An Ode to VX

[listentoaheartbeat]

Every single time I watch a VX edit confirms that its colors and graininess, the sound of its mics, the death lens, 4:3, and more importantly the way it is used make it the definite camera for documenting skateboarding. Its aesthetic qualities perfectly match skateboarding as a reinterpretation and exploration of the urban landscape.

On a superficial level, HD may look more realistic. However, it fails to convey the raw and crusty nature of skateboarding. A VX in capable hands does exactly that – it allows us to not only watch skateboarding but also feel it. As flawed as its image and sound may appear by today’s standards, it shows skateboarding for what it really is.

This is also about spontaneity. A filmer using a VX can become part of the session. It is very straight-forward to use, with just the right amount of technical freedom to articulate the filming. It has the perfect weight and size to feel balanced while skating or in that awkward position which happens to provide the perfect angle.

Is this view nostalgic, romantic, dated? Possibly, but it's still true. If we look beyond technical specifications, it is also the interface and inherent limitations of a device that shape the way it is used artistically. A VX not only records just the right amount of information, it also allows the filmer to focus on what really matters.

That being said, let’s enjoy one of the best VX edits from the post-VX era as an example of how beautiful skateboarding videography can be:

[Atiba Applebum]

Maybe a stupid question...what’s a VX and why is this the first I’ve heard of it?

[somethingmustbreaknow]

jacob harris.

[SOTY]

What ruins a lot of HD edits for me is when the frame rate is too high.

[listentoaheartbeat]

What ruins a lot of HD edits for me is when the frame rate is too high.

This is one of the inherent limitations that actually make a VX better. Also prevents the use of stupid super slow motion.

[somethingmustbreaknow]

pure sexyness.

[Robert Baratheon]

VX sucks. Might be the worst nostalgia trend ever, for anything.

[heckler]

Expand Quote

What ruins a lot of HD edits for me is when the frame rate is too high.

[close]

This is one of the inherent limitations that actually make a VX better. Also prevents the use of stupid super slow motion.

Basic editing sensibilities prevents this, as well.

[listentoaheartbeat]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

What ruins a lot of HD edits for me is when the frame rate is too high.

[close]

This is one of the inherent limitations that actually make a VX better. Also prevents the use of stupid super slow motion.

[close]

Basic editing sensibilities prevents this, as well.

Unfortunately, only few people are sensible and a lot of people are attracted to (technical) novelty no matter what. Not as basic as it may seem.

[thebacker]

[behavioralguide]

so this will be the thread to list every good vx edit ever made? sweeeet

[Dwyck]

When Every VX Shits Out Because They Are 20-Year Old Frankenstein Cameras With An Obsolete Workflow Relevant Only Because The UnMic-ed DSLR Was Such A Hilarious Misstep, Then You Will Realize

[Little Debbie]

i think HPX/Xtreme has a really raw look to it too. I prefer that look far more than RED/DSLR/FS7 and all the other HD setups being explored currently

[Ronald Wilson Reagan]

VX is nostalgia trash. It was great for its time, it produced the highest quality most professional images possible. But times have changed, and technology has moved on. I watch skate videos on HD tvs now, so watching something filmed with SD quality, at an SD framerate, for an SD aspect ratio is definitely not better quality, no matter how you slice it.
Its not even like VX is an analog vs. digital thing either. VX's are digital, just a shittier, lower quality of digital. If this was an ode to film, 16 mm, 35mm, or even hi-8, I'd understand the personal preference differences, but its not. Its just a lower grade quality of the same approach to capturing images.

Any love for VX is purely nostalgia- VX is how you were used to seeing skate videos coming up, so its how you think skateboard videos are "supposed to" look, based on nothing but what you are used to.

[Little Debbie]

i will add that people who upres their VX footage to 720p and bump up sharpness definitely make VX more fun to watch, looks better full-screen, etc.

sidenote, why did the DVX never really get any love compared to the Sonys? especially considering you have WAY more control over your image with the Panasonic

[se7en3two]

VX is nostalgia trash. It was great for its time, it produced the highest quality most professional images possible. But times have changed, and technology has moved on. I watch skate videos on HD tvs now, so watching something filmed with SD quality, at an SD framerate, for an SD aspect ratio is definitely not better quality, no matter how you slice it.
Its not even like VX is an analog vs. digital thing either. VX's are digital, just a shittier, lower quality of digital. If this was an ode to film, 16 mm, 35mm, or even hi-8, I'd understand the personal preference differences, but its not. Its just a lower grade quality of the same approach to capturing images.

Any love for VX is purely nostalgia- VX is how you were used to seeing skate videos coming up, so its how you think skateboard videos are "supposed to" look, based on nothing but what you are used to.

As much as I love the old stuff... I'm 41.

When I see vids in VX, I start waiting for my internet speed to correct the image. Then I remember I'm watching stuff that looks like it was filmed through a screen door.

[7 year old]

I don't know anyone who has owned a VX who hasn't also owned a broken VX. That was a terrible way of phrasing that but I quit drinking coffee and now the world is really slow and quiet and my brain doesn't work so good. Hi PALS!
ps suck it

[behavioralguide]

VX is nostalgia trash. It was great for its time, it produced the highest quality most professional images possible. But times have changed, and technology has moved on. I watch skate videos on HD tvs now, so watching something filmed with SD quality, at an SD framerate, for an SD aspect ratio is definitely not better quality, no matter how you slice it.
Its not even like VX is an analog vs. digital thing either. VX's are digital, just a shittier, lower quality of digital. If this was an ode to film, 16 mm, 35mm, or even hi-8, I'd understand the personal preference differences, but its not. Its just a lower grade quality of the same approach to capturing images.

Any love for VX is purely nostalgia- VX is how you were used to seeing skate videos coming up, so its how you think skateboard videos are "supposed to" look, based on nothing but what you are used to.

somewhat relevant:

In defense of the poor image
Obviously, a high-resolution image looks more brilliant and impressive, more mimetic and magic, more scary and seductive than a poor one. It is more rich, so to speak. Now, even consumer formats are increasingly adapting to the tastes of cineastes and esthetes, who insisted on 35 mm film as a guarantee of pristine visuality. The insistence upon analog film as the sole medium of visual importance resounded throughout discourses on cinema, almost regardless of their ideological inflection. It never mattered that these high-end economies of film production were (and still are) firmly anchored in systems of national culture, capitalist studio production,[...], and the original version, and thus are often conservative in their very structure. Resolution was fetishized as if its lack amounted to castration of the author. The cult of film gauge dominated even independent film production. The rich image established its own set of hierarchies, with new technologies offering more and more possibilities to creatively degrade it.

then again, a vx is not that easily obtainable anymore but on the other hand does show some sort of alliance for the maker with 'counter culture', for what its worth'

[Robert Baratheon]

VX is nostalgia trash. It was great for its time, it produced the highest quality most professional images possible. But times have changed, and technology has moved on. I watch skate videos on HD tvs now, so watching something filmed with SD quality, at an SD framerate, for an SD aspect ratio is definitely not better quality, no matter how you slice it.
Its not even like VX is an analog vs. digital thing either. VX's are digital, just a shittier, lower quality of digital. If this was an ode to film, 16 mm, 35mm, or even hi-8, I'd understand the personal preference differences, but its not. Its just a lower grade quality of the same approach to capturing images.

Any love for VX is purely nostalgia- VX is how you were used to seeing skate videos coming up, so its how you think skateboard videos are "supposed to" look, based on nothing but what you are used to.

This is all correct.

Also, nothing gets you kooked faster than an anti-VX take.

[listentoaheartbeat]

Any love for VX is purely nostalgia- VX is how you were used to seeing skate videos coming up, so its how you think skateboard videos are "supposed to" look, based on nothing but what you are used to.

I grew up watching (what I suppose was mainly) Hi8 and filming S-VHS. But I'd never say that those are the definite mediums for capturing skateboarding. The cameras were either too small or to big, handling was terrible and often you could hardly recognize what was going on. With VX you could get both closer and further away from the action, have better control over the image, and generally focus much better on the filming because the camera felt just right. The new possiblities were exciting, but at the same time added significant value to how skate videos looked and felt. Obviously there have been and still are fantastic skate videos shot in HD, however the transition to HD also brought gimmicks, gadgets, and a glossy aesthetic that does not do (street) skateboarding justice.

[natenola forever]

Vx's are great but they were a part of place and time, what annoys me is that new trend is to set your VX so it looks like complete ass, VX videos from the late 90s and early 2000s actually look a lot a better. For me if i'm gonna say i love nostalgic look it would be the old Canon A1 digitals that were used to film the old H Street videos and the first 2 Plan B videos, even the whatever cameras Socrates used to film all the old World stuff. I also hate the snobbery that comes along with being a VX filmer or a VX using squad, thats my real motivation for backing HD. I filmed with a VX and a TRV900 for years and nothing about shooting with those cameras was especially inspiring.

[Style Police]

VX looks great on a tube TV. Not so much on the interwebs. Too bad they can't recreate the exact fisheye distortion on the newer cameras.

[Bobby Peru]

I think that VX's longevity in skateboarding is due in part to filmers' longtime experience with it. Garshell, Colin, Chamberlain, etc do exciting stuff with it because they've spent enough time with it while it was the standard that they can navigate it through new and interesting ideas. When new filmers pick up a VX instead of a DSLR or whatever, they're still learning, so they don't quite have the mastery these other guys do and to learn on old technology instead of new technology comes off kind of gimmicky.

And for as many bad HD examples there are, there are great ones too. Strobeck, Colton Light, Kyle Camarillo, etc.

Like any photographic debate, the person behind the camera matters more than the camera. To demand one format over the other is too simplified.

tl;dr: 2012 called. It wants its thread back.

[Allen.]

I've been making videos since 2010 and I went to HD in 2015, made two HD videos with a DSLR and some iPhone footage at the highest possible quality for a second angle, and decided to go VX at the beginning of this year. I had never owned a VX/MK1, just a Baby Death and a GL2... and while I do miss how much more convenient the record button on the handle was with the GL2, I quickly realized all that hyperbole about how filming with one just feels right. I thought it would feel just like a GL2. It should. It doesn't. Something about the weight of the camera just feels right. The only thing I'm not going to be down with is capturing tapes again. I looked up this bizarre method of Frankensteining a memory card to the VX, which you'd then capture off of. This seems appealing until you realize it's only saving you from glitches caused from the tapes, and that you'd essentially be filming while holding onto the original gameboy and a cord connecting the two. I'm happy with my decision thus far.

Something about HD filming just slows skating down just slightly, it's almost imperceptible.
If Sony wanted to cater to this Niche market they'd reverse engineer a VX to film the exact same way, but without tapes. Still 4:3, still grainy, still SD, just no tapes, no heads to clean...et all.

[CHONGO]

vx is da best
but on that note I will trade someone my extra vx for an hpx170

[somethingmustbreaknow]

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[QueeferMadness]

Someone buy my Japanese VX.

[my english is bad]

Bobby Worrest part in the new Krooked video is in HD and VX, Hd is nice but some people are born to be film in VX

[somethingmustbreaknow]

[Dad you're embarrassing me]

Bobby Worrest part in the new Krooked video is in HD and VX, Hd is nice but some people are born to be film in VX

I like how they spliced it in there with some hip hop, it complements the grittier feel of the vx’s footage, and helps juxtapose it against the hd.

I just love that part, all lines and so fluid!