Best way to view Hi8 tapes?

I_smell_fear

Hey all,

I hope this is the right thread for such a concern. I came across our old family camcorder (Canon UC 7000[E]) with three Hi8 tapes (P5 types?) in a clean out recently. Unfortunately, we are missing the battery charger and both batteries are flat/dead. I'm reasonably confident that the camcorder would work fine for viewing the tapes if we could charge the battery(s).

We really want to view the tapes in whatever way is best possible, so I'm wondering what our options would be. Simply source a charger? Is there a place to view Hi8 tapes? Convert the tapes to digital?

I'm not the most competent technology-wise, so any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

briano.de.rhino

I lost my charger on a sony hi8 camcorder and had to fork out over €100 for a replacement charger.

Other option is to go to pretty much any bookstore and they usually offer a service to send off tapes to be put to dvd. They might do hi8 tapes. bout €25 per tape.

Or find someone willing to lend u a camcorder or transfer them for u.

B

Tactical

Some camcorders will allow operation from an external power supply.

Does your camcorder offer this?

The camera operates on 6V DC. If there is no external power socket it's possible to attach (maybe with small crocodile clips or even by soldering) two wires to the battery contacts on the camera. You could then attach to a suitable power supply capable of supplying 6 V DC at 1 Amp. Be careful to get the polarity correct or the camcorder may be damaged.

The current capacity of the power supply obtained from looking up the operating wattage of the camera in question and simply calculating.