Reviews for Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adaptor

When Apple decided to eliminate the mini-DVI, Ethernet and Firewire ports on their new MacBook Pro laptops (three ports in total) and replace them with just two Thunderbolt ports, they created a dilemma for many MacBook Pro owners - myself in particular - trying to upgrade their systems. My MacBook Pro is the hub of a desktop system that includes Firewire drives, Ethernet connectivity and an Apple LED Cinema display. With only Thunderbolt ports on the new laptops and no single adapter that can handle both Ethernet and Firewire, I have to decide what to give up. Apple certainly wasn't thinking about their legacy users when they settled on this design. The old Apple would not have eliminated both the Ethernet port and the Firewire port - these are both current technologies - or it would have made an adapter that could connect both Ethernet and Firewire through a single Thunderbolt port and would include that adapter - free of charge - with every MacBook Pro it sold. Does Apple expect everyone to scrap their DVI, Firewire and Ethernet devices and purchase all new Thunderbolt devices? Really Apple.... !!!

I thought I had made a good call getting an external firewire 800 drive as a time machine backup for my old iMac but was pretty bummed when my new iMac arrived and I realized I couldn't even plug in the firewire drive to set up the new machine without spending another $30. Come on Apple! How about throwing us loyal apple customers one firewire port for old time sake?

I got this cable earlier in the week so that I could connect my old G-Drives through my TB G-Raid then to my new late 2012 iMac.

I have 4 G-Drives (2 x 1TB and 2x 3TB) plus a g-drive mini (500GB) using FW800 and a 4TB G-Raid using TB.

I Daisy chained all my G-Drives with FW800 (including my g-drive mini) into my G-Raid with this cable and it worked flawlessly. Even my g-drive mini that has no AC adapter got enough power to work as normal. Added bonus was that my speeds seem to be faster than when I had all these drives plugged into my 2010 Macbook Pro. I was transferring ~60GB of RAW images from my g-drive mini to my G-Raid at 87 MB / sec.

I have been using this setup for a week now (4 + hours a day) transferring files back and forth with zero issues.

I gave it a 4 / 5 just because I do not like the fact I needed an adapter to connect technology that apple made into an apple product. I think they should have kept at least 1 FW800 port on their new iMac's.

I wanted to transfer my old MiniDV tapes from my HD DV camcorder to my Core i7 MacBook Pro. Given the reviews I wasn't sure if this would work or not, but decided to give it a shot.

I used the Thunderbolt adapter to connect to a 9-pin firewire cable I got at Fry's, then connected the cable to my Sony DCR-HC65. Worked fine - was able to instantly import the MiniDV movies into iMovie.

No complaints - worked just as the Firewire connection would have worked.

Disappointed. If you are going to take it off of the computer, make an adapter that works. Apple was famous for FW800! Now clearly they could care less. Supppperrrr spotty using G-Drives. Killin me here.

Sincerely,

A professional user. (not a soccer mom)

I bought this cable hoping I could get old video off my MiniDV camera tapes so I could edit it in FCPX and then get rid of the tapes. I have the camera turned on and FCPX does not recognize it. The camera does not appear under "Cameras" in the media import. I'll be returning the cable. Guess I'll have to capture using my ancient laptop that has a firewire port.

i was wary of buying this based on other reviews but glad I decided to give it a go.
I am copying large amounts of data between drives and although my laptop has thunderbolt, nothing else I own does....!!
I have managed to half my data transfer time by using this adapter with a Firewire 800 cable over the Usb 2 connection.
I agree that the cable length is on the short side but i have not experienced any issues with the cable pulling out of the thunderbold connection.
The price is high in my opinion but it functions well and does it's job (or at lease with the equipment i am using).
Wish Apple would release a Usb 3 variant of this then I would have all my appliance covered for much better transfer speeds.
In short; I would recommend this item.

I'm on my second TB/FW adapter. With the first, my G-Drives would randomly unmount themselves constantly, sometimes while I was actively using them. After exchanging the adapter, neither of my external drives will mount at all!

Both G-Drives worked flawlessly through a FW800/FW400 cable on my late-2006 iMac for years, and continue to work flawlessly through USB on my new 2012 iMac, but they're a couple of unresponsive bricks when connected through this useless adapter.

I've been working with an Apple Senior Advisor for several days trying to resolve this problem, but I honestly believe Apple just has a junk technology they haven't worked the bugs out of yet. Either it's firmware, something in ML, or the hardware in the adapter itself is faulty, but a lot of people are having the exact same problem.

Very disappointing!

I read a review which nearly put me off which said this cable fell out easily. That has not been my experience. I leave it plugged in with a firewire cable attached. If it was going to fall out, it would have done by now. I can see how repeated plugging in and out might do that, but not so far. It has done well.

This can provide only 7W to firewire devices. There are many, many devices that need more than this. You should absolutely check before buying to find out what your devices need in terms of power. Otherwise this is useless, as it is for me more than half the time.