Different types and brief history of video tapes

1976: VHS (Video Home System) - VCR tape
Developed by JVC it was the standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes.

1982: VHS-C (Compact VHS) - VCR tape
A shrunken down VHS tape that could be used to capture footage in a handheld video camera then played back in a VCR with an adapter.

1985: Video8 - Camera tape
The first of its kind. Contained an 8mm wide film developed by Sony for their handycam.

1989: Hi8 - Camera tape
The same cassette housing and 8mm wide film except with higher grade film resulting in slightly better video quality.

1999: Digital8 - Camera tape
The last of its kind. Again used the same tape stock and 8mm wide film as the previous two except an even slightly better video resolution than a Hi8 tape.

1995: MiniDV - Camera tape
Another mainstream handheld camera tape developed by Sony which is now even smaller than the 8mm tape. Certain MiniDV tapes finally were able to achieve high definition quality yielding up to 1080p resolution.

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