Need opinion: miniDV camcorder + Firewire + FC 3

[Reuben D. Budiardja]

Hello,
I am sorry if this is being a bit OT. 

I am thinking of getting a digital miniDV camcorder for the first time. So 
let's say I am absolutely clueless. I've never had to deal with Firewire 
either. Although I've been doing linux sysadmin for a while, so I am not 
afraid of tweaking and messing around with my system. 

Basically, I just have couple questions. 
1. Is Firewire / IEEE 1394 supported in FC 3 out of the box ? 

2. Does it matter what kind  / brand of miniDV digital camcorder that I buy ? 
ie. do the "transfer protocol" of any digital camcorder that use this IEEE 
1934 differ from one brand to another, or they just basically the same ? If 
they're the same, then it should not matter what brand that I buy because if 
I can get Firewire support for one brand that means I can get it for any 
brand. If they differs, any suggestions as to what brand works better with 
linux / FC3, or even to be more specific, anyone has any good / bad 
experience for connecting this device with FC 3 that you can share ? 

Thank you in advance for any responds / comments / suggestions.

RDB

-- 
Reuben D. Budiardja
Dept. Physics and Astronomy
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN

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