My 1st post so if i screw up have mercy.
I had a Canon vision8 camera model VM-E70, it stopped working and so it got put in a cupboard. well spring clean (13 years later) found this artifact with a tape stuck inside, this was not so easily removed even using a screwdriver (cam kaput anyway). I have now got 10 tapes which it turns out have not been seen by a living person, I suspect that the major proportion of the footage is of the footwell in our hire car ( i was driving at the time so guess who was the camera operator) well what I would like to be able to do is get the footage onto my pc,

i do not want to use the send me your tapes and you can have them back when you have paid my ransom fee brigade but would not mind buying a camera/camcorder or deck that would allow me to transfer my holiday footage of trees and more trees and tarmac etc to a viewable medium.
So I know you have the answer the cheaper the better (being an old age pensioner, I am only allowed so much spending money a month allocated by the camera operator)
So if you can help please do so, there is a strong possibility that among the miles of footage there may be a glimpse of a young handsome man, yes you got it that would be me.

[senu]

I'm not sure but I believe Hi8 and some Digital 8 camcorders you can buy for not a lot play 8mm footage
If you get a digital 8 ( which can play 8mm) then you can use its firewire to transfer to PC
If not there are external boxes which allow transfer of analogue video from the likes of Hi 8 camcorders to a PC
Im sure you will find second hand camcorders in places like "cash converters" .. unless you know somebody with one who will let you check the tapes out
If the tapes Play, e-bay may be your friend... otherwise scout around.. and dont pay top dollar!

[ericpode]

Beware that not all Digital8 camcorders can play analog Hi8 recordings (and therefore digitise them).

When I bought mine several years ago you had to be very careful to check the feature list of Digital8 camcorders as most could NOT play Hi8 recordings.

The landscape may have changed a bit since then though.

[MarkE19]

AFAIK all Hi8 camcorders will play video8 tapes back, but as already mentioned only a few Digital8 camcorders can play analogue tapes. The only likely problem with a Hi8 cam is if the origional tapes were recorded in LP as different makes and models used different methods for LP. As senu mentioned a D8 cam should be your easiest option as it will be able to be connected to the PC via firewire and therefore no other devices/cards will be required (as long as you have a firewire input on the PC already).

Mark.

Thanks for all advice, dont know any-one here just moved to area from the deep south so friends and family not nearby, yes i got firewire, i would have thought that as these are pictures of our hols then i would have recorded in LP if indeed that was available on this model.
So I guess on reading your comments the easiest for me to do is take a couple tapes in and let them sell me some-thing that plays the tapes with firewire capabality take a note of the machine and go on ebay to see if the shop is close to ebay, second hand poses problems if it packs up, but mind you as long as it last until i transfer footage to pc then hey and cheap sounds very good.
I have never used a forum before to get help and well I have to say I am glad i did so thanks everyone I