Tape — Retro VHS Camcorder

Every era of home video in your pocket: VHS, Hi8, MiniDV. The look is recorded onto the tape as you shoot, not added after. One payment, no subscription.

A camcorder that records onto tape.

Pick an era and shoot. The look goes onto the recording as it happens — the softness, the colour smearing sideways, the torn band where the head switches — so what comes out of Tape is what a camcorder of that decade would have handed you. Nothing is added afterwards, because on tape nothing was added afterwards.

SEVEN LOOKS, EACH WITH ITS OWN SOUND VHS 80s — vintage home video, worn and fringed. VHS 90s — the classic camcorder half of us were filmed on. Hi8 90s — sharper and cooler, still unmistakably tape. MiniDV 2000s — the first format that held the picture steady. Cinema — grain, halation and gate weave. Neon Night — the city after dark, all bloom. No filter — straight off the lens.

IT ROLLS LIKE TAPE Press record and everything you shoot lands on the same tape, take after take, until you eject it. Ejecting closes the tape and saves it to Photos in one piece — one file, in order, the way a cassette played back.

A SHELF, NOT A CAMERA ROLL Keep several tapes loaded at once, each in its own format. Name a tape before you shoot it. Slide the camera aside to reach the shelf, load a different one, or throw one away.

THE DATE IN THE CORNER The date stamp is on out of the box, in the right corner, burned into the picture the way a camcorder's own character generator burned it in: coarse lettering, hard black outline, bleeding sideways. Move it to the left corner, or switch it off. Everything else on screen — timecode, tape name, the REC lamp — stays on screen and never reaches the recording.

DETAILS 4:3, 30 fps, 1440 x 1080. The volume buttons work the transport, like the stock camera does. Front and back lenses. On the front one the screen itself becomes the fill light. Hold to zoom. Turn the phone and the readouts turn with it, while the controls stay where your hands left them.

ONE PAYMENT, NOT A SUBSCRIPTION VHS 90s and the unfiltered picture are free, with no limit on how long you shoot, and your first three tapes save to Photos free. Tape Pro unlocks the other five looks and saves without limit, for a single payment — nothing to renew, nothing to cancel. Every format added later is part of the same purchase, and it is shared with your family.

NO ACCOUNT, NOTHING UPLOADED No sign-up, no ads, no feed. What you shoot stays on your phone until you send it somewhere yourself.