PXL2000

PXL2000
Variant models3300 and 3305; PixelVision, Sanwa Sanpix1000, KiddieCorder, and Georgia
ManufacturerFisher-Price
Introduced1987; 37 years ago (1987)[citation needed]
Batteries6 x AA battery
Video shot in 1994 with a PXL2000

The PXL2000, or Pixelvision, was a toy black and white video camera, introduced by Fisher-Price in 1987 at the International Toy Fair in Manhattan, which could record sound and images onto Compact Cassette tapes.[1] It was on the market for one year with about 400,000 units produced.[2]: 20  After that one year, it was pulled by the market, but rediscovered in the 1990s by low-budget filmmakers who appreciated the grainy, shimmering, monochrome produced by the unit, and the way in which its lens allowed the user to photograph a subject an eighth of an inch away from the camera, and pull back to a long shot without manipulating a dial, while keeping as the background and the foreground in focus.[1] It is also appreciated by collectors, artists, and media historians, and has been used in major films and spawned dedicated film festivals.[2]

  1. ^ a b Revkin, Andrew C. (January 22, 2000). "As Simple as Black and White; Children's Toy Is Reborn as an Avant-Garde Filmmaking Tool". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 29, 2023. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
  2. ^ a b McCarty, Andrea Nina (2005). Toying with Obsolescence: Pixelvision Filmmakers and the Fisher Price PXL 2000 Camera. Massachusetts: Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies.