[sometime lurker]

College “videos” in the early 1980s? The VCR was barely happening yet. Video cameras were quite rare.

Absolutely correct. However, there were home movies in the early 60s using super 8 film, so maybe that's what he has. We can hope he's got something good.

[sometime lurker]

Gah, typed too fast. That should be "However, there were home movies from the early 60s on. So there could well be film from the 80s.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The Iowa TV station I worked for in 1976 was taking delivery of some of the first ENG cameras from Ikegami.

The camera weighed about three pounds. The record deck, about the size of a desk top copier, weighed 40 pounds.

Two large bandoleros of batteries were required to run this equipment. These ni-cads would give about 15 minutes of power before recharging.

[ETL]

Absolutely correct. However, there were home movies in the early 60s using super 8 film, so maybe that's what he has.

And a college campus (in the 80s) would likely have the latest electronic gadgets available for its students to borrow. Or one of Obama's buddies might have lent him the camera. Could also have been a course project. Lots of possibilities. I hate when someone attempts to rule something out based on their own simple-simon logic.

[BfloGuy]

College “videos” in the early 1980s? The VCR was barely happening yet. Video cameras were quite rare.

They weren't that rare and VCR's had been around for a decade. It's true all that footage is on old tapes stored in attics now, but there's quite a bit of it.

[vanilla swirl]

” , there were home movies in the early 60s using super 8 film,”

My wife has “home movies” from the early 50’s.