A Quick Guide to Camcorder Formats

Larry Lemm
March 2001

There are lots of camcorder formats in use today. They come in a myriad of confusing names that all sound alike. If you've ever wanted to find out what the differences are between camcorder formats like VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C and S-VHS-C, keep reading. If you're curious about the distinctions between 8mm, Hi8, Digital8 and DV then this guide to the camcorder formats will be very helpful.

For each type of videotape, there are some important features to examine. First, there's the picture quality of the camcorder format, which is expressed in lines of resolution. The more lines of resolution you have, the better your picture will look. Next is audio dub. Audio dub is the ability to record audio over existing video without erasing the video portion. Next is the format's ability to resist generation loss, or the video noise that occurs when you copy a tape. Combine these features with factors like tape length and size of the tape (and camcorder) and you have a pretty good idea of the features that differentiate the camcorder formats. Let's take a closer look at them format by format.

This is one camcorder format that practically everyone knows and uses to some extent. VHS is the big ole videotape that your home VCR uses, and for some technologically-inhibited individuals, this is enough of a reason to use a camcorder that records in VHS. The simple ability to shoot a tape and stick that tape right into their VCR is the most important feature in these peoples' minds.

Almost every videographer will end up using VHS for distribution copies, but besides that last step in the video production cycle, professionals will avoid VHS like the plague. You'd think that it might be because of VHS's large overall size, but it's really because VHS has a low overall picture quality, maxing out at about 250 lines of resolution. VHS also has horrible generation loss, making the editing of VHS tapes a tricky endeavor for linear editors.

Once, one of the main complaints against full-sized VHS was the size of the tape, and the corresponding large size of the VHS camcorder. So JVC introduced a reduced-sized VHS and called it VHS-C (or compact VHS). On the plus side, it could play in a regular VCR with an adapter. By reducing the size of the cassette, they also reduced the length of time it could play. Size and length are the most significant differences between VHS and VHS-C.

This camcorder format is dwindling. JVC is only company that currently makes S-VHS-C camcorders. The format has the same pros of S-VHS: better resolution, S-video connections and timecode, and the overall size reduction of VHS-C. However, it has a shorter maximum length of tape.

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