What VHS actually did to a picture
- Chroma subsampling, aggressively. VHS recorded colour at roughly a fortieth of the luminance bandwidth. Colours smear horizontally, most visibly on saturated reds.
- Interlacing. Each frame was two fields captured a sixtieth of a second apart, so fast motion shows comb-tooth edges.
- Around 240 lines of real resolution, so everything is soft vertically as well as horizontally.
- Tracking noise. Bands of static that roll through the frame, worst at the start and end of a tape.
- Head-switching noise. A band of torn video in the bottom few lines of every frame, hidden on old TVs by overscan.
- The timestamp overlay, in the camcorder's blocky white font, often with the day of the week.
- Audio hiss and a slight wow-and-flutter warble.
Chroma bleed is the giveaway
If you want one test for whether a VHS filter is any good, film something red against something pale. A red top, a can, a lipstick. On real tape, the red visibly leaks to the right of its own edge, several pixels wide, softly.
Filters that only add scanlines and static will keep the red perfectly aligned, and the result reads as a modern video with noise on top. Chroma bleed is what makes the brain say "tape".
How to shoot it
- Shoot indoors, in the evening, with lamps on. Camcorders were an indoor format and their auto white balance never coped with tungsten.
- Handheld, no stabilisation. A gimbal-smooth VHS clip is a contradiction.
- Zoom in and out. The motorised zoom is part of the language, along with the whir on the audio.
- Talk to the camera. Home video is participatory; the person filming is a character.
- Include something saturated and red so the chroma bleed has something to do.
The recipe
| Setting | Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Chroma resolution | Quartered horizontally, bleed right | The defining artefact |
| Interlacing | On, comb edges in motion | Two fields per frame |
| Vertical resolution | ~240 lines | Tape limit |
| Tracking noise | Occasional rolling bands | Head alignment drift |
| Head switching | Torn band, bottom 6 lines | Mechanical artefact |
| Timestamp | White blocky font, with weekday | Camcorder overlay |
| Audio | Hiss, slight warble | Analogue tape |
Which apps get it right
Dazz Cam includes VHS-style video cameras in its paid catalogue and is the most complete option available today.
RareVision VHS Cam is a long-standing single-purpose app with a convincing camcorder interface.
ShutterAI's VHS Sleepover models chroma bleed and interlacing rather than overlaying lines, renders live, and keeps the original clip untouched so the look stays reversible. See the full film app comparison.
Questions people ask
What is the best VHS filter app for iPhone?
Dazz Cam's VHS cameras and RareVision VHS Cam are the established options. ShutterAI's VHS Sleepover models chroma bleed and interlacing live rather than overlaying static.
Why does my VHS filter look fake?
Most add scanlines and noise but keep colour perfectly aligned. Real tape stored colour at a fraction of the brightness resolution, so colours smear sideways past their edges. Without that bleed it reads as a modern video with an overlay.
Does the VHS look work on photos?
Weakly. Interlacing, tracking noise and chroma bleed are all temporal or motion-related. A VHS-styled still mostly just looks low resolution.
What year should the VHS timestamp be?
Home camcorder use peaked from about 1988 to 1999. A date in that range with the weekday included reads as authentic; a 2026 date with a VHS look reads as a joke, which is sometimes the point.