Long before home video cameras became popular, Austin’s Highland Mall offered shoppers a way to record holiday greetings that could be mailed to out-of-town family.
AUSTIN, Texas — Today, we take it very much for granted: To shoot a video, we simply grab our cell phone and press a button to record amazingly clear pictures and sound.
But long before digital video, FaceTime and Zoom meetings, non-professional video production was a rare and expensive endeavor.
The first home video cameras began appearing in the late 1970s. By the 1980’s, small video cameras – often with built-in recorders in the VHS or Beta formats – became widely advertised, though still considered a luxury.
During the 1990 holiday season, Sears ran commercials that encouraged consumers to buy a new video camera/recorder combination for $ 949.99. That’s about $ 2,300 in today’s dollars.
Because home video technology was new and expensive, shoppers at …
