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What kind of adapter I need to connect an old MacBook Air (late 2012) to a mini dv video camera? Mac serms to have Thunderbolt connector, whereas the camera has dv connector.
MacBook Air 13″
Apple once made a Thunderbolt to FireWire 800 adapter for old-style Thunderbolt 1/2 ports, like the ones on Mid 2012 MacBook Airs. (There were no Late 2012 MacBook Airs.)
If you daisy-chained that with appropriate FireWire cables/adapters (probably FireWire 800 to 4-pin FireWire 400), that would let you make a digital connection, for importing DV video into iMovie. But that adapter has disappeared from the online U.S. Apple Store.
Several Thunderbolt 1 & 2 docks had FireWire ports, as did the Apple Thunderbolt Display (the 2.5K one that Apple sold between 2011 and 2016, not the current 5K Studio Display). But all of those are long gone. (OWC still has one Thunderbolt 2 dock, but it doesn't have a FireWire port.)
Apple once made a Thunderbolt to FireWire 800 adapter for old-style Thunderbolt 1/2 ports, like the ones on Mid 2012 MacBook Airs. (There were no Late 2012 MacBook Airs.)
If you daisy-chained that with appropriate FireWire cables/adapters (probably FireWire 800 to 4-pin FireWire 400), that would let you make a digital connection, for importing DV video into iMovie. But that adapter has disappeared from the online U.S. Apple Store.
Several Thunderbolt 1 & 2 docks had FireWire ports, as did the Apple Thunderbolt Display (the 2.5K one that Apple sold between 2011 and 2016, not the current 5K Studio Display). But all of those are long gone. (OWC still has one Thunderbolt 2 dock, but it doesn't have a FireWire port.)
Thunderbolt 1 and 2 live on the Mini DisplayPort connector.
Thunderbolt 3 and 4 live on USB-C. When Intel came up with Thunderbolt 3, they saw USB-C standardization efforts underway, and decided that Thunderbolt would have a brighter future on the USB-C connector.
The Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter plugs into a Thunderbolt 1 or 2 port. Apple never released a newer version that would plug into a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 port. (Apple also dropped the ball in other ways – when they discontinued iDVD, an application that you could use to make nice home DVD-Video discs from your imported MiniDV / Digital8 footage.)
Thus Mac owners with Thunderbolt 3 or 4 ports are forced to use an expensive workaround: daisy-chaining an Apple Thunderbolt 3-to-2 adapter ($50) and an Apple Thunderbolt-to-Firewire adapter ($30).
I personally use a Narvitech Saturn NV100C to connect my video camera to my Mac. and it then uses QuickTime Player to save the movies to my Mac. and if I want to burn those videos in a format that will work in a stand alone DVD player, I use the free app called Burn.
Thanks for the links, that is one possibility. But seems like that device captures video from analog cables, so the quality is not the best possible. Mini DV format is digital, thus I want to transfer my videos without digital-to-analog - analog-to-digital -conversions. That would preserve the original quality.
Good to know. So, the Mid 2012 MacBook Air has different type of Thunderbolt port than the new ones? I mean, the new Thunderbolt-FireWire adapters will not fit into that?
Transferring mini DV videos to an old MacBook Air (late 2012)
