I've Googled this and it told me everything I already know, that I need a firewire, that I need clean heads etc... What it didn't explain was actually how and where the converted info is stored and by what means. I'm not making a movie I just want everything stored like my SD files are. When I can get my old DV camcorder working I will give this a shot but I presume I import to log and capture, and then what? ..Because I'm not creating a new FCP project, I want to file and compartmentalize years of DV footage and keep it backed up on an external terrabyte.

Help appreciated.

I've got my old camera working (though it often says WRONG TAPE FORMAT which is a glitch I don't miss, I simply reset it.

Anyway, I've opened up FCP and I'm getting the following message when I go to log and capture:

Unable to initialize HDV deck. Please make sure a deck is connected and try again.

Going off you quoting "Old camera" "SD" and FCP's message of "HDV Deck" Id say you have the wrong capture settings.

In Final Cut Pro goto Final Cut Pro > Audio Video Settings - and check that your device is correct and the capture preset is the correct codec you want to use as an archive. It may be easiest to start with a new project and an easy setup cloest to what footage you are ingesting,

FCP will treat is as a new project, but you don't have to cut or export. It will save your .mov files as the capture preset, you can see where by viewing the scratch disks (Final Cut Pro > System Settings) I think the default is your users / movies.

Sorry if it's a dumbed down version I hope that helps. In short FCP is looking for a HDV camera, you need to tell it to look for a SD cam.