8mm

8mm was originally introduced in 1932 by Eastman Kodak. 8mm film was actually 16mm wide. The film was run through the camera one time, exposing half of the film. At the end of the reel, the reel was flipped making the other unexposed side ready for filming. During processing the film was split down the middle and the two halves were spliced together. Most reels allowed for 3-4 minutes of filming.

Super 8

In 1965 Eastman Kodak introduced Super 8 film, which offered several improvements over regular 8mm. First, Super came in easy-to-use plastic cartridges. Second, the size of the sprocket holes were reduced allowing for a larger picture frame, which in return meant a higher quality picture. Most reels were 50 ft. in length and could capture 2-3 minutes of footage.  

16mm

VHS

This was the consumer format of the 1980's and early '90's.   Most cassettes could record up to 2 hours if recorded in "SP" mode and up to 6 hours in "EP/SLP" mode.   Picture quality, however, went down when recorded in "EP/SLP" mode. While VHS cassettes were cheap and easy to use, they recorded a rather poor picture and sound. Another downside is footage captured on VHS slowly deteriorates and loses picture quality over time.

VHS-C

VHS-C is a compact version of regular VHS. Because of the cassettes smaller size, VHS-C camcorders could also be smaller and more convenient for travel. It uses the same magnetic tape as VHS, but requires an adapter to play in a VCR. Most cassettes could hold around 30 minutes of footage.

Video8/Hi8/Digital8

In the early '90's Video8 and Hi8 became one of the most popular consumer formats. These cassettes measured 2.5" x 3.75" and could hold up to 120 minutes of footage. Digital8 was introduced in 1999 and offered higher quality picture and sound due to it's digital encoding. However, there was never an affordable consumer 8mm player made. This means in order to view the footage, the cassettes must be played back through a camcorder, causing unnecessary wear on the camcorder heads.  

MiniDV

MiniDV is the current consumer standard for high quality digital video. The cassettes are 1.75" x 2.5" and use a 1/4" tape. Most MiniDV tapes hold up to 60 minutes of footage. Until recently, there was no affordable consumer player on the market.   Therefore, like the 8mm formats, MiniDV had to be played back through a camcorder for viewing. MiniDV has the best picture quality of any format transferred to DVD.

78's

33's

45's

Reel-to-reel

Audio reels are played and recorded on players similar to film projectors. The tape is fed from one reel (supply reel) to another (take-up reel), hence the name reel-to-reel. This format was the professional industry standard for many years. It was also quite popular with consumers. However, today it is sometimes impossible to find a working reel-to-reel player. Because of this, most people never hear their recordings.

Cassettes

Cassettes were introduced in the 1960's and gave other tape formats some competition. They were inexpensive, compact and most important, portable.   Unfortunately, the quality of a recording on magnetic tape goes down over time. The tape is also prone to break. Cassettes were nearly wiped out in the 1980's when the digital CD was introduced. However, cassettes are still available.