This just in! A very rare artifact from Sony. Introduced in the very early
1960's, this is the first "portable" VTR Sony offered for general consumption.
Notice the two handed handles on either side arranged for the two handed
convenience of two people! Compared to its predecessor and the Ampex machine
that follows, this machine was "tiny" and almost all solid state. Hey!
It only contains two rather large vacuum tubes! It weighs in at a petite
88 Lbs. And it's efficient, too! Only sucking 277 Watts of power to be
ready to use only a couple of minutes after you turn the power
on! To cover up the lawn mower like sound of the video heads striking tape,
the EV-200 has a large almost sound proof cover (not shown) which can be
closed while the machine is operating.
This machine
is a monochrome only full field recorder with stereo sound tracks. Video
connectors are the large PL-259 type of the day and the audio connectors
are all the professional XLR type. The EV-200 uses one inch tape in a helical
scan configuration with 2400 feet of tape on eight inch reels running at
7. 8 IPS giving 63 |
minutes record / playback time.
(Refer to the second photo for tape pattern details.)
As mentioned
earlier, it has hybrid circuits - that is, solid state mixed with vacuum
tubes. The two large sweep tubes serve as the motor drive amplifier for
the head wheel servo. The EV-200 is interchange compatible with all Sony
VTR's in the EV and UV series. All of the models after this were color
capable. This one could be converted for color operation, but I doubt that
very many actually were. EV-200's sold for approximately $3750 and were
manufactured well into the late 1960's. A remote controllable version was
called the EV-200R.
WANTED: Service manuals, operator's manuals
and vintage magazine articles on this machine.
NEWS FLASH! 02.09.12:
This VTR can be seen in the movie, [Auto
Focus], starring Greg Kinnear and Willem DeFoe. This film opens October
18, 2002. |
