What to buy?

[David Crump]

<snip>
> Hello all, 
> We are wanting to buy a Mac-based video system but don't have a lot of 
> money. We are also confused about cameras and what will be compatible with 
> Mac. Here are our questions. 
> 1. We are considering the Sony camcorders, either TRV-22 or TRV-250. Neither 
> of which will play Hi-8 tapes. How do we get our former Hi-8 footage into 
> the Mac? 
Buy one of the Sony Digital8 models, which will read the analog Hi8 tapes as 
well as read/write in DV format to the same tapes. The Sony DCR-TRV350 with 
20x Optical/700x Digital Zoom should run less than $500. 
</snip>

If you still have your old Hi-8 Camera and it still works, I would go for the Sony TRV-22 or the Canon ZR60.  The Sony Digital-8 Camera will be cheaper for sure, and it would be convenient to be able to play your old tapes, but then you are stuck with the much larger camera and I believe Digital-8 resolution isn't as good as Mini-DV (correct me if I'm wrong).

I just gave this exact same advice to my Dad.  A digital-8 camera would have made sense for him because he has lots of Hi-8 tapes, but he can still use them by hooking the old camera up to the new one and converting to digital.  He went with the ZR60 because it was significantly cheaper than the Sony TRV-22.  The cheaper sony TRV-19 apparently does not do analog to digital conversion.
I'm not familiar with the TRV-250, so I can't help you with that.
Hope this helps.
Dave.