Digital8 camcorders can be purchased at your local electronics store in the video camera section. These stores include but are not limited to Best Buy, Future Shop and Radio Shack.

The question here reads, can you play a Digital 8mm tape on an analog camcorder. The answer to this is NO. An analogue Video8 or Hi8 camcorder will display nothing useful if playing a tape recorded with the Digital8 standard.

Only a Digital8 camcorder can play a Digital8 recording. In many cases (but certainly not all) such a Digital8 camcorder will also play analogue Video8 and Hi8 tapes.

Be aware that sometimes a person will have used a tape branded as Digital8 to make recordings with a Video8 or Hi8 camcorder, and in this case the recordings ARE analogue.

Another option is to convert your 8mm tapes to digital or DVDs. There are a lot of 8mm video transfer services out there that can do this for cheap. StashSpace.Com is a good one, costs $6.95 per tape and they let you watch and edit online for free. Outside USA, try a Google search for "digital8 to DVD transfers UK" or similar.

The Sony GVD Digital 8 won't have quality comparable to DVD's, but it may be difficult for the average consumer to notice the difference.

The Sony VCR uses typical VHS tapes, just like the ones you rent or buy.

Sony developed the first digital camcorder that recorded uncompressed data and in 1995, they came out with the DV standard. Formats for digital camcorders include direct to disk recording and Digital8. Digital camcorders now record in MPEG formats.