Thread: 8MM to VHS adapter?

I have an 8MM Canon analog video camera, and also a VHS-C camera. I have an adapter that will alow me to drop the VHS-C tape into a VCR for viewing. Receintly a friend of mine gave me a tape out of his 8MM camcorder that I was going to convert to digital. I figured I could just drop it into my Canon camera and do what I had to do. Unfortunately it will not play in my camera for some reason. Does anyone make an adapter like the one I have for the VHS-C tape, so that I can view this thing? The guy with the camera lives in the mid-west, and I live on the east coast, short of having him send me his camera, any other suggestions?

No, there is not such an animal because the formats are different. The VHS-c is just a smaller length of the same format of tape. 8mm is too different for an adapter to work.

Thank you, I was afraid of that.

The 8MM tape your friend gave you should have played without any problems on your 8MM camcorder. Was the tape housing damaged or was the tape itself creased or lined? I don't think there was ever an 8MM adaptor but Sony did make two video decks back in the mid 1990's, I owned one of them and it was very useful for fastforwarding and rewinding. I had some old tapes still lying about and wanted to transfer them onto computer for editing and burning to DVD, and after much searching for an 8MM deck to play them back on earlier this year I had to give up and buy a Canon V75Hi to act as a playback deck. Not ideal as it busted 3 tapes, it didn't slow down when rewinding like a playback deck would and yanked the tape out of the righthand reel. Thankfully I managed to sell that camcorder a few weeks ago.

Maybe your friend gave you a Hi-8 tape and your camera wil ony play regular 8mm. ?

The tape he gave me does say Hi8 on it, but I also just now noticed it also says Digital8 on it. It is very possible that the guy that gave it to me didn't mention that he has a digital camera. This may explain everything. I will borrow my daughters camera that I know is digital and see if it works in there.

Thank you for the replys.

Mike

Yes digital! I meant to include that in my post and it sounds like that will be your problem. I also have Hi-8 and Digital 8. Digital 8 is the exact same quality and specs as DV but on a 8mm tape. Sony did this so people with a lot of 8mm tapes could still play them back on the new camera but also take high quality video in the DV quality standard.

Now that I think back, I seem to remember having the same problem trying to play a tape from my daughters camera. I'll let you know what happens.

I am DESPERATE for the adapter....do you know where they are available?

Originally Posted by Mike-C

I have an 8MM Canon analog video camera, and also a VHS-C camera. I have an adapter that will alow me to drop the VHS-C tape into a VCR for viewing. Receintly a friend of mine gave me a tape out of his 8MM camcorder that I was going to convert to digital. I figured I could just drop it into my Canon camera and do what I had to do. Unfortunately it will not play in my camera for some reason. Does anyone make an adapter like the one I have for the VHS-C tape, so that I can view this thing? The guy with the camera lives in the mid-west, and I live on the east coast, short of having him send me his camera, any other suggestions?

There are no adaptors available. You need to buy a cheap Hi 8 or Video 8 camcorder off the likes of ebay and play the tape back using it.