The other day I checked out an old camcorder that I’ve been holding onto for a few years the handheld Vivitar DVR 426. First released in 2012, it was a small pocket sized camera slash camcorder that in the days before phones having good cameras and camcorders was ahead of it’s time.
The following is what I posted about it on my X (Twitter) account. I made a thread of it you can check out by visiting my X account at SeanHachey_
Let me know if this is something I should do more of.
Let’s take a look at this old camcorder I found. It’s the Vivitar DVR 426 camcorder. I remember purchasing it years ago in hopes I’d get around to video taping things like adventures, wrestling shows and just random stuff I do. But alas I never actually got around to doing so.
You see, this thing was pretty cool. In the time of it’s creation it was before phones had cameras that were well, decent. It was handheld and had these cool flip features. The screen would pop out and what really is the best thing, still to this day, is that the usb is built in
The downfall of the pop-up screen slash monitor was that if you were recording and hoping to watch it via director mode, it wouldn’t work. But I suppose if you were doing selfie recording, it helped. The camera itself just faces the one way, so there’s that problem too.
I never actually figured out how to use it. Now call me crazy, or just uneducated, but this thing doesn’t work. Now, I’m attempting to use it all these years later, and I’m still having trouble. After putting brand new batteries in the thing I got it to turn on.
Which was a great experience as well, because I couldn’t tell which way they were supposed to go. After doing a quick research and finding the original manual online I figured it out. Only other problem with the batteries was attempting to close the housing unit.
This little camcorder needs an SD card to work. Luckily, I have a few laying around due to my photography stuff. And let me tell you, after taking this picture and gripping this camcorder, the battery compartment popped open. You’re starting to see why I never used this thing
Let’s try and start this thing. After holding the power button, which in the picture below you’ll see is the top right, it has the little power button like logo
You can see the start up screen which has their slogan: “we make it easy” Oh the irony.
The video quality is very good when this was first introduced. But to today’s standards… ehh. Let’s just say that if you’re going to make a horror film, this would be awesome to use. Wait, that gives me a good idea.
Clicking on the menu button will get you to a plethora of options cene, resolution, quality, self-timer, anti-shake, white level, color effect, multi shot, sharpness, exposure, ISO, metering, language date/time, silent mode, auto off, frequency, format SD, TV setup, firmware
With the last one, the firmware one allows you to reset everything to default. But wow, I’m quite amazed by the options it gives you, especially for such a little camcorder. It’s upsetting that I never got to use it. Going back to the camera mode, I got the screen and clicked the ok button. And it made a sound as if i was taking a picture. Wait… I did take a picture. Hmm.. but I want to take videos. Let me try again.
Great now after typing that previous tweet while trying to figure this camcorder out nothing works. Going to try and turn it off manually. Nope. Guess I’ll have to take the batteries off.
Ok… I opened the battery compartment, and it popped open. Which turned the system down. However, I needed two hands to close the compartment.
Now, as I attempt to get this camcorder to work as a camcorder instead of just a camera. I’m going to press the “ok” button once more. I pressed to take a picture… And nothing happens. I do notice how, in the top right corner of the video screen, the number has changed
The one where I took a picture has the number 9998, and this last attempt had the number 02:42:44 This leads me to think the first number (9998) was a photo count, and the other is a time like how usually we view videos. So there must be a way to switch between the two.
The obvious way to switch between the two would be to press the “mode” button. After pressing it and even holding it, nothing happens. Attempting to get the other buttons to work, I once again come up with the previous problem where nothing is working. It’s time to “reset”
The only plus side of this while ideal is that the battery compartment is getting easier to close. As we’re turned back on, I’m going to start by pressing the “mode” button. And to my shock, it works! It flips through three different screens. The first being what I assume is
The camera mode, the second being the camcorder mode and the third…. Well, if you skipped ahead and saw the picture a complaining this, you’ll see it simply says, “Not Support!” Thanks for telling us what we already know. I guess I should have started with that button.
I mean, ok, the thing is in broken English, bad English or just not proper. But not support is basically what this whole thing is. Maybe there’s a way to get it to work as a camcorder, but I’m beyond frustrated and can’t deal with it anymore. That’s probably why I never actually used this thing. So I’m giving up on it. But I’m going to first attempt to put it in my laptop to see if it actually took a picture. Or hey, maybe it recorded this whole time! I doubt. But let’s check that out.
Getting this thing plugged into my computer gave me the same problems I’ve been having. The entire thing is locked up, and nothing can be done. So as I go to undo the battery casing, nothing happens. Outside of the batteries shooting out of this device and flying to the ground.
The thing didn’t even turn off this time. I’m assuming it’s because the computer is charging it. I unplug it from the computer, it shuts down, and I plug it back on. Turn the power button on the camcorder and attempt to look at the files. It works like a regular USB device..
My computer, and I’m assuming most computers of this day and age send you a prompt as to what actions you’d like to perform when a USB device is plugged in. In this case, my goal is to see if this state of the art camcorder from a decade plus ago actually did something.
After opening the folders, it’s just the files from the SD card I had inserted into the camcorder. I noticed that the dates aren’t different from what they originally were. There’s nothing new. No new folders. Maybe one of those pictures it took slipped into another folder…
Well, after opening every single folder and scrolling through everything, I found what I had expected, that being nothing. Leaving me to suspect why I never used this thing at all. But why do I still have it?
In that thought of why di I still have it, I have to assume it’s because of this cool pop out UDB thing. And look how easy it is to use.
*** AND THIS VIDEO YOU’LL HAVE TO SEE ON TWITTER ***
So what do you think about this Twitter thread?
And worst of all, what do you think about this camcorder?
Sean Hachey 
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