Sony CCD-TRV65E weird object in viewfinder, noise?

[sebastiaaan]

Hi there,

first of all I'm very thankful that I found this forum. Within the last few days I have learnt a lot about properly capturing analog video and been taking buying advice.
I have never shot anything tape (only film) so I'm pretty new to this (born '99) but today I finally got my first Hi8 camera, a Sony CCD-TRV65E. I followed the buyers guide and this camera was listed as having Stereo, TBC and S-Video - I just assume the E stands for the PAL model, correct me if I'm wrong. I couldn't find any other models in my country except maybe 4 or 5 but they were asking for 250€+. I managed to snag this for 120€ but I don't know if this was even a good deal or not, the Sony camcorder wiki says this model was "lower" class. But I'm not sure if I even need anything "better".

Okay enough of this, after fiddling around and finally understanding how to properly insert tape (lol) I noticed some weird thing in my viewfinder. To me it looks like some sort of caterpillar, you can't make it out on the photos but it's orange/brownish.

2023-01-19_16-27-57_IMG_2004.JPG

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The first thing that came to my mind was fungus (which some of my DSLR lenses have) but the color and general shape of this thing made me rethink that. I have read that it could be glue of the seals or some sort of it but not sure. This only affects the viewfinder though, it doesn't appear when using the display nor does it affect recordings. Is there any way to safely remove that thing or does anyone know what this even is? It doesn't really bother me to be honest because it's in the bottom right corner and I'm not sure if I will ever use the viewfinder because of the flickering (not too bad but I wouldn't want to look at it for more than 2 minutes straight since my eyes are a bit sensitive) - but I'm still kinda pissed the seller didn't mention this beforehand.

Also I was a bit freaked out when trying to play back a tape, there was this strange mechanical sound coming out of the camera and by strange I mean it doesn't sound like it's "healthy" for the parts. I have attached an .mp3 file (ignore the noise, that's coming from the camera). This does only happen when playing back a tape, pause or rewind will make it disappear (haven't tried recording yet).
Is this bad? Or normal (for a 20+ year old device)? I don't want to damage it in any way.

Thanks in advance and please bear with me, I'm a complete noob

[dpalomaki]

The USA version of the TRV-65 dates to 1998, 25 years ago. As Hi8 it is an obsolete analog format and in almost all respect will produce inferior video compared to most current digital camcorders. But it can be fun for hobby use and may be useful for transferring legacy Hi8 and Video 8 recordings. Repair cost, if you could find a service, would exceed its market value.

Depending on storage and use conditions over the years anything could have gone wrong with the unit. Give it a record/playback test. I saw nothing remarkable about the noise in the MP3 you sent and could well reflect the noise floor of aging electronics.

Camcorders should be rather quiet when running. Mechanical noise could indicate dries lubricants, worn parts, or other mechanical issues.

It might be possible to remove the user focusing lens over the EVF and carefully clean the underlying display in the case that it is just some surface schmutz on it. (I've seen dust bugs, and lint sneak into cameras and film gates in the past.)

Good luck with you quest.

[fafeco]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebastiaaan

Also I was a bit freaked out when trying to play back a tape, there was this strange mechanical sound coming out of the camera and by strange I mean it doesn't sound like it's "healthy" for the parts. I have attached an .mp3 file (ignore the noise, that's coming from the camera). This does only happen when playing back a tape, pause or rewind will make it disappear (haven't tried recording yet).
Is this bad? Or normal (for a 20+ year old device)? I don't want to damage it in any way.

I assume that the sound clip is from the camera in playback mode. The main background constant noise seems to be the head drum and has nothing suspicious to it (to my limited knowledge), but when the clip is listened at a higher volume there is definitely a periodic noise that sounds like some moving part rubbing three times for each full rotation against a fixed part, which due to its low speed I would risk to say it's related with the tape spool movement mechanism. This friction could be happening inside the particular Hi8 cassette, or be caused by the camera mechanism. Look closely to the recorded video on a TV monitor to find if there are image or sound defects matching these rubbing sound in time.
I have the same camera model bought some months ago (used), if you are interested I can check in the following week for this kind of noise and upload an audio clip during playback, but I'm almost sure it shouldn't be happening. I had a similar noise with a MiniDV camera, where the periodic noise was coming from a split gear in the MiniDV mechanism, and as a result the image/sound at playback was badly distorted each 1-2 seconds.