getting images off digital camcorders

[valian]

Hi,

I have a Hi8 analogue video camera & was wondering just how much improvement in quality would I get if i changed to a digital camcorder???

would the difference be worth the cost?? can get a digital camera for < $1000 Aust.

also digital cameras use firewire to transfer data to the PC, is this a pure digital to digital transfer process??? thereby losing NO quality

also if I fed the images into my Panasonic set top & copied straight to dvd (set top doesnt have firewire connection , so would use RCA connections) this would lose quality as it is a digital to analogue back to digital prosess?? is this correct.
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many thanks

[bugster]

I have a Hi8 analogue video camera & was wondering just how much improvement in quality would I get if i changed to a digital camcorder???

That very much depends on the quality of the analog cam Vs the quality of the digital cam. Its not really down to the storage medium, many other things come into play. Try and play with a digital camera in the shop and decide for yourself.

also digital cameras use firewire to transfer data to the PC, is this a pure digital to digital transfer process??? thereby losing NO quality

Correct

also if I fed the images into my Panasonic set top & copied straight to dvd (set top doesnt have firewire connection , so would use RCA connections) this would lose quality as it is a digital to analogue back to digital prosess?? is this correct.

Correct again, but DV is compressed at a much higher bitrate than DVD, so even if you had a firewire connection on your settop, further compression would have to take place to put it on to DVD, so some quality loss is unavoidable.

[Gees]

Don't know if this important to you, but from personal observations, some (less expensive) analog cameras do better in low light than comparable digital cams.

This might be worth your testing, depending on what/where you usually film.