Minor pain: 800-to-400 FireWire

news
Jan 15, 20091 min

There must be a way to connect a full-size male 800Mbps FireWire to a full-size female 400Mbps FireWire

The clerk at the Apple Store looked at me quizzically when I told him what I needed. I probably didn’t phrase it right. I said that I needed to get from the 800Mbps FireWire port on a unibody MacBook Pro to the 400Mbps input on an external drive. There are cables and cables, FireWire with fat ends and tiny ends, but nobody asked about 800Mbps FireWire before.

I found hanging on a peg in the Belkin section a cable that connects a male 800Mbps FireWire to a little 400Mbps male jack on a camcorder. Close, but no cigar — that little connector doesn’t carry power for my bus-powered external drive. We went back and forth a bit, but I finally explained that I wanted full-size male 800Mbps FireWire to full-size female 400Mbps FireWire. Oh! We don’t carry anything like that.

I guess it’s my bad for not asking the right question, but am I the only person who needs this? I know they exist, but I’d think any Apple Store would stock them.

My need for the cable is to use my three-chip camcorder to capture footage of phone testing directly onto a drive. FireWire is so cool.