Sony SL-C6

  FORMAT: Betamax

DATE: 1982

PRICE: £400
[1994: £690]

xxcm

 
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The C6 came out a year after the C5 and C7, and internally shared many of the same components and assemblies. But it is very different from the user's point of view, being the first front-loading VCR. (The first-front loading VHS and V2000 machines - Sharp VC-8300H, Grundig 2x4 super - are also 1982 vintage, but as far as we can discover the C6 was the first.)

The loading system is activated when a cassette is pushed into the slot, through two spring-loaded doors. Motorised rollers draw the cassette into the carriage, which then descends to lower the tape into the mechanism in the same way as a top loader. One neat feature is a little banner which pops into the loading slot, to tell you that a cassette is inside - there is of course now no way to read the cassette's label once it is inserted.  

The new-fangled front loading approach meant that all the controls could be moved to the front of the machine, giving a much more conventional look to the C6. The only odd feature is the sliding record switch - only one switch is required to start recording, like the C5/C7, but a slider is less likely to be accidentally activated than a pushbutton.

It is a large and heavy machine, and the thin, silver metal case gives it a rather cheap and nasty feel. These machines were rented widely, and around a year later a MkII version was released with an updated and modernised front fascia. Internally the two were effectively identical.  

 

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