In his otherwise excellent article, "A Light Weight Portable Video Setup"
in the previous item, Richard Nugent wrote:

2) Video Recording - I use a non digital Sharp 8mm camcorder with a built in 3" color viewing screen and built in speaker (model vlvl-e650u). this unit is no longer made. it has been replaced by the sharp models vl-ah131u ($279.99 from best buy) and vl-ah151u ($299.99 from best buy. circuit city, and some wal-mart and sam's clubs sell these also). both these models are nearly identical in appearance and functions to the older model i use. (the more expensive vl-ah151u has a higher zoom).

- Unfortunately, the Sharp VL-AH151U can NOT record from an
external video/audio source, the function that is crucial for
our work to record occultations using the sensitive external
cameras such as the Supercircuits PC-164C or the Watec 902H
(or even the inexpensive PC-23C).
I bought a Sharp VL-AH151U camcorder recently and I could not
get it to record from an external camera, and the manual does
not mention that capability.  I met with Alin Tolea, who has
another older-model Sharp camcorder that can record from an
external source, and compared the units; the input function
that works on his does not work on mine, and the manual for
his camcorder does describe recording from an external source
in the Advanced Features section, whereas this is not mentioned
in the same section in the manual for my unit.  Probably the
less expensive VL-AH131U, very similar to the VL-AH151U, also
can not record from an external source.  Since the salesman
at Best Buy who sold me the unit said he thought it did have
this capability, I plan to return it and try to get a refund.
A camcorder (or other small portable battery-powered VCR and
monitor) with external source recording capability is valuable,
and necessary for those of us who sometimes travel by air to
record distant occultations and solar eclipses.  It's really
too bad that the Sharp model vlvl-e650u that Richard Nugent
has is no longer available.  The cheapest item with this
capability that I know of, that is small, is a portable
battery-powered VCR from Supercircuits, but it costs I believe
about $500 and needs some sort of monitor as well (that's
where camcorders with their built-in viewers have an advantage,
so you only need one item, not two that have to be connected).
If any of you know of anything less expensive with the
capabilities that we want, let me know.
It seems to me that it shouldn't be too difficult to build
a small version of the cheap VCR/TV combo units that could be
sold for around $200 or $250.

David Dunham, dunham@erols.com
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