The Art of Collecting Camcorders: A Personal Journey

As I sit here, reflecting on my journey as a YouTuber and camera collector, I am reminded of how far I've come. From my humble beginnings with a Panasonic HTC SD 600k, to the latest addition to my collection, the Canon g7x, each camcorder has played a significant role in shaping my content creation style. In this article, I'll take you through my favorite camcorders, the ones that have made it into my collection, and share with you why they're special.

One of my all-time favorites is the Panasonic HTC SD 600k. This compact camcorder was incredibly light and easy to use, making it a staple in my content creation arsenal. I remember buying it for around $700, which, although pricey at the time, was an investment that paid off in the long run. The camera's compact design made it perfect for recording on-the-go, and its image quality was superb. Although it may not hold up to today's standards, it still gets the job done.

Another favorite of mine is the GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition. I was fortunate enough to receive this camera for free from GoPro, and I've been using it ever since. It's been a workhorse in my content creation kit, capturing some truly incredible footage. From underwater adventures like Seaside Heights 2014 to rugged terrain with my RC truck, the Hero3+ has been there, done that, and got the t-shirt. The camera's compact size and durability have made it an essential tool in my kit.

Of course, no discussion of camcorders would be complete without mentioning the Canon g7x. I've recently added this camera to my collection, and while it may not be perfect (I'm still not sold on the autofocus sound), it's an excellent addition to my arsenal. The g7x boasts impressive image quality, a compact design, and features like 4K video recording and a vari-angle touchscreen LCD. It's been a joy to use, and I've already captured some stunning footage with it.

Throughout my journey as a YouTuber, I've also had the opportunity to experiment with various other cameras. From miniDV tapes to digital camcorders, I've seen it all. One of the most memorable experiences was using the Canon T4i with the Rode Video Mic Pro for a shoot in Seaside Heights. The combination of the camera's image quality and the microphone's sound capabilities resulted in some truly exceptional footage.

As I look back on my journey as a YouTuber, I'm grateful for the incredible community that has supported me along the way. From 100,000 subscribers to the countless comments and messages I've received over the years, it's been an honor to be able to share my passion with all of you. To celebrate this milestone, YouTube sent me a special letter and plaque, which I'll proudly display in my office.

To wrap up, I want to express my sincerest gratitude to each and every one of you who has supported me on this journey. Your engagement, enthusiasm, and encouragement have meant the world to me. As I continue to create content and push the boundaries of what's possible with camera technology, I'll always remember where I came from – and that's in a small room with my Panasonic HTC SD 600k.

The Unboxing: A Letter from YouTube

Recently, I received a letter from YouTube, congratulating me on reaching 100,000 subscribers. The letter was accompanied by a silver plaque, which I'll proudly display on my desk. As I opened the envelope and pulled out the contents, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride and gratitude.

The letter began with a heartfelt message from Thomas Pickhard, VP Global Head of Content Operations at YouTube:

"Dear [My Name],

We are thrilled to inform you that your channel has reached 100,000 subscribers. This is an incredible achievement, and we want to take a moment to acknowledge the dedication and talent it takes to reach this milestone.

We understand that creating content is not just about producing videos; it's also about building a community that resonates with your audience. You have done just that, and for that, we are grateful.

Please accept our sincerest congratulations on this achievement. We want you to know that we don't take your success for granted, and we're committed to continuing to support you in any way we can.

As a token of our appreciation, we've included a silver play button plaque with this letter. This symbol represents your commitment to creating high-quality content for your audience, and we're honored to be a part of your journey.

We look forward to seeing what the future holds for you and your channel. Thank you again for being an amazing creator and community builder.

Sincerely,

Thomas Pickhard

VP Global Head of Content Operations

YouTube"

The plaque itself is beautiful, with a silver finish that catches the light beautifully. I'll make sure to display it prominently in my office, as a reminder of the incredible journey I've been on thus far.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello guys who are you David the Franco here from David the franco.com today's video is one of those videos that I will look back on years from now and just feel good about myself because today I am unboxing as you can clearly see from the title on the video page I am unboxing my 100,000 subscribers YouTube plaque now I should have gotten this at least at least a year ago but something fell through the cracks and for some reason it never actually shipped arrived any of that stuff so I finally contacted YouTube directly I forget I think it was their partner support form or something and I said look I've had 100,000 subscribers for about a year now and I haven't seen anything you know in the mail packages whatever so I want to make sure is everything okay and they said well indeed you never received it so boom we're shipping you your plaque and here it is I believe this is it because I started to unbox it and I saw a piece of paper describing like something about numbers in relation to real world facts of which I will read in a second but before I get into this unboxing I just want to say thank you thank you thank you thank you so much for allowing me to be myself for allowing me to call myself a content creator and finally allowing me to call this my job my career this is what I do every single day and I honestly love it and I have you to thank so thank you so much but before we get into this unboxing again I do have a few more words to say but I promise it's very interesting at least it is to me let's roll back a bit in YouTube history and go over a few cameras that I've used in the past now I'm not going to talk about all of them because I've used a ton of cameras from camcorders the point in shoots to action cameras like the GoPro so I'm just going to concentrate on these cameras these four cameras the Panasonic PV GS500 which is my first ever Camcorder for YouTube content look at the size of this thing the Panasonic HDC SD 600k easily my most used camcorder on YouTube and actually I still use it today and I will be using it to record Seaside Heights 2015 my newest camera which I just unboxed yesterday my Canon poot g7x which is yes a point in shoot phenomenal video quality by the way but of course I'll talk about that more in future videos and finally my GoPro Hero 3 plus Black Edition just the lightest and most incredibly convenient camera that I've ever been lucky enough to call my own and Incredibly light guys this thing is so freaking light so the Panasonic PV GS500 as you probably know if you've been watching me for a while now this does require tapes yes mini DV tapes which is a good and a bad thing well it's a good thing because it allows me to physically archive my video content but bad because I have to sit there while the video Imports in real time so yes I'm playing back the video in real time as iMovie used to import it in real time yes I movie now I use FICA Pro 10 quite a big upgrade and it's also Al a bad thing because it's not really that affordable because you have to buy mini DV tapes every time you want to do something like Seaside Heights and New York City and all that good stuff from Best Buy Amazon and so on and so forth but still this is an excellent camcorder and what's funny is is uh this has a shoe adapter on the top but back then I wasn't really worried about shoe adapters and I never really used them uh but still that just kind of shows you for its time this is probably one of no no no no no I don't know this was definitely one of the best Cam quars that you could ever buy and I think it cost me like $700 so it definitely was not cheap and by the way today I'm using the Canon T4i with the Road video mic Pro the name was skipping my mind anyway moving on this is the Panasonic HTC SD 600k I'm not going to talk about that too much but I will say well as I said before easily my most used camcorder of all time it's incredibly light look look how compact this camcorder is not the best camcorder by today's standards but hey it gets me by the GoPro here 3 plus Black Edition I was lucky enough to get this for free from GoPro I did a bunch of coverage from my unboxing to my review and every single patrons only Vlog was recorded using this camera and I still record week Vlogs with this camera and I took this into the ocean Seaside Heights 2014 and and I will do that again for Seaside Heights 2015 and I put this on my RC truck to record that dash cam like footage if that makes sense but anyway awesome camera and finally last but certainly not least my newest camera of all I'm giving point and shoots a shot once again you get it shot Power Shot stupid joke not even a joke just a pun anyway the Canon g7x is phenomenal I don't know if I'm completely sold on it yet because it's obviously not perfect cuz I don't like the autofocus sound like you know that little sound it makes but I honestly don't think it's that distracting so I'm pretty much going to be keeping this most likely anyway but yes great camera and finally I will link all of these cameras right below well not all of them cuz only so many of them are sold on Amazon nowadays but still regardless okay enough talking you know me I talk I love the talk I love to be myself and apparently some of you enjoy that as well so thank you for putting up with me for nearly 9 years now nine freaking years that's a long time okay here we go guys unboxing my plaque and as mentioned it does come with a letter a somewhat transparent actually that's more of an opacity anyway David just read the letter here we go 100,000 subscribers that's more than double the size of a packed Roman Coliseum and more than 10 times the number of people who set the human Domino world record that's pretty cool we understand the dedication and talent it takes to reach 100,000 YouTube viewers we want you to know that we don't take your achievement for granted you delivered the audience now we're delivering the rewards to commemorate your Milestone of 100,000 YouTube subscribers please accept with our congratulations this silver play button we know you'll continue to create amazing content and bring in more fans so we'll keep looking for new ways to reward you thanks for being awesome sincerely Thomas picket it's incursive I really couldn't tell right away Tom picket VP Global head of content operations YouTube and there you go there is the letter of congratulations so YouTube thank you so much for taking the time to send this toate all right let's get to the star of the show here we go removing the foam in real time this is mine that is so cool congratulations the creative one for surpassing 100,000 subscribers oh my God this is actually mine I'm not going to lie I'm getting I'm getting a little emotional like this is oh this is incredible guys you made this possible you made this possible so thank you so much guys this is truly truly incredible I cannot believe this is finally mine that is really nice that is just awesome so guys thank you so much for your support I do have one last thing to ask from you please like this video I just want to see how many likes we can get on this video so please click that thumbs up right down there I really really appreciate it so wrapping up the video yes I mean I mostly talked about my history on YouTube and my camera collection throughout the years and I barely showed this I mean there's only so much I can say besides thank you I mean thank you thank you thank you for like the millionth time or should I say the 100,000th time seriously guys thank you so muchhello guys who are you David the Franco here from David the franco.com today's video is one of those videos that I will look back on years from now and just feel good about myself because today I am unboxing as you can clearly see from the title on the video page I am unboxing my 100,000 subscribers YouTube plaque now I should have gotten this at least at least a year ago but something fell through the cracks and for some reason it never actually shipped arrived any of that stuff so I finally contacted YouTube directly I forget I think it was their partner support form or something and I said look I've had 100,000 subscribers for about a year now and I haven't seen anything you know in the mail packages whatever so I want to make sure is everything okay and they said well indeed you never received it so boom we're shipping you your plaque and here it is I believe this is it because I started to unbox it and I saw a piece of paper describing like something about numbers in relation to real world facts of which I will read in a second but before I get into this unboxing I just want to say thank you thank you thank you thank you so much for allowing me to be myself for allowing me to call myself a content creator and finally allowing me to call this my job my career this is what I do every single day and I honestly love it and I have you to thank so thank you so much but before we get into this unboxing again I do have a few more words to say but I promise it's very interesting at least it is to me let's roll back a bit in YouTube history and go over a few cameras that I've used in the past now I'm not going to talk about all of them because I've used a ton of cameras from camcorders the point in shoots to action cameras like the GoPro so I'm just going to concentrate on these cameras these four cameras the Panasonic PV GS500 which is my first ever Camcorder for YouTube content look at the size of this thing the Panasonic HDC SD 600k easily my most used camcorder on YouTube and actually I still use it today and I will be using it to record Seaside Heights 2015 my newest camera which I just unboxed yesterday my Canon poot g7x which is yes a point in shoot phenomenal video quality by the way but of course I'll talk about that more in future videos and finally my GoPro Hero 3 plus Black Edition just the lightest and most incredibly convenient camera that I've ever been lucky enough to call my own and Incredibly light guys this thing is so freaking light so the Panasonic PV GS500 as you probably know if you've been watching me for a while now this does require tapes yes mini DV tapes which is a good and a bad thing well it's a good thing because it allows me to physically archive my video content but bad because I have to sit there while the video Imports in real time so yes I'm playing back the video in real time as iMovie used to import it in real time yes I movie now I use FICA Pro 10 quite a big upgrade and it's also Al a bad thing because it's not really that affordable because you have to buy mini DV tapes every time you want to do something like Seaside Heights and New York City and all that good stuff from Best Buy Amazon and so on and so forth but still this is an excellent camcorder and what's funny is is uh this has a shoe adapter on the top but back then I wasn't really worried about shoe adapters and I never really used them uh but still that just kind of shows you for its time this is probably one of no no no no no I don't know this was definitely one of the best Cam quars that you could ever buy and I think it cost me like $700 so it definitely was not cheap and by the way today I'm using the Canon T4i with the Road video mic Pro the name was skipping my mind anyway moving on this is the Panasonic HTC SD 600k I'm not going to talk about that too much but I will say well as I said before easily my most used camcorder of all time it's incredibly light look look how compact this camcorder is not the best camcorder by today's standards but hey it gets me by the GoPro here 3 plus Black Edition I was lucky enough to get this for free from GoPro I did a bunch of coverage from my unboxing to my review and every single patrons only Vlog was recorded using this camera and I still record week Vlogs with this camera and I took this into the ocean Seaside Heights 2014 and and I will do that again for Seaside Heights 2015 and I put this on my RC truck to record that dash cam like footage if that makes sense but anyway awesome camera and finally last but certainly not least my newest camera of all I'm giving point and shoots a shot once again you get it shot Power Shot stupid joke not even a joke just a pun anyway the Canon g7x is phenomenal I don't know if I'm completely sold on it yet because it's obviously not perfect cuz I don't like the autofocus sound like you know that little sound it makes but I honestly don't think it's that distracting so I'm pretty much going to be keeping this most likely anyway but yes great camera and finally I will link all of these cameras right below well not all of them cuz only so many of them are sold on Amazon nowadays but still regardless okay enough talking you know me I talk I love the talk I love to be myself and apparently some of you enjoy that as well so thank you for putting up with me for nearly 9 years now nine freaking years that's a long time okay here we go guys unboxing my plaque and as mentioned it does come with a letter a somewhat transparent actually that's more of an opacity anyway David just read the letter here we go 100,000 subscribers that's more than double the size of a packed Roman Coliseum and more than 10 times the number of people who set the human Domino world record that's pretty cool we understand the dedication and talent it takes to reach 100,000 YouTube viewers we want you to know that we don't take your achievement for granted you delivered the audience now we're delivering the rewards to commemorate your Milestone of 100,000 YouTube subscribers please accept with our congratulations this silver play button we know you'll continue to create amazing content and bring in more fans so we'll keep looking for new ways to reward you thanks for being awesome sincerely Thomas picket it's incursive I really couldn't tell right away Tom picket VP Global head of content operations YouTube and there you go there is the letter of congratulations so YouTube thank you so much for taking the time to send this toate all right let's get to the star of the show here we go removing the foam in real time this is mine that is so cool congratulations the creative one for surpassing 100,000 subscribers oh my God this is actually mine I'm not going to lie I'm getting I'm getting a little emotional like this is oh this is incredible guys you made this possible you made this possible so thank you so much guys this is truly truly incredible I cannot believe this is finally mine that is really nice that is just awesome so guys thank you so much for your support I do have one last thing to ask from you please like this video I just want to see how many likes we can get on this video so please click that thumbs up right down there I really really appreciate it so wrapping up the video yes I mean I mostly talked about my history on YouTube and my camera collection throughout the years and I barely showed this I mean there's only so much I can say besides thank you I mean thank you thank you thank you for like the millionth time or should I say the 100,000th time seriously guys thank you so much\n"