There was a time when home films meant grainy pictures of the family playing on the beach, typically shot on 35mm film.
However, the coming of home video cameras improved the picture quality and made the process simple enough for anyone to sit in the director's chair.
As prices fell, home video cameras became more commonplace. Soon, everyone seemed to have one and filmed everything from parties to family holidays. It seems everybody wants to be Steven Spielberg.
Now Japanese electronics giant JVC has announced the launch of the first consumer high-definition (HD) digital video (DV) camera. The GR-HD1 will appear in Japanese stores early next month.
The camera uses MPEG2 compression to record digital HD images on to mini DV tapes.
Definition is 750 x 30 pixels. Until now, that kind of picture quality was only available on expensive professional cameras.