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Video
Recording >
Formats
> 8mm
8mm
Image quality: poor
Generation
loss: Yes. Even 2nd generation copies look poor.
Recording
method: Composite
Digital
or Analog: Analog
Other
incarnations: Hi8 (Somewhat better picture)
Uses:
8mm (and Hi8) is still used in some consumer camcorders
because the tape itself is very small. The small size
is really the only advantage of 8mm. While 8mm was pretty
cool in the 1980s, now it’s on the decline as even
smaller formats have come on the market.
You
can NOT play an 8mm tape in a VHS machine—nomatter
what kind of adapter you have. VHS and 8mm are incompatible
formats, which means you can’t play them interchangably.
In fact, all the formats in this list are incompatible
with each other.
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8mm
(and its cousin Hi8) was the smallest
format throughout the 80s and early
90s. The graphic at the right is designed
to help you see size comparisons.
(Everything is compared to VHS, since
it's the format we all know.)
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