Long time lurker, 1st time poster, But a few months ago a close friend passed away. For myself, my friends and especially his mother, I've been planning to collect every single clip of my good friend that we ever recorded. Fortunately for me about half of the footage is on MiniDv tapes/my computer, which I should have no problem capturing. The other half of footage, however is on about 20 Hi-8/Digital8 tapes on a camera I no longer have.
This is the camera that I believe we used back around 2003-2006
http://ak1.ostkcdn.com/images/products/MLA409032.jpg I know for a fact the camera was a Digital8 but we used Hi-8 and Digital 8 tapes because they were cheaper. For some reason I recall the issue of Hi-8 tapes being compatible with Digital8 and Super8 cameras but Digital8 and Super8 tapes were not compatible with Hi-8 cameras. So first off I just want to make sure before I spend $100-150 on one of these cameras, that I should buy the right one and just avoid Hi-8 cameras all together.
My next concern is whats the best way to capture this stuff. I have a Mac mini with a firewire800 port, I also have a macbook air. If i were to purchase this same camera, I'm pretty sure I would need some type of converter either from firewire to usb or this older firewire to the firewire800. I know there are a few types of different inputs and outputs for these firewire/IEEE 1934 link and I'm just wondering anyone had any recommendations on how exactly I go about this.
So all in all my questions reiterated are
1. should I just try and stick with the same camera that I believe was used before?
2. Is my memory right on tape compatibility with newer cameras correct, meaning I should avoid Hi-8 cameras
3. After purchasing a camera, should I go for firewire + firewire converter + to firewire800 port, or just look for some type of usb adapter.
Really any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.