Old camcorder has distorted picture?

wow, distortion is an exceedingly rare symptom to see in a CCD based camera.  in the pre-CCD era, distortion was a common artifact of consumer video cameras. something is very wrong with the internal electronics.  i suspect that it may be a broken 3.58 mhz colorburst crystal which is the master timing clock or a coupling capacitor has dried out.  but whatever the cause, it is NOT worth repairing.   

As Spacemissing says, you might have to pay a lot of money to fix a camcorder which is 32 years old. The sensor is probably CCD rather than a tube sensor, but I would not put money on that idea. Unless you seriously want to operate a camcorder that old for the sheer fun of doing so, it is usually best to buy such items with less than 5 years of use.

Much more likely is that the machine needs major service,

especially if it had not been used for a long time before you rectivated it.

Take it to an audio/video repair shop that provides free estimates.

Expect to hear that rehabilitating it will cost $200 to $500. 

And I would not be the Least Bit surprised to find that 

a camcorder that old had a vidicon tube rather than a CCD.  

Vidicon tube cameras are big headaches when anything goes wrong with them. 

Lesson: 

Never Buy A Used Camcorder Without First Thoroughly Testing It.