By James Wells
SYDNEY: To reinforce its controversial television advertising campaign, The Kiss, Sony has commissioned research to demonstrate that video cameras help preserve life’s memories.
According to the research, one in 10 Australians do not have a clear memory of their own wedding day.
“According to the study, a staggering 11 per cent of people who have tied the knot struggle to remember their special day, but the majority (74 per cent) of Australians agree that it’s a precious memory they wish they could have captured on video camera to re-live for years to come,” said Sony in a statement.
Sony also claimed that 40 per cent of Australians cannot clearly remember their first kiss, 28 per cent of Australian parents do not have a clear memory of their child’s first steps, 19 per cent of Australians do not clearly remember their favourite holiday and the same percentage do not have a clear memory of the first time they met the love of their lives.
“In the battle of the sexes, women come out on top when it comes to remembering certain defining moments in life; 39 per cent of fathers cannot remember their child’s first steps, compared with just 18 per cent of mothers. But when it comes to remembering their biggest sporting achievement, men kick some goals, with 63 per cent claiming to have a clear recollection of the event, compared with just 53 per cent of women,” said Sony.
“Recognising that our memories fade over time, 84 per cent of Australians agree that it is important to capture and re-live precious memories. And when it comes to moments people would like to capture on video camera to relive time and time again, 80 per cent of Australians chose their favourite holiday, beating other defining moments such as; taking their own first steps, their child’s first steps, their first kiss, the moment they met the love of their life, their biggest sporting achievement or their wedding day.”
"Playing video recordings of life’s ‘moments’ could be a useful way of adding value to memories you already possess,” said Associate Professor Greg Savage, a neuropsychologist at the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science at Macquarie University, NSW.
“Normal memory is not ‘photographic’, and what usually persists over time is a fuzzy sense of the moment. Memories of life experiences are like mosaics of all the little pieces of detail that you remember, blended with other people’s versions of events, and they change in subtle ways with each time you revisit the past."
Sony Australia handycam product manager, Di Shepherd, believes video cameras are one of the most powerful ways to preserve many of life’s most precious memories.
“Sony’s latest range of Handycam camcorders enables users to quickly and easily capture important moments in high definition, making the memory so clear, that it will never fade. The quality of the footage is so close to what the human eye actually records that you can re-live the memory just the way it happened for years to come.”
According to the Sony research, when asked which features would be important when choosing a video camera to capture personal memories, almost all Australians agree superior picture quality (95%) and images that have natural and realistic colours (95%) are important aspects, followed closely by clear and static-free sound (94%), being able to share this footage easily with family and friends (92%) and being able to capture high quality still images (90%).