Converting old analog camcorder video tapes to DVD

After spending days scouring the web I still have the following question:
I have old small Video 8 camcorder tapes, a Mac with a SuperDrive and iMovie/iDVD, but no camera anymore to put the tapes in - what do I buy in order to convert my little tapes into DVDs?
I would appreciate any and all help!
-Joanna 39

Joanna,
As previously mentioned, one method is to buy a Digital8 camcorder by Sony which should be able to play older analog 8mm and Hi8 tapes. I do this all the time as I have a stack of old 8mm and Hi8 analog tapes I am slowly getting around to digitizing, importing to iMovie, light editing, archival copy back out to digital tape, and finally a copy on DVD to watch. I have a Sony Digital8 camcorder and all I do is simply hook up the camcorder to my eMac via a Firewire cable, pop in my old analog tapes, and start importing. The camcorder does the analog to digital conversion and passes that stream up to the Mac.
You can also buy MiniDV models of camcorder that support what is known as pass-thru where you patch your old analog camcorder into the MiniDV camcorder and then firewire to the Mac. The miniDV takes the analog coming in, digitizes it, then passes it thru to the Mac. But since you said you don't have any camcorder now, this would require you to buy two, so this option is kind of out.
Perhaps if you are not interested in investing in a new (or used) Digital8 camcorder, someone in your area (or out of your area if you are willing to ship) with the right equipment could do it for you. Depending on the number of tapes you are talking about, you could invest in a large capacity external Firewire drive which could then be given, along with your tapes, to the person who is going to do it for you. They would import the tapes into iMovie project folders onto your external hard drive. Once all in the hard drive, tapes and drive would be returned to you and you could access the projects on the hard drive by plugging it into your Mac. Tapes could then be safely tucked away for safekeeping. You may have to pay a fee for this, especially if someone is willing to put the wear and tear on their Digital8 camcorder or other tape device to transfer that footage. You may be able to get the person to do stuff like put copies onto digital tapes and/or make DVDs of the tapes, all of which take time of course.
Maybe you could post the area of the world you live in and see if anyone near you is interested.
Patrick

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