Got Some New Toys - Video Tape Transferring and Digital Camera

Since we're not camping this month, we've been kind of doing a fun project that we have been meaning to get to for a long long time... 

Transferring over old VHS analog tapes into digital format to save on hard drives and flash drives!!! 

We purchased a device from Amazon: 

Video to Digital Converter 3.0, VHS to Digital Converter

It is made to hook up to any video source such as VCR, DVD, camcorders, gaming systems etc. It will take the images (video and audio) and convert them into a digital format that can be saved. I can save it to USB flash drives, SD cards, or USB storage hard drives. It can be transferred into the computer or up into the cloud from there. I am making multiple copies each time I run through a tape so I don't lose anything.

We are uploading onto large multi-terabyte drives for each of our kids... and smaller flash drives to give to all the nephews' families and my siblings to enjoy. 

We did have a bit of struggle to locate a working VHS player to play our 100+ VHS tapes. Yes you've got that right, 100+ tapes of precious family memories!!! From 1984 up to about 2004. Then I had switched to digital cameras with later years already digitalized.

I thought I had had a spare VCR packed away somewhere, but we could not locate it. So we finally found a good working one at a pawn shop in a neighboring town for $29.

Afterwards, we found the working VCR player that I had packed away underneath the layers of VHS tapes in one of these totes! LOL LOL LOL

While we are dubbing over the videos from analog to digital, we are able to also run an HDMI cable to our TV. So we could either watch it on the little screen of the transfer device, or watch it on the TV as we edit through and delete or keep various sections of tape. 

Amidst the tears, the laughter, the exclamations of delight, and the fond memories vaguely coming back into view....  This has been quite a journey! 

While the scenes are playing across our TV, I snapped a few with my phone of our TV screen. The actual video images are much sharper that are saved to the hard drives.

I won't bore you with many, but here's a few shots from our video of our wedding that we never really got still photos of. Now we can! 

OUR VOWS
WITH OUR CHILDREN AS BEST MEN AND HONORLY MAIDENS

MR AND MRS PFUNDTNER

FAMILY TOSSING BIRDSEED AT CHURCH

CUTTING OUR CAKE AT THE RECEPTION

Incidentally, for those who don't know, Steve and I got married at a state park! Yes we did. It was actually Heritage Hill State Park in Green Bay where we rented the Moravian church and hired a carriage with horses to carry us away for our reception and honeymoon! 

Our honeymoon entailed hopping into our travel trailer and looping around Lake Superior for 2 weeks for a private getaway. 

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Family photos have always been very important to us. As well as family videos. I have been taking a lot of photos over the years and started my photography journey way back with a Polaroid One Step Land Cameras in the 1970s with the ejected photo that changed before your eyes! 

From there it was little 126 or 110 instamatic drop in cartridge cameras. Point and shoot. Then mail the cartridge off to Rex Photo Service in an orange envelope and wait two weeks for your prints to come back.

(You never knew if they turned out or not, but you had to pay for them in advance anyhow!)

Then in the 1980s I graduated to a Pentax k1000 SLR camera! I learned all about f-stops and apertures, using the match needle in the screen and adjusting everything on my own. Photo developing was still pretty expensive with 35 mm rolls. I learned how to develop my own films and even buy film in bulk and load my own cartridges! I then got some used blackroom equipment and did my own developing too.

About 1984, a good friend of mine, Gary, had a huge JVC video camera with a two-deck recording unit that you had to haul one portion along on a strap over your shoulder plus operate the big wieldy camera on the other shoulder. It was like a news crew camera. He started filming our first child at only 1-year-old. So we have precious video from that time forward. He was there the day we took our second child home from the hospital. 

We would borrow his video camera on and off for the first year or two. After that my good friend Connie bought one of the big RCA VHS cameras that sits up on your shoulder. We would borrow that every now and then to record precious family events over the next few years. 

Finally in 1990 I got my own big RCA VHS camera that sat on my shoulder! I was the "mom with the camera" and I filmed everything for our kids. Every school play, every sporting event, and all of our camping and holidays. I would make copies for all the other members of the family to play in their VHS players. That's why I have so many tapes!!

After I met Steve, the big VHS camera was not working as well anymore. He surprised me at Christmas with the smaller handheld video camera with the little C cartridge tapes. Oh my, that was so easy to take around and film things. But I still had to go home and dub them from the little C cartridges up to the big VHS tapes. 

About the same time, the real estate company that I worked with wanted to invest in a digital camera. These were huge devices about the size of binoculars that would save two or three photos to a 3.5 floppy disk. I kid you not. The little floppy disk inserted into the camera and you could click click click and take a couple photos. Then you had to switch discs. 

Our company was the first to own a digital camera that they ordered through the fancy camera store in Green Bay. Even the camera store guys had never seen one, much less used one. It was cutting edge technology for them. They sent me off to Photoshop School for 2 weeks to learn how to use it and how to adapt and manipulate the images once they were on our computer screens. These were the days before the internet even, so we had to courier the discs over to the newspaper to be printed in the ads for the open houses on the weekends. It was quite an involved process. But I was glad to be in on the ground floor of learning about digital photography. 

From there it was an easy step to a smaller Nikon digital camera. Even though they were very expensive back in the mid '90s, it was so nice to be able to come home and just pop a little SD card out of the camera and into the computer. Or plug it in directly with a cord! No more dubbing to VHS tapes. Now I started saving all of our video onto the laptop and various hard drives as backups.

Gone are my days of the film camera. But I really did miss a good quality camera like my old Pentax SLR. 

So for my birthday this year, Steve surprised me with a Panasonic Lumix FZ80 digital camera. The zoom on this thing is amazing at 1200 mm. It will also record video as well as capturing digital images. It's what's called a "bridge camera" where it's not quite an SLR with interchangeable lenses. But it's very handy to have it all in one and take some quality photos again. Just in time for going to Alaska this summer!

As soon as I got it, I knew I wanted to protect it with a really nice leather cover. Rather than just tossing it on the dash in a vehicle in between shots, this camera will be protected. I can take it on hikes or e-bike rides and it will be protected hanging around my neck with this beautiful leather case on it. I like it cuz it's kind of funky and old fashioned looking. Real "photography-ish".

For Christmas, I got this really nice camera bag for all the additional gear. It can also carry both of my GoPro cameras and some small handheld tripods and selfie stick. It's a place to carry along the extra batteries and chargers and cords. The back half of it also can carry my laptop for digital editing. The case comes apart into three pieces or zips all together into one. There are straps on the bottom to carry a tripod.

Now I can keep everything neat and organized and in one place. Especially during our travels, I don't want things rattling around loose in the motorhome. It has straps to carry it as a backpack, or I can strap it right to the back of the e-bike.

I found a really nice tripod, which is very necessary for good shots. One leg unscrews to become a monopod to carry along on hikes.

I am just totally tickled with this camera. I am learning bit by bit and watching some YouTubes by Graham Houghton who seems to be an expert on this particular model. I also ordered his book that I will have to study. Imagine that, with all my experience of photography, I need to study and do homework?

Here's one of my first shots of the Moon the other night.

I am flabbergasted at how this cute little digital camera can take such good photos! 

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Now on to something else. Nicholas was really excited to have a friend come over this week. Steve's brother Pete has a very well behaved dog named Finn. He came over to hang out with Nicholas while the guys were busy playing cards together for the afternoon. 

Nicholas shared all of his toys, and we took out a few of the Himalayan yak cheese dog chews so each dog could have their own. 

Every now and then Nicholas would collect all the dogs chews and bring them down to the she-shed where I was sewing. Then Finn would have to come back down and collect his and bring it back up to where the guys were playing cards in the dining room.

Both dogs were very well behaved together. Nick was hoping that Finn would chase the ball and run around the yard with him. Finn was more interested in sniffing and chewing on the Himalayan stick. 

Here is a link to the ones that we order. They are so much better for the dogs than rawhides (which are dangerous and don't digest) And these slowly wear down from chewing. They are made from dried yak cheese.

EcoKind Premium Gold Yak Cheese Himalayan Dog Chews

Once the bone gets a little too small, it can be tossed in the microwave to puff up and get soft. It can be cut into little tiny pieces then and used as treats.

As Finn left, poor Nick stood at the door watching him go. Awwwww

We will have to arrange another play date soon....

The bitter cold has arrived in Wisconsin, just like many other parts of the country. We will only have the next two days of warmer weather. But then we plunge back down into the depths of bitter cold and below zero temps by the weekend. 

It will be a good time to sit inside, and dub over more of these videos.