The Story of the World's First Camcorder

The Evolution of Sony Betamovie

Long before video recording became something you could do with the device in your pocket, Sony was already working to make moving images more accessible. In 1967, the company introduced the DV-2400 Portapak, a portable video system that gave people the freedom to record outside of a studio. It was a two-piece setup with a lightweight black-and-white camera and a separate battery-powered recorder. The image quality was limited, but it opened the door for personal video recording in a way that hadn’t been possible before.