I have an old Canon ES200 analog 8mm camcorder with 15x optical zoom that I bought about 10 years ago. I've probably only used it a handful of times and it's still in great shape as it's been stored away in a sealed dust-free container for many years.
I have a bunch of old 8mm tapes that my dad took of me playing baseball which was one of the reasons I bought the Canon ES200 years ago to play those. We just had a baby boy two weeks ago and I'm trying to decide if I should upgrade to a new camcorder. Part of me thinks yes because I want to capture these moments in the best available format at this point in time -- but then the other part of me says well my existing camcorder works fine, although not the best quality, and then when it quits in years down the road I can get a new one then when the technology is that much better. What would you do?
Is the difference in quality that much better? How much would it cost me to convert 10-20 8mm tapes to DVD? Should I get a camcorder that will play the old 8mm tapes? Would it be cheaper to try and convert the tapes myself and what would I need to do that? I have a DVD+RW burner on my computer.
If I get a new camcorder, I'm not looking to spend more than $350-400. I just think the technology changes too fast to spend more than that.
I also wanted to mention that I have had horrible experiences with Sony products and their customer support and have boycotted the company over the last few years, if that matters. I did see that they seemed to make a digital camcorder that plays the old 8mm tapes though. But then someone said that D8 is "not really" digital. Anyone care to elaborate?