At the beginning of the 1990s, just out SAIC, I worked with producers Tom Weinberg and Joel Cohen on The 90’s, a television series that aired on PBS.  Produced almost entirely with consumer Hi-8 camcorders, the show capitalized on the decent resolution of the cameras, and the producers’ ability to ship the things around the world to people who’d aim the camera at something intriguing, then mail it back to Chicago, pre-internet, for editing.  I still have my camera, and it works great.  Tom’s amassed a spectacular archive of video from this show and from the adventures of an amazing group of documentary videographers here:  http://www.mediaburn.org, and on YouTube.  Vintage Gilson (still looking for the Lava Lite factory footage):