Hi8 and digital8 tapes to DVD

I have old digital8 and Hi8 tapes that I want to edit and then put on DVD. My plan is to buy a digital 8 camcorder on ebay and use my mac to create a DVD presumable via iMovie. I want to be sure to purchase a camcorder that will function in this way converting the analog and digital8 to digital. I have looked at the sony DCR-TRV520 and 350. Both seem to fit the bill. Does anyone have any personal experience with these camcorders or other recommendations.

I have looked at the sony DCR-TRV520 and 350. Both seem to fit the bill. Does anyone have any personal experience with these camcorders or other recommendations.
I have used similar (but not exactly the same) sony cameras.
I have never seen a camera with FireWire, (Sony calls it iLink) not work with iMovie 09 (or iMovie 06).
I have old digital8 and Hi8 tapes that I want to edit and then put on DVD.
Let me assume that these movies are important to you and that you want the best quality possible.
I would use iMovie 06 with iDVD 09.
iMovie 09 uses 'single field processing' meaning every other horizontal line of the video is thrown out, which reduces the sharpness of the footage. iMovie 06 uses ALL of the image to form the video.
Your workflow is editing DV clips and making DVDs, so iMovie 06 is better suited. Your movie will arrive at iDVD in DV format, which is an ideal match for making a DVD: same resolution, same pixels aspect ratio, and original quality. If you share your movie from iMovie 09, it gets re-rendered at 640x480 or less, and then iDVD upscales it back to 720x480. The end result is obviously not as good.
iMovie 06 and iDVD 09 is a "lossless" combination.
iMovie 09 is a wonderful program assuming that you're using it for what it was designed to do, assemble videos to share on the Internet.

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    Hi Pieman
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