon6756Tripod screws aren't metric.

[@ProfessorYana]

​@@dieseldragon6756 No, a selfie stick is closer to a _monopod!_

[@yesterdaysrose5446]

[Claims to do 1080p] ... Let me guess, it's going to be 640x480 at 15 fps? Yeah, I've watched Smoorez, I know how this goes. It's going to be a crap webcam in a fancy package, right? (Though, to be fair, 640x480 at 15 fps would actually be "early 2000s aesthetic", but not in a good way.)

[@dieseldragon6756]

The only camera I ever owned in the early 2000s was a QVGA keyring camera (I think Smoorez has reviewed one of those too) and when I bought that - For the princely sum of £20 - A cheapo full VGA camera was still not far off the £100,- mark... 💸 Though spin on about 16 years, and that same £100,- wasn't worth much over €40,-... 😉

[@hugovangalen]

Haha the "2,000's" typo is also visible in the other resellers descriptions OMG 😂

[@dougware]

Is it any worse than young people today calling the 90s “the late 1900s”?

[@hugovangalen]

@@dougware As long as they don't add a comma between the 1 and the 9 and add an apostrophe before the s, that's a totally different thing. (But yeah, adding a thousands separator in a year is obviously way, /way/, worse than calling the 80s the late 1900s which I sometimes do for emphasis/comedic purpose sometimes too 😂)

[@greatquux]

I prefer the 1,980’s style myself

[@toronado455]

it's funny though you never realize how these conventions start. does anyone even know why we don't do that? what is the history behind not using thousands separators when typing a year?

[@hugovangalen]

@@toronado455 Yes I wondered about it. I guess they are used to make reading big numbers easier ("is it hundred thousand, or is it a million?"), so it helps a lot for currency and totals. But years have been 4 digits long for about 1024 years now and for another 9999-2024 7975 years so no problem making a mistake there yet. I guess in the hundred thousands (e.g. 787,124), then it might be useful. 😄 (The question is, will mankind still be there to care 🫣)

[@defaultuserid1559]

7:28 - The battery door says "Camcoder". Great attention to detail there.

[@SharreIWright]

I read "Camcoder" in a Chinese accent

[@elliottsimmons9024]

🤣

[@mchenrynick]

12:37 OMG! It just "stretches" the video to 16:9! What a hunk-o-junk!

[@TylerCaseyProd]

Thank you for making this! They steal so much footage from creators use actual camcorders. Instagram does nothing about it.

[@garbagewitch1]

I’ve been wanting to make a video about those scamcorders for a long time. As someone who collects and shoots with older camcorders, this scam pisses me off so much and I really appreciate you covering it so that more people are aware of it

[@mycosys]

It looks like someone scavenged the injection moulds for the Canon when they stopped production, theyre worth tens of thousands of dollars. Looks like they have been reworked several times since.

[@JohnCiaccio]

@@mycosys Not even. Just a scan. You can tell because it’s not 1:1. And the plastic looks about 10 grades down from the original.

[@SianaGearz]

Doubt. I mean yeah the original Canon tooling was expensive, very expensive, it's not uncommon for a Japanese upmarket company to spend a quarter mil on tooling, but it also produced parts that fit together splendidly so a lot of the original cost was in the precision craftsmanship and re-working until everything fit just right. And then that Canon tooling i don't think it'll ever be sold off on an open market, they have one of their trusted manufacturing partners store it and when it's done, they'll have it destroyed specifically to prevent stuff that looks a little too convincing from popping up. China has a lot of toolmakers who can make you low quality tooling for a couple grand, especially back then, now things are getting more expensive, and for sure the tooling has been used for 10-20 years idk. The clone design is adjusted to not require precision fit.

[@mycosys]

@@JohnCiaccio dude - the plastic is a different plastic. The moulds have to be regularly re-worked as they get damaged. Its never 1:1

[@mycosys]

@@SianaGearz My dude. Dies get stolen all the time in China. There would have been hundreds of die sets. The precision of the die gets lost after a few hundred thousand parts. And the machining after the moulding is what makes a precision fit. They could have got the files instead, but that would have cost more - this seems very they used whatever case mould they had access to.

[@SianaGearz]

@@mycosys Canon FS200 is made in Japan and the plastic castings don't come from China either, it's all either Japan or Malaysia at a Japanese-owned and run facility, and the tooling is all Japanese made too. They do not lose tools, they take it very seriously. You should take a Canon camera apart, the castings are not machined after demoulding, they just fit perfectly. There wouldn't have been hundreds of die sets because the original camcorders weren't made in billion quantities, there would have been maybe two die sets or barely a handful. Chinese never needed original files either to do the copying, they have a lot of guys who can model up the parts just from a sample or from sight.

[@ericaceous1652]

They're definitely playing on ignorance in their marketing materials - the Canon camera it's styled after was digital, and shot at higher resolution than almost any analogue tape format. I wonder if the young people this is probably targeted at will necessarily know or care though?

[@mad_scientist5597]

The pictures from the knockoff look like paintings in the same way modern tv from a settop box does (at least where I live). I personally hate it and while yes it's blurry and grainy, it's in a completely different way. But yeah I think you're right, I'm sure someone young who is more about the aesthetic won't really know nor care. Though, perhaps the obsolete AV equipment is a tangible part of the past lifestyle that some of us are trying to emulate even? Nowadays the tech is so advanced that social media is ubiquitous and in my experience it takes up so much time and energy that it's very easy to end up without hobbies, stunted social skills, so on. I don't like the idea of Chinese children manufacturing ridiculously low quality cheap crap for us westerners to gobble up. But, even knowing how far this shitty dashcam is from a real 2000s camcorder, if it gets someone in a similar situation like mine away from the screen and out to explore the world, I'm a bit more okay with the whole thing.

[@proto_arkbit3100]

1:43 And they claim it provides classic two comma thousand apostrophe "s" style color footage lol

[@The_Magic_of_Zelda]

These are a terrible purchase but at least they still function. I have seen one scam where the seller was advertising their product as a functional camcorder which is just an empty shell without any components inside!

[@elock]

This is on my 2,024 Christmas Wishlist!

[@thekidfromiowa]

An overpriced paperweight.

[@dieseldragon6756]

I hope by that you mean _The gift you wouldn't mind getting if all 2,023 previous options can't be fulfilled..._ 😋

[@elock]

@@dieseldragon6756 yes was a joke about how they kept writing early 2,000’s

[@Dr.Gunsmith]

@@thekidfromiowalol that be a very light paperweight 😂

[@marcberm]

As soon as I heard that startup chime I knew it was cheap dashcam guts in there lol.

[@RandyRydberg]

Lack of consistency with capitalization and spacing between words on the box and web site is a hint that this isn't a great idea.

[@DavidFrankland]

and the camera menu

[@MM.]

There's a certain irony to the fact that years down the line, when many camcorders will likely be beyond any economical repair due to the considerable complexity of the tape mechanism and the sheer number of moving parts in general, there will probably still be plenty of Super 8 cameras bouncing around that are in more or less perfect working order due to their simplicity. Maybe Kodak isn't completely off the mark with that ridiculous new Super 8 camera of theirs.

[@lasskinn474]

there's a hackaday project to cram a digital sensor into a super8

[@ironrooster3539]

If only you could get the film developed and scanned for a decent price 😭

[@hyperturbotechnomike]

17:35 the Sennebogen excavator was perhaps made close to where i live, in Bavaria. I never thought that these get exported so far away, because it isn't a big manufacturer.

[@Fistful2923]

Gen Z influencers seeking the retro look driving vintage cameras prices up. Just like any other fads. It'll fade away like any other fads. 🙄

[@gooseguy9148]

Yes, like all the generations before

[@7sargun]

lmfao i was the first one to follow that trend and seeing it's growth is pretty crazy,3year ago i knewa couple of small guys who used old camcorders to record their gym stuff,then the trend grew even more

[@vhfgamer]

The lack of batteries is what messed me up the most. My camcorder that I purchased used at goodwill didn't come with the charger, nor did it come with a battery. I wound up designing something and 3d printing it so I could use my camcorder.

[@novelezra]

Not a scam. I love my SOMY.

[@dougware]

Sorny and Panaphonics

[@RaverOperator]

I've got one too, but mine's a Phoney.

[@SigEpBlue]

Fits right in with the aesthetic of my Smasnug gear.

[@vaporgam4054]

don't forget nckia

[@OldManPhil]

Just me and my Poonsonique

[@gidropodstancia]

I have the luck to have a Handycam from 2006 and a CyberShot from '05 as "old stuff" given to me from my parents. Awesome camcorder and a photocamera. Xenon flash really captures the STILL moment, not blurry mess like LED.

[@volvo09]

11:08 Bummer, that Cadillac looks like it's in very good condition too.

[@christo930]

15:06 80s VHS cameras looked WAY, WAY better than this.

[@330radio]

as someone with one of the first ever real VHS "camcorders" which didnt require an external portable VCR, (Manufactured August 1985) I can confirm that even a Newvicon VHS camcorder, with a terrible newvicon tune (It's green, has motion blur, and looks awful), STILL looks betetr than this crappy new "retro aesthetic" camcorder scam.

[@dieseldragon6756]

They were also larger, heavier, built to last, and an _excellent_ means for secretly having a workout during a family trip to a theme park! 📹💪😁

[@kaminekoch.7465]

@@dieseldragon6756 And the MSRP was like 200-300x of this one, adjusted for inflation.

[@christo930]

@@330radio Really, It's not a retro aesthetic camcorder. It's a very bad camcorder with clever marketing scheme.

[@christo930]

@@kaminekoch.7465 That's a bit of exaggeration.

[@kevtris]

TOS? I think they misspelled "POS".

[@neilmorten6416]

TOS is way better, because a 'P,iece" becomes a "T,ON"

[@Jones5121]

funny part is, the same thing (mostly the physical buttons and satisfying haptics) is happening to DSLRs their loud CLUNK when taking a photo is quite something when compared to modern mirrorless cameras

[@oxolotleman7226]

I always hated that part of them.

[@sorphin]

"What is the resolutions?" Grammar like that is enough to deter me from a product. Well, that and calling it the 2,000s. lol

[@thhseeking]

You forgot the grocer's apostrophe :P

[@DewtbArenatsiz]

Camera support rip off pricing

[@NeonNightmares]

"look at this crappy cheap knock-off camcorder! I'm sure you wanna pay almost $100 for it!"

[@tjnucnuc]

That boot up sound is the same as my Chinese dash cam lol.

[@CryptidBuddy]

It’s a Sohmy classic

[@nrdesign1991]

yeah it captures that 2000's bottom of the barrel bargain bin quality that a lot of cheap cameras were perfectly. But nowhere near what a proper 2000's camera was.

[@robscafidi4070]

reminds me of those cheap retro-looking digital cameras sold under the zombie Vivitar brand in the early 2010s, took barely usable photos with image quality approaching Kodak's first digital prototype from the 1970s.

[@dieseldragon6756]

Steady on there, chap! I had a few Vivitar cameras around that time too... ...And the prototype Kodak digital camera took *much* better photos than any of those did! 😇

[@galacticboy2009]

I've seen ads for this constantly on Facebook and Instagram. I always try to inform people in the comments that the ads are misleading, outright lying, playing footage from actual VHS and MiniDV camcorders.

[@SockyNoob]

I laughed so hard when the video stretched to 16:9 in the 720p mode lol.

[@ntcrwler]

When I see products like these, it makes me feel our society is de-evolving. And technology is reaching a cheap, disposeable end.

[@BadBeepBoy]

Imagine if the inexplicable advertising about "HD on VHS" were true and this was actually a D-VHS - or even wilder, W-VHS - camcorder. Now that'd be a steal!

[@pizzazif]

someday theyre gonna say heavy compression is retro and start scamming people with it

[@P3SS3SSOd]

Gotta say, as soon as I saw that outdoor footage it reminded me a lot of the shots I got out of a Mavica FD90 in 1998.. the indoor shots even more so. So it did give me some nostalgic retro 2,000's, along with the pain of trying to capture anything remotely decent.

[@konsul2006]

5:28 bigclive would love the pink version, shots fired 🤣

[@Eta_Hoyimi]

Scamcorder is a hell of a word. You should be proud of that one. Edit: OFC it's a dashcam. I bought one with identical features for it's actual intended use case that was the size of like two d6 dice stacked together. Gets higher quality video, included water resistant casing and only ran me like $15 lol

[@AveryHyena]

When I heard the startup sound, I instantly knew it was actually a dashcam. It's the same sound my one has.

[@ReightAso]

I was waiting for you to mention it's based on a dashcam because my dashcam has the same startup sound.

[@GalaxyDoge72]

The reason it's probably using Motion JPEG is because it's really easy to encode and doesn't require a lot of processing power. Id be surprised if that cpu was even 100MHz

[@onyx8231]

The image capture assembly is probably the same 640x480 sensor that they put in everything that needed to sense basic light presence and color. There is literally one of those cameras in every $20 kids toy quad-copter facing down just to sense where the ground is to keep it steady.

[@DraponDrako]

I have exactly the same one , i found it in my wife's house , it was 10 years ago , my kids ripped LCD screen, so no regrets. I think they find those scamcorders in China junkyard and now are selling them overpriced.

[@dosman7560]

What's dumb too is I'm pretty sure you could do all the vintage styling using a camera app on iOS or maybe even android

[@MidnightThunderYT]

You probably could, but you can certainly apply a VHS filter in your desktop video editor if it supports it.

[@JacobKelly02]

Yeah the app Dazz cam on iOS does a pretty decent job and it’s free

[@catsarethebest36]

There's Rarevision for Android and True VHS (was on android too but got removed off google play for some reason) for iOS, and don't get me started on your options on PC/Mac

[@lazermaster1243]

I use opencamera on android and it can record video at resolutions as low as 176x144. I saw the ad for the smaller camera and I immediatley recognized it as a scam since it does what a free app can already do.

[@mad_scientist5597]

I'd say the whole idea of having an actual camcorder is a part of the whole experince these guys are selling with their little dashcam.

[@DarkMetaOFFICIAL]

What do you want for Christmas, Son? - i want a 2.7 inch screen 16x zoom digital camcorders video camera camcorder full hd 1080p 16mp camera recorder 270 degrees rotation, Dad. - Okay Son, if you're good, maybe Santa will bring you your very own 2.7 inch screen 16x zoom digital camcorders video camera camcorder full hd 1080p 16mp camera recorder 270 degrees rotation. 😂

[@Liofa73]

I love how you have the patience to keep going with these types of products to make a full review even though you know it’s a piece of crap. Anyone else would have launched it out the window after a few minutes. 😅

[@kingoftheperforations]

I love how you read the bad description like it would be a serious one. Makes me laugh every time.

[@MollyTheLag]

1:02 so THATS where vinwiki got their outro from

[@w.e.s.]

Vinwiki sucks. It's the biggest bs lie channel clickbait made up bs channel on here

[@MirzaAsjad32]

Omg i uncovered a Sony DCR SX65 handycam from my father's wardrobe, and i wanted to see a video explaining it, found your other channel and it was very helpful! Nothing can beat the old style handycam feeling

[@ItsRyukin]

I’ve seen these things before, They were often called DVC or just simply DV. (I’ve watched so many fake camcorders and fake camera reviews) These are just “OEM” camcorders with no branding on them, Even if they have a brand but it still just an OEM template body. My little Bluebird (My Sony camcorder) would have screamed at them. 📹

[@RetroCaptain]

I saw at least 3 different people selling this exact camera online cheap. Just bought, used one (hour day week), still with all the packing and carton so I knew right away "buyers remorse" Then seeing the pinhole lens I realized it's pictures would be crap. My neighbor has a dashcam that looks a LOT like this as well so I laughed when he said "Dashcam in disguise"

[@paulmurgatroyd6372]

You can spot a duffer quickly enough by those pinhole lenses.

[@BuckBrothersCentral]

I checked their page by the video's release, and I was looking at the description (besides the 2,000's joke) and it has poor grammar, and it is a million laughs! Also, @vwestlife, you are great for saving videographers from fake cameras!

[@UsedNapkin458]

10:43 This sound triggered a core memory. LTT did a video about dash cams a couple years ago, and at 11min into their you’ll notice some similarities

[@docgonzo1973]

I used to work at a repair shop back in the late 90s early 2000s working on mainly Sony camcorders. The early 90s to late 90s Sony camcorders were plagued with leaky capacitors. Sony put out capacitor kits with installations as to which capacitors to replace. As time went along the kits got bigger and bigger. The surface mount capacitors of the 90s were very bad and prone to leaking eating the board up. I got to the point where I replaced every single surface mount capacitor on those early camcorders. The shop would stink of chemicals from heating up the old capacitors. The 2000s and later camcorders from Sony finally solved the leaky capacitor problem. Every CCD-F series is guaranteed to have leaky caps. Thanks for the video and bringing back memories

[@yoshinatsu]

Wow. This looks like a reused 2000's webcam lens.

[@youngduss300]

I should have looked at reviews before ordering mine last week. Definitely gonna return when i get it.

[@TOOLMANTIMSWORKSHOP]

I think the thing that aggravates me the most is beeping records everytime it “zooms” in

[@justbusy4583]

THANK YOU for this video! These retro camcorder ads bothered me so much. I hope not too many people fell for the scam.

[@dennisthebrony2022]

Well, good thing I have some GENUINE old Hi8 cameras still in my possession.

[@oldradiosnphonographs]

I recently got a working HI8 Sony Handycam from 1999 for $10. it can run miles over this piece of crap.

[@ironrooster3539]

I've got a Panasonic Palmcorder IQ from 94', and it works literally like brand new. I can get the video onto my computer using a dvr as well.

[@TechRyze]

For $20 it's fine to give to a child as a toy camera, as long as there are no loose parts.

[@hwogrillo]

I bought this camera like 5 years ago or longer from wish for like 20 bucks or so. Of course, the ad on Wish was touting its 4k and night vision capabilities. At least they're being more realistic in calling it retro.

[@DeadKoby]

Webcam levels of picture quality..... The Aliexpress price version would be fun for a child's toy.

[@user-fi9wb4ik2q]

it makes me upset that people so easily fall for it, as someone who works with cameras every day and i see the ads on tiktok shop promising "retro looks" then its just really shitty lookin, people dont know the diffrence between actually terrible and retro

[@dmug]

Really captures pulsating skies nicely.

[@pcpanikMusik]

It is really sobering that many people are still not aware of the difference between optical and digital zoom. which is why they are so easily taken in by such things. But this is not a new omen. It was the same ten or 20 years ago. There were cheap knock cameras. Even in the days of film, there were knock-off cameras made of plastic, which also only had plastic lenses. But they had a lead weight in the housing to make it feel „worthier“. The amount of cheap “action cameras” in a “wannabe camcorder housing” flooding amazon and co makes it difficult to pick out the sensible models in between. Apart from the fact that unfortunately none of the major manufacturers want to develop anything new in the affordable to mid-range segment. There has been a standstill for 10 years and more. I like filming with camcorders and still have a Panasonic HDC-909.

[@Dubmayer]

It should be a crime to use resources to produce products like these.

[@Lukeno52]

The silliest thing of all is that by the 2000s... VHS camcorders were basically a dying breed, with digital camcorders rapidly becoming dominant and most analogue ones having switched to more compact formats.

[@b.n.c.v5792]

If anything, it was Mini dv and 3 inch dvd camcorders that took the spotlight I the 2000s But vhs camcorders were still Being used.

[@avtips4779]

I recognize the "power on" sound, it matches the one I had on my Vivtar ViviCam 7122 that I got as a kid, also the UI and video fidelity mostly matches what I remember

[@DistantLoner]

I have a really similar camera that I got for Christmas in 2016, but the thing that I always viewed as a scam is the text on the camera saying "HD 1080p". It is NOT 1080p!

[@ikmnification5737]

Almost allows you to party like it's 1,999

[@sphereicalshere]

this same scam camcorder has been around for over 12 years!

[@NiceB6432]

A fake copycat of canon fs series camcorder and use sony's super steadyshot trademark, Cool.

[@kd8bxp]

I was about to type - "That's because it's not a camcorder - it's a really very bad Dashcam" when you said Dashcam in disguise. I actually used one of these as a dashcam for a while, mine had slightly different firmware and booted up and started recording. But it was just as bad, as this one, the frame rate is maybe 20 frames a second.

[@thomashenden71]

I recognize the startup sound from the shittiest dashcam ever, that I bought like 12 years ago… 😂

[@MushroomHausArt]

I'm glad I'm not the only one!

[@worldcomicsreview354]

On the plus side I did discover Techmoan by going on KZbin to see if anybody else had had the same experience I did. His video ended with something like "Don't drink and drive, but also don't drink and Ebay"

[@windowsfan95]

The fake camcorder uses the same startup sound as my Sony Cybershot DSC-HX7V compact camera.

[@redpheonix1000]

Way too many cheap crap cameras rip off that exact same sound

[@tyttuut]

I had a piece of crap "Vivitar" "camcorder" when I was a kid (around the turn of the 2010s) that my parents got me off eBay for 20 bucks at my request. The construction quality was better and the video quality was similar.

[@dieseldragon6756]

Yeah, those went to clearance in British stores a few years later. I bought four, think the rest ended up being bulk-bought by ShenZen and re-manufactured into these sCamcorders. The firmware, navigation and startup sound appear _identical..._ 😳 (And granted, Vivitar always was a cheapo brand. They're the sort of thing that sits on the bottom shelf in Best Buy to cover for the customer who _needs_ a camera but _needs_ it cheap...)

[@NotATube]

@@dieseldragon6756 Nah, they were probably so dirt-cheap to manufacture even by then that scavenging and remanufacturing wouldn't have been worth it. More likely it's just the same generic innards (with the same generic firmware) being repackaged by different manufacturers. They're likely coming off a production line that'll keep churning them out at marginal cost until the market dries up completely. And reselling them as misleading tat like this prolongs that lifespan long past the point anyone would really *want* rubbish like this.

[@greenbassboosts8872]

I bought a vivitar action cam during COVID. Used it on a bike ride with one of my friends and it died first use

[@NotATube]

@@greenbassboosts8872 I get the impression that, while Vivitar was *always* a value-oriented brand/rebadger, the products sold under their original ownership were generally decent and respectable enough for what they were, if never exactly "premium". After they died and it got taken over then sold on in the early 2000s, it seems to have become just another "zombie brand" applied to random dirt-cheap tat.

[@stereophonicstuff]

It's a shame that anybody who wants a Y2K-era camcorder for the "aesthetic and vibes," but doesn't know what to look for will end up getting something like this; I've noticed that Amazon and eBay are absolutely littered with them. It's nice to finally learn just how bad these crappy camcorders are.