Portapak

A Portapak is a battery powered, self-contained video tape analog recording system that can be carried by one person. Because earlier television cameras were large and relatively immovable, the Portapak made it possible to record video easily outside of the studio. Although it recorded at a lower quality than television studio cameras, the Portapak was adopted by both professionals and amateurs as a new method of video recording. Before Portapak cameras, remote television news footage was routinely photographed on 16mm film and telecined for broadcast.