Talk:Portapak

Introduced 1967 or 1965?
Every biography on Nam June Paik I read - including the one on wikipedia - states that he recorded his first video with a Portapak as soon as they were available, in 1965, in New York. So either the Sony Portapak was introduced in 1965 (and not 1967 as this article says), or all the biographies are wrong and he used another device? The 1965 date comes from Mark Shapiro's article - the link went dead, but the article is available on the internet archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20061129205222/http://www.internetvideomag.com/articles2002/HistoryofCamcorders.htm. Although Shapiro is a specialist on the matter, the article being an online publication, with maybe little editorial review, i guess it could be a simple mistake. The 1965 date can be found in many published sources, among others Johanna Branson Gill: VIDEO: STATE OF THE ART, 1976 (Included in the 1992 Eigenwelt der Apparatewelt Ars Electronica Catalogue) and Callie Angell: Doubling the Screen: Andy Warhol's Outer and Inner Space, who writes:
 * "The summer of 1965 was the time when portable, affordable video equipment designed for the home market first became available to the general public; a number of different companies, including Sony and Matsushida, were developing their own home video recording systems and beginning to market them at prices ranging from $500 to $1000 each. (...) Affordable video equipment became available only in the summer of 1965, and Andy Warhol actually used it before Paik did. Nam June Paik’s first videotape was shot with portable Sony equipment on October 4, 1965 and exhibited the same day at the Café-au-Go-Go, in an exhibition called “Electronic Video Recorder.”

I notice this question is also discussed on the Video_art page, without a satisfying answer. --H9x (talk) 23:52, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

History of camcorders
I'm hesitant to correct the broken link (correct link: http://www.internetvideomag.com/Articles-2006/112706_historyofcamcorders.htm) as this does not appear to be a quality source --Kvng (talk) 15:03, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

Not a VCR
I don't think it's correct to descibe the recorder as a "VCR unit." I worked with PortaPaks in the mid-70's, and they used open-reel tapes, not cassettes. When VCRs became popular in the 80's, I would sometimes hear people call the Portapak a VCR, I think in part because they confused "VHS" with "VCR." Fuflans (talk) 02:45, 1 October 2012 (UTC)


 * I believe you are right and there is an error in the ref on this. I have corrected it. -—Kvng 13:53, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

Where does "Portapak" come from?
I cannot find any Sony materials referring to a "Portapak" name, was it someone else's brand or something? Looking at printed advertising and other documentation I can only find "Sony Portable Videocorder" (e.g. here) or either "Video Rover" or "Videorover" in Sony UK and US ads for later models (e.g. here). --Zilog Jones (talk) 15:35, 2 December 2021 (UTC)