Advice when shooting video with a camcorder

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My old SAMSUNG VP-M50 Camcorder If you are looking for an inexpensive Video Camcorder with lots of features then this might be the one. The Samsung VP-M50 HI8 Camcorder uses 8mm size tapes with 90 minutes recording time. The 550x Digital Zoom is really quite amazing, I've used the zoom just to get a close -up look at things and not just for recording. There are lots of functions which are really quite easy to use and the manual is very easy to understand with lots of diagrams to make it even easier. As this is one of the older Video cameras there is no LCD viewfinder......so if you want to watch playback immediately after recording then you have to view through the soft rubber eyepiece. The quality of the picture and sound recording is very very good. and comes with TV adapters which allow you to watch what you've recorded through the TV The playback on TV is really good, the sound is clear and the picture quality is equal to if not better than TV This little camera is really lightweight and easy in the hand and comes in a mettalic bluey grey colour and darker grey round the eyepiece and cassette area. and measures 18cmx10cmx8cm. When I purchased it, it came supplied with........... Ac power adapter - for recharging the battery Battery pack - fits onto the camcorder Audio/video cable -connect to TV or video for viewing and recording. Remote control Shoulder strap Instruction Manual Lithium battery As I said there are many features including some excellent display effects ...

My old sony camcorders tape holder will not close. I have a bunch of old tapes i would like to watch. This happened a year ago and all of a sudden it started working but now its broken again and this time will not close. When the camera is powered on it just shows the no tape sybol all the time

I had a few minutes left at the end of my Digital8 camcorder tape, so I decided to use it up while playing a rather nice song from a generic "Jazz Combo" CD bought at a dollar store. Most of the tracks are rather boring and repetitive, but this one stands out with a catchy riff and high quality musicianship, especially from the drummer. I wish I could credit the composer and performers, but the CD is just labelled "DigiMusic Essentials Collection," by "DigiView Entertainment" of Dunellen, New Jersey. Unfortunately the tape ran out before the song ended, but it gets a little repetitive near the end anyway. I also used analog S-Video capture to transfer this footage into my computer, so you can see some of the Sony camcorder's neat information displays, including a real-time tally of the camera's adjustments as it was recording the video, including auto or manual exposure, shutter speed (usually 1/100, 1/90, or 1/60, automatically adjusted), white balance mode (always automatic on this model), aperture (usually F1.4 in indoor lighting), and video gain (which maxes out at 18 dB).

Canon VM-E1 & VM-E2 Video8 camcorders

I have some hi8 and 8mm cassettes that I'm trying to play for my boss, but all I can get out of them is static. I tried them on two camcorders that are known to work. These tapes are only 5 years old at the oldest, and I wouldn't think that the tapes could degrade so badly after such a short period of time. I did a quick 3 second test-record on one of the tapes, and that plays back fine. The only conclusion I can think of is that the tapes have somehow gotten erased, maybe by an airport luggage scan or metal detector or something along those lines.

Any ideas?