iMovie for Mac with Firewire DV Cameras

[Hexley]

I have a Late 2011 13" MacBook Pro Core i7 with Firewire 800 and macOS High Sierra.

Will iMovie for Mac 10.1.9 work with the following Firewire cameras?

2000 Sony DCR-TRV720 (Digital 8)
2001 Canon XL1S (MiniDV)
2006 Canon XH-A1 (MiniDV)

Or do I need to downgrade my macOS or iMovie for Mac to an earlier version?

I am using these old firewire cameras again as I have some footage I would want to archive from tapes from as early as 1985.

 

[Dave Braine]

I don't think that the Sony will connect and Apple don't list any miniDV Canon Camcorders for iMovie 10, just a general HDV/DV compatibility. They do the same for JVC, and my JVC miniDV camcorder works fine with iMovie 10. Just connect them and see if they show up.

 

[sevoneone]

All of those cameras should work fine as long as they have a FireWire/iLink/IEEE 1394 port.

If I remember right, some of those Sony Digital8 camcorders could playback analog Video 8 and Hi-8 tapes and pass the analog signal through the same analog to digital converter the signal from the CCD chip went through making them great for capturing old analog home videos too.

Make sure to get a good head cleaning cassettes and clean often if you're passing multiple brands of old tapes through them.