Format timeline

Format guide

From the first photograph in 1826 to the memory cards of the 2000s: 20 formats by launch year. Tap any one to read its story and how we digitise it.

1820s
1826
Image
Photographs
From a black-and-white image that took a whole day to expose to the colour prints every photo shop could make. Every print in the family album comes out of those two hundred years.
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1830s
1835
Image
Negatives
The original image left on every developed roll of film. Colours and tones are reversed, yet it holds more detail than any print made from it.
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1880s
1888
Video
Cine film
Metal reels wound with a family’s home movies: birthdays, weddings and holidays, recorded frame by frame.
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1930s
1935
Audio
Open reel
Tape with no shell, running from one reel to another. Before the cassette, radio, studios and enthusiasts recorded their best sound on it.
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1936
Image
Slides
A positive image on clear film. For decades, this is how families gathered round the projector to relive holidays and celebrations.
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1960s
1963
Audio
Cassette
A small plastic shell holding 3.81 mm tape. Home-made mixtapes, radio shows and family messages were all kept on one.
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1970s
1971
Video
U-matic
The world’s first videocassette, on ¾-inch tape. Much of the 70s and 80s footage from schools, companies and newsrooms is stored in these big shells.
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1975
Video
Betamax
Sony’s first home videotape. It looked better than VHS but lost the format war, and plenty of 70s and 80s family footage still sits on Betamax today.
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1976
Video
VHS
A black plastic shell holding half-inch magnetic tape. Through the 80s and 90s, almost every family birthday, wedding and holiday was recorded on one.
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1980s
1982
Video
Betacam
The professional tape television ran on for more than thirty years. News footage, programme masters and event recordings were shot on Betacam.
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1985
Image
CD-ROM
A 12 cm silver disc read by laser from millions of microscopic pits. Games, encyclopaedias, wedding albums and holiday photos of the 90s were burned onto them.
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1987
Audio
DAT
About half the size of a cassette, but recording digital sound. Through the 90s, studios, radio stations and live engineers kept their masters on DAT.
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1989
Video
Hi8
A palm-sized cassette of 8mm-wide tape. Through the 90s, holidays and first steps were filmed on a Handycam and saved to Hi8.
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1990s
1994
Image
CF
Thick, tough and roomy, CompactFlash was the professional photographer’s card for over two decades. Many wedding and event originals still live on old CF cards.
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1995
Image
SmartMedia
Thinner than a credit card, with its gold contacts on the face, SmartMedia was the card in many people’s first digital camera in the late 90s.
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1995
Video
MiniDV
A digital videotape the size of a matchbox. Through the 2000s, graduations, weddings and babies’ first years were filmed on MiniDV.
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1996
Video
DVCAM
Sony’s professional digital tape, built on DV. Weddings, corporate events and news crews shot a great deal on DVCAM.
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1997
Image
MMC
MMC looks almost identical to an SD card, and it came first. Many photos and recordings from early phones, PDAs and MP3 players were saved on one.
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1999
Image
SD
A card the size of a postage stamp, used in everything from digital cameras and camcorders to phones. Many families still have photos and clips sitting on old SD cards in a drawer.
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2000s
2002
Image
xD
Fingernail-sized and made for Olympus and Fujifilm cameras. If your family shot with either brand in the 2000s, old photos may still be on an xD card.
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Capture · Our team

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