Eureka! DV tapes discovered; Elura 100 gone for years. What now?

[Wagcain]

My baby girl turns 17 this summer. I just discovered about 25 DV tapes of her 1st 2 years. Since I no longer have the camera (no idea where or when I parted with it), any suggestions for how to transfer the videos? Another Canon camcorder perhaps? Any other alternatives? Thanks in advance. Kevin in TX (THAT dad...)

[rs-eos]

I would look into a service that could provide digital files (e.g. H.264.  Bonus points if they could also provide H.265)

The main reason is that you'd need most likely need a FireWire 400 cable and either a very old computer, or a computer capable of working with a FireWire capture card.   The only time I was successful with this was with an old Mac Pro (circa 2007) that had a FireWire 400 port on it.   I used iMovie to capture the footage (play on the camera, then record in iMovie).  This was also a lengthy process as it was in real time.  i.e. to injest 1 hour of footage, it would take 1 hour.   I then used Apple's Compressor application to take the injested footage and output to H.264

If you do have such a setup, you could try it.  But with the quantity of tapes you have (assuming 30 mins each), that would be around 12 hours total just to injest.   A service could save you lots of time and frustration.

[Wagcain]

Sincere thanks for your detailed reply. I literally just got rid of a MacBook and iMac last summer that would’ve had the capability to do this. I, however, would not have had the patience to see this project through. Thanks again RS-EOS. 

[Tintype_18]

Hope you can download the tapes as a keepsake. FWIW, my baby girl is 45.

[Wagcain]

Thank Tintype. Long night, fast years…

[kvbarkley · Accepted solution]

I would use someone like legacy box. My Sony camcorder to 6to4Wire FW converter to FW to TB1 converter and TB1 to TB2 converter to M1 24 inch iMa to iMovie works now, but I am sure it is one software update away from breaking.

[Wagcain]

Much appreciated kvb. 
I will look into legacy box.