What is VHS-C?

Remember those cute little chunky videotapes you used to put into your camcorder? Those are called VHS-C cassettes, otherwise known as Compact VHS.

The picture quality stood at around 480p, a standard for its time. This format is special to me because it's what my family used to capture special events when I was a kid.

The tapes were practical and easy to bring along on excursions or vacations due to their small size. They would often only hold 30 minutes of footage each, however, some were made to hold 60 minutes.

To view the footage from these cassettes, you could either plus you camcorder into your TV using RCA cables (which would typically be included in the camcorder bag), or you could buy a cassette converter. These fancy devices basically morphed your tiny cassette into a full size VHS that can be played in your VCR, and were interchangeable!

My family camcorder is pushing 30 years old at this point and still works, along with the cassette converter; a nice little piece of tech that seems to have stood the test of time.