8mm Video Formats

8mm Video refers to a group of three video formats: Video8, Hi8 and Digital8. Together these formats, championed by Sony, played a very important part in the early history of consumer and pro-sumer camcorders.

Video8 and Hi8 are now obsolete. Digital8 is still considered current but only just — it's something of a transition format and is unlikely to survive much longer.

More information:

• Video8: The original 8mm analog format
• Hi8: Higher-resolution analog format
• Digital8: Digital format with backwards compatibility
• Digital8 vs MiniDV: A comparison of these competing formats