Marty holds the camera while filming Doc's experiment.
- "This is truly amazing. A portable television studio.."
- —Doc Brown observing the camcorder in 1955
See also JVC recorder.
The JVC camcorder was a brand of camcorder that Doc Brown possessed in 1985. Doc called Marty McFly to go to his garage and pick up the camcorder to bring to Twin Pines Mall on October 26. Marty documented the entire event and just before the Libyans attacked. Marty ran into the DeLorean time machine with the camcorder and transported it to 1955.
Once in 1955, Marty located the Doc of the past and showed him the tape. Doc was amazed that such a small device could record what a much larger television studio could do at the time. Upon watching the video, Doc realized that they needed 1.21 jigowatts of electricity to power the flux capacitor.
JVC television.
A JVC camcorder appeared in the window of the Blast From the Past antique store in 2015. A television in 2015 that portrayed a Michael Jackson simulcra was a JVC.
Marty records Doc as he explains how the time machine works.
Behind the scenes
It is unknown what eventually happened to the camcorder. After filming the experiment, Doc reminded Marty not to lose the tapes, so that proof of his invention would be kept safe in case anything happened to him. After Marty returned to 1985, Doc would have returned his truck and equipment (including the camcorder) to his house, and it is possible that Doc gave the videotape to Marty for safe keeping when he dropped him off at home before going to the future.
If he had left it in 1955, it is possible that Marty connected a time loop. Had Doc still possessed the camcorder by 1985, the second Marty would have likely been asked to retrieve it for the test, creating a predestination paradox. Doc could also have destroyed the first one and bought a replacement in the future, thus removing any paradox from the timeline.
On the other hand, if the camcorder and tape were kept in the DeLorean throughout their adventures, old Biff in 2015 could have watched it to learn how to operate the time machine.