Im seriously thinking on purchasing the Canon HV30 camcorder and I just bought a NEW MACBOOK that does not have a firewire port (sucks). I went to camcorderinfo.com and they do a great job of detailed reviews but I did not see any firewire port for the camcorder. Granted I always hear that ALL miniDV camcorders only transfer through firewire but being that I did not see a port and that the Canon has the option to shoot in HDV I was wondering if I can or am allowed by the computer to transfer through USB 2.0. I don’t want to buy it and then stuck with not being able to transfer it so any help will do.

Usually video editing is done with a minimum of a desktop computer, if not a full blown "turnkey" video editing system, since video editiing needs a lot of RAM (8 GB is not unusual), usually at least a dedicated TB of storage (hard drive) and a video capture card that includes a firewire. No notebook, Mac or PC carries that kind for horse power.

In addition the new ExpressCard/54 and 34 feature on most new notebooks can accept a firewire adapter.

Usually photographers and videographers buy a compatible computer to go with their camera gear, not the other way around.