Skateboarders can’t seem to let the VX1000 die, but with Mini DV tapes becoming discontinued and increasingly harder to find, the VX may literally become unusable in the future.
We have caught wind of a few different workarounds for this problem, like this guy who modified the tape deck of his VX to take SD cards, but skate filmer Erick Carrada and his friends hit us up about their own ingenious solution: recording straight into a hard drive.
The FS-5 Recorder from Focus Enhancements is a super niche, somewhat expensive device, but these guys figured out a way to put it to good use, connecting it directly to a VX taking the live feed from the viewfinder straight into the memory bank.
It’s really that easy. You just gotta grab the items for the rig, mount it all together, and film all the footage your heart desires until the end of time.
ITEMS YOU’LL NEED
FS-5 recorder
Velcro strips
Firewire cable
L-bracket
Cable fasteners
USB A to USB A cable
NOTE: Be sure to leave a minimum of 1/4 inch of space between the camera and the recorder to avoid overheating the recorder.
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May 20, 2021 8:48 pm
“Raaaaah! I’m too cool for this article! Is it too late to use the word hipster?” I’m so down with this! If the camera works, there’s no need in shelling out a bunch of greenbacks to some giant corporation harming the Earth by producing more toxic electronics in deplorable working conditions, all of which will end up in the landfill, anyway. And the shaky clips? The filmer had to run down grass gaps! It can be done smoothly, but it ain’t easy. I give this article four fisheyes out of five.
May 22, 2021 9:39 am
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
May 23, 2021 10:49 am
this is genius my dude.
May 25, 2021 11:41 am
Let’s face it; people are mad the VX is still going and even madder it’s getting essentially a ‘new lease of life’ by having people going the tapeless route AND knowing how to get it close to how it looked on the telly back in t’day by using a HD timeline.
It’s either this or HD in 4:3 for the future. Skating in 16:9 sucks and everybody has said that since HD first popped its head in skateboarding.