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| FORMAT: Beta | |||||
DATE: 1980 PRICE: £625 [2005: £1780] 35x30x13cm 9.1kg | ||||||
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| This monster was the first portable Beta machine. In the early days of home video, only the wealthiest enthusiasts could afford the equipment - which was even more expensive than home systems. Betamax was the format of choice for these top-end users, and so most early "home movie" makers seem to have chosen the SL-3000 system, with the matching HVC-2000 camera. Both have become classics. |
| Sony had of course been making professional portables for many years, first Reel-to-Reel portapacks, then U-Matic.The 3000 is very much like a U-Matic portable, and the advertising claims that the system was "professional quality" were actually not unreasonable. It's clearly aimed at the more technical user, with audio dub and the battery and channel adjust screw accessible under covers on the top of the machine. |  |
| All the operating controls are on the front (or the top, when it's slung over your shoulder) including the camera connector and microphone and earphone sockets. There's no display, just a mechanical counter and battery meter. | |
 | The tape transport functions (including Audio Dub) are standard "piano keys", but the Stop and Pause functions are, unusually, push-buttons. Even more unusually for 1980, these are electronically operated functions. |
| Internally, the machine is massively built, as you'd expect for a portable of this era, with a steel "cage" chassis. The tape transport is driven, via a belt, from the head drum motor, which is unusual. Since drum speed is critical, you wouldn't expect to put any other load on it - though reducing the number of motors helps to bring the weight down. At 10 kg that doesn't seem to have been a major concern, however! |  |
 | The oddest technical feature is the head drum itself. Betamax and VHS machines use different systems, in general - in VHS, the entire top half of the drum rotates, carrying the heads around with it, while Beta machines use a fixed drum with the heads protruding through a slot. Uniquely, the 3000 uses a hybrid system, with fixed top and bottom drum segments, and a VHS-style rotating "slice" in the middle. I've not seen any other system use this approach. |
 'Lightweight'...? It probably weighs more than the dog... | |
 | The matching Tuner/Timer |
| The leatherette carrying case - surprisingly cheap and nasty for such a high-quality system! |  |
