A pawn shop guy told me my old Sony camcorder was garbage... he was partly right

Brought my 2003 Sony DCR-TRV22 to a local shop for a lens cleaning last month. The guy behind the counter laughed and said I should just use my phone, the tape quality isn't worth the hassle. I almost walked out, but he offered to show me something on his own old kit. He popped the tape out and said my recording levels were way too hot, that's why everything looked blown out. He set me up with a manual audio level trick and a tip about using a UV filter for outdoor shots. I changed both and now my footage actually looks like I know what I'm doing. The lens still had dust in it, but the picture is way better. Has anyone else had a shop guy save their old gear instead of telling you to upgrade?

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the_cora11d ago

Man, that shop guy actually did you a solid. I had the same issue with an old MiniDV deck, and dropping the levels fixed more than any cleaning ever did.