Thank you for watching! If you have any questions I did not answer please check the comments! The viewers have also put in allot of helpful info of their own!

I love the fact that you use the older equipment and by simply thinking out of the box come up with a pretty reasonable, workable solution.

This vid is one of the best ive seen in yt history

If you use an s-video cable you will get better video quality. It’s kinda like old school hdmi. Only problem with it is you have to run the white and red audio cables with it because s-video doesn’t have audio.

7:50 'i got a new camcorder, of course I'm gonna mess with it times a million' this is exactly the energy i'm feeling as well after I picked up a TRV900

Dude this rules, much respect. I see these cams listed on marketplace all the time with broken tape decks but will def pick one up pronto

That’s a sick little trick dude! It already looks like a skate video without any shots of skating so that must be a good sign!

This is really useful coming from the point of a broke teen wanting to film skateboarding thank you very much!!!

nice vid , been wanting to get my hands on a vx. but i think you inspired me down a dif route

GL2 was my first skate camcorder, hyped to see it getting some new love

Hey man after about a month and a half of gathering hardware I've finally completed my GL2 setup with the method you provided!! Thanks a ton dude, gonna get rad ski clips

Thank you so much!!! I just got a CANNON XL2 for $240! I thought I would have to have a laptop and you solved my issue so simply. I'm a comedian /imressionist that can do darth Vader's voice and I will do a qhone greeting or a voice over for you excellent video.

Thanks for the tutorial. I just picked up a Canon XL2 from Goodwill for ＄19. It’s missing the power sources, the lenses, and the viewfinder. Otherwise, it’s still a steal at this price.

Hell Yea dude, I've had a GL1 just sitting and collecting dust, I think this video might make me pick it up and start shooting with it.

This is awesome! I have a TRV900 that I use to use for skateboarding but my tape deck broke so I am hoping this is a fix. That way I don't need to worry about tapes and i can get retro looking footage!

Had one of these back in the day of skateboarding! (15 years ago) and I absolutely loved. Did moving image a college and used it for that too. Love that old school look you get from this beast! Miss those days 😔

I recently got one of these cameras from a homie I’m really young and can’t wait to use it

Thanks so much for the video I'm not gonna use this exact device, but a famous Japanese car part store called Up Garage opened its first non-Japan location in my city. It caused alot of interesting 80s/90s cars to loiter around the store/area, and I can't find a better reason to start digitizing a camcorder I was toying with! Dropping the reliance on tape would be a real gamechanger

Starting to see these in the wild. We must RETURN to AESTHETIC art technology and REJECT buying new IPHONES every year.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! This answered so many questions!!

I bought this unit brand new and paid I don't want to tell you how much. It has an old technology you're not familiar with it's called Sony I link which was FireWire period. It's right up above where you put the quarter inch plug in and you can come out of that and hook it directly into the computer that transmits all your sound and all your images directly to a computer and you don't need all of those converters. I set mine up in the studio in front of a green screen. The great thing that you may not know about this camera is that it can be used as a DSLR. It has all of the same features of a DSLR. You can get some really dramatic looking shots. It's just missing the high megapixel quality.

I'm gonna blow everybodys mind now - wanna do it REAL on a budget? Get cam like on the vid, buy cheap CAR REARVIEV CAMERA RECORDER with av input for rear cam, connect camera to the car recorder - car recorder recording vid from your vintage camera as the "back" video - now you have digital files with additional front camrec video 😁 🤘🏻

You should try 3d printing mounting brackets for the battery & display and go with custom cabling to reduce cable tangle. That would be a cool follow up video.

Thanks Tim, that is a great idea. I have a Canon XHA1 in absolute perfect condition, does record in tape, but I can't deal with tapes anymore. I'll buy the Clearclick and convert to a "fully digital" HD camera. (my Canon has a slot for a SD card, but sadly only records pictures, not videos 😫) Cheers from San Diego. Thanks again !

Thank you for this video I recently bought this canon GL2 and the GL1 SO I am going to get this product for my Canon so I don't have to used tape thank you

Many of the older Canons have the opposite problem where the tape mechanism works fine, but there is no video. Those are pretty much useless for this application. But it's nice to see an old broken camera put to good use.

you changed my life you are the best

lifesaver using this method on my small panasonic gs80 camcorder hopefully still gonna work well

There is a MUCH better way to do this. Buy a monitor that records what it’s displaying to SD card, that takes an LP battery and has RCA inputs (FireWire or HDMI) and takes LP battery. Set it in the hot shoe. Plug it in. You’re all set. You can get these monitors for under $120. If you can’t find one with the RCA chords, you will need adapters from FireWire to HDMI or USB depending on which you get. These little “digital” converters often suck, and make the footage look terrible. you have to delace the footage and even then it still never looks right. These old cameras were made for totally different types of televisions (CRT), and unless you’re watching your footage on one, footage from these old 3 chip cameras never looks the way it was meant to, and thus you’re not really getting that vintage look as it was intended to look. However I have found the best way to get it, is simply to screen record it using these cheap camera monitors that can record what’s being displayed. Or to simply use an older MacBook and import the footage like it used to be done.

thanks man!! managed to pick up a working vx2100 for around 200 bucks, but i dont really wanna fuck with the cassetes anymore, so this came in handy!!

Amazing explanation, amazing camera!

I have been sitting on my GL2 for years waiting to do this. Thanks for the reference dude! One question if you can answer it, what lens converter/mount do you use for the fisheye and or other lenses? I’ve seen people glue lens rings to the camera and i really don’t want to do that!!! You got a subscribe my dude \m/

Super badass, thank you for this video man!!

My set up is having issues with the cable and have to have it half hanging out how do I flix that ?

Had me laughing my ass off when you said and as you can see... you can see my crotch awkwardly enough, that's a bold shot of my crotch. loved the video, just bought me a Panasonic AG-DVC20P

Can you do this for a Panasonic hvx202 ?

I ordered a 10 pack of dv tapes already should pry gonna buy one of those when it’s a pain to get my clips on my pc

When your camcorder turns off automatically, take the tape out, if I remember correctly. You have to have it on standby, too bad the original batteries of old camcorders are usually very poor.

The recording divice has no HDMI IN terminal

Video quality goes in this order: Composite Video (yellow, red, white) = Good, S-Video = Better (better than composite), Firewire = Best. Firewire is exactly the same quality as the Mini-DV or near the same. I have a Canon GL1 with mini-DV and we are looking for a solution to record to an external source that only uses Firewire without a laptop of any kind. Like a portable recording device that supports SD Cards.

Can you still use the on camera viewfinder/ LCD screen when recording on the ClearClick?

bro, i got my vx1000 in near mint condition with the original packaging for around $400. it’s not hard to find 1Ks for reasonable prices, you just need to know where to look.

Hey thanks for the demo, clearest one I've seen yet. If I remember correctly you'll get a slightly better image if you transmit through S-Video rather than RCA since the ClearClick takes that input also. How do you carry the power bank and recorder while shooting?

I ended up doing something similar. bought a panasonic dvx100 on goodwill for $60. screen ended up being bad, and no idea if tape deck worked. Got lucky and found an off brand clear click for $30 and a phone mount, command stripped a 10k mha battery bank i had already on it and we are in buisiness!

What about the on-screen information like timecode, battery and all other little symbols? I have a Samsung camcorder with a broken tape mechanism and it has a constant blinking „INSERT TAPE“ message on-screen when using the viewfinder, I obviously wouldn‘t want that on all my recordings

Yo so I don’t have rca cables on my camera. Only svideo and a aux input, would I need the svideo and a yellow rca to aux to capture sound and video?

Well done amigo

I will try this with my cannon GL2

That camera could have DV outlet for vídeo and audio

Sick! Thanks homie 💪🏼

since the clearclick has sVideo an sVideo cable woult be the the preferred solution, since it provides much better quality image as well as the advantage that you need just one single cable which is also available in very short an is thus very easy to manage and much more portable.

Thank you i have a canon xl h1 and i hope to do the same.

I have the same capturing device with a different name on it. I used it a few times [connected to my camcorder], but the quality is not the greatest. I wonder if it makes more sense to get a RCA to HDMI converter and then use something like a Atomos Ninja V? Yes, the Ninja is around $400 - 500 bucks, but the quality should be way better. Should, but I am not sure.

Ok so everything works, but how do I turn off all the little widgets that appear on both the cams LCD screen and that of the clearclick. Because each time I capture the screen, it shows the widgets (e.g. insert tape widget). Any tips?

Thanks 🙏🏻

Congratz you got a Like! You could show your setup when filming with all that stuff.

so to my understanding your recording off of the clear click from the video out from the camcorder. Does that mean you have to carry around all those cables around while filming. Also could you use tapes to record on a fully working camcorder and then play back the tapes and record with the clear click to digitize?? Just bought a TRV65 to setup for recording and want to figure this all out.

Clear4clcik 3.0 has an internal battery.

There are DV input recorders who write DV files to a flashmemory and you simply connect them via the Firewire output of the Camcoder and the firewire input of the recorder. I think sony made these a while ago and i think they also worked with HDV camcorders. With such DV recorder you could get the exact same quality of the camera without compromises like with this method here. Because nothing needed to be converted to an Analog signal-path and being digitized again to a lossy MPEG4 format.

Hey man - Awesome video! How do you actually record? Is this something you engage on the clearclick?

I could understand doing this with hi8, vhs-c or betacam camcorders but not DV. DV Cameras are already all digital if CMOS sensors are used if not they are digital once the video gets past the high quality RGB CCDs & their analog to digital conversion. DV cameras process & store digital video in YCbCr (digital component video color space like used in DVD, Bluray, HDMI etc) which is the digital equivalent to the high quality video that needs a set of YPbPr "component" video cables & you're losing all that visual fidelity to record the composite video feed into a digital format in a process that cant recoup what was lost by goin to composite. A better work flow with a broken tape drive would be recording the DV format video from firewire or usb onto a portable device that can interface with DV video camcorders over the chosen connector even if that meant connecting the camcorder to a cheap laptop & having the laptop record a live feed from the camcorder

thanks alot man big help

Hey man, awesome video I just have a few questions. So I have the same camera as you (Canon GL2) and everything’s hooked up all correctly, but I just can’t seem to get a display on the clearclick even with the camera turned on and everything plugged in. It’s just stuck on that blue screen almost like something’s not connecting properly. I tried AV and S-video but neither seem to work.

I still have a mostly functional GL2 in my closet. The mic is screwed and makes glitchy noises. I wonder if you can just record audio via quarter inch?

Cool video! This was my first prosumer camcorder back in the day before switching over to countless VXs/ HVX. Is the quality loss noticeable since it's recording from the camera screen and not actually the camera itself like the other digital recorder counterparts?

Interesting but you will have to carry all this cables. You could also buy a broken HD minidv camera and have greater image quality and HD cable for the click recording device.

Our church was gifted with a cannon xl 2 will this work around work for it? Thanks.

does it work with the xm1 as well?

Can you review your clips you just filmed right then and there?

Awesome vid yo! Do you need an adapter ring to put on the fisheye? Im thinking about getting the 58mm opteka but want to make sure I get the right size!

Hello dude, i have a question, what did you do for remove the info about the charge, time recording, etc? nice video!

does this work with minidv? i have a panasonic PV-DV400D and i just want to make sure it works before i buy the card.

Just got a GL2 for tf of it on eBay and the headers are so messed up I’m most likely going to have to go this route as well just to get footy w it

I went the Powerplay route with my gl1 and the cord has to be hanging out halfway it’s a bitch. Gonna try this 🙌

It seems like the Canon tape transports on the different cameras all have bad transports.

Hey awesome video! Wanted to ask maybe you can tell me or someone in comment section, can someone please write me more options on camcorders like Canon GL2 that i could also change tapeless...?

unfortunately these "video recorder" devices are a bit out of my budget, so I think I might try dusting off one of my Raspberry Pi Zero boards and see if I can combine it with a USB capture card to make something that works similarly.

is there a way to get playback directly from canon after filming?

Great idea but you have digital video on tape you transfer analogue then record digital on the clear click, what we need is a Firewire to clear click

Where did you get your cable? (The one that goes into the camera to the capture card) I’m going to try this with a Sony DSC-F707 which has the yellow port plug in.

dude thanks a lot a have a vx2000 ı want clearclick but in turkey no one selling it

can you show us how you mounted it and keep the cables tucked

is there any alternative for the clearclick device? they don't sell these in my country

You can also do this with an atomos Ninja 2 which will have its own battery.

Broooo you got a subscription

Do the clearclick capture in 60fps ?

Nice job! That was easy and ....well easy. Easy II What are you working on next? tHanks for the video

does this work with the trv 900

Sony CCD-TR60 video camera, is this camera suitable for this purpose?

Hey do you think this would work for a Sony Fx-1 and if not do you have another solution

This is a way better option than recording on tape first! Should it record in 720p or could I buy a cheaper unit that captures 480p?

Nice tats dude🤙🤘

What settings are you using on the camera, do you film on auto or do you film on manual?

What was that mount you used in the thumbnail?

i have the clear click and when i plug it into my xm2 it just starts making a high pitch noise and not streaming the footage to the clear click, what do i do

How do you keep it all together while filming

woah good idea

How did you get the sound to be so good? On my Grabstar PRO dnt, twice as expensive, the sound was terrible. There are also no audio resolution settings. So, how did you manage to make it sound so good?

So I bought the clear click and my gl2 Won’t show up when I plug it it. Any idea on that?

Actually for this camera you can get portable battery operated HDD with firewire which wil be controlled by cameras Rec button. They have 40gigs and picturenquality is same as it would go onto the tape.