Optura 40 FireWire port fault

[Ducatisti]

Hi.  Camcorder still works great however the digital output on the IEEE 1394 (FireWire) port suddenly died! I have 30+ DV tapes that I want to download to PC with highest quality.  Has anyone else experienced this issue?  Is it possible to repair?

[kvbarkley]

I doubt that you can get it repaired. However:

Are you sure it is the camera and not the computer?

You might try opening it up and seeing if it just a bad solderjoint on the connector.

[Ducatisti]

Thanks for the input.  99.9% certain it's the camera.  Tried different computer and software with same result.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

There are a lot of places that do mini DV to DVD transfers.  Try googling it with your ZIP code.  I'm sure can find something.

[IamintheUK]

If you had the camera and computer powered on when you plugged in the Firewire cable it is possible to fry one or both ports. Something you have to be careful of.

[kvbarkley]

FireWire, like USB, is designed to be hot-pluggable so that is unlikely.

[IamintheUK]

Designed for hot plugging, yes, but unfortunately prone to shorting the pins when inserting the plug, especially with the small sockets on cameras if you don't put it in straight. A lot of instruction manuals will state to have everything powered down before connecting or dis-connecting Firewire.cables.