Does the quality of the camcorder matter when copying to the computer or for playback? I would probably go with a mid range model but was wondering if a high end model would make any difference as I would probably not use it to record anything. Also would it make a difference if a Digital8 camcorder was used to play the Hi8 tapes?
Interesting question... The quality of a camera is determined by the quality of the elements in the total process: 1. The optics (lenses and accuracy of the positioning) 2. CCD (quality and size) 3. Electronics (signal processing and digitizing) 4. Recording head (quality and position accuracy) If you only want to use the camera for digitizing via pass through, 1,2 and 4 are of no importance, so it all comes down to the electronics. It is going to be very tough to find out about the quality of that, because electronics is something that is shared by many brand manufacturers and you may find the same electronics in different brands. It probably does not make much of a difference if you use a Digital8 camera to digitize Hi8 or a miniDV camera as a pass through. However, if you still have the camera that you used to film the material on Hi-8 it is a good idea to also use that to play it back, which would then mean taht you will have to go the pass-through route. At various occasions I have noted that tape played on another camera than it was recorded on results in lower quality. Probably has to do with head positioning, but I don't really know. http://www.digitalvideoclub.com
I have another question similar to this. If the Digital8 camcorder has a firewire connection is it better to just transfer the Hi8 tapes through firewire or using a capture card? Also would capturing the Hi8 or Digital8 tape through a TBC and then a capture card result in better results or worse?
