Reviews for Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adaptor

I can't help but feel cheated and robbed by Apple..... they had no problems over the years selling me FW 400 and FW 800 devices yet this adapter only works with one of them. I can't even connect my older Apple iSight without now going out to find someone who sells a FW to FW adapter to go into Apple's Thunderbolt to FW adapter. pretty stupid if you ask me. Why didn't you include an adapter within the adapter if you're going to require it anyways?

By which I mean it's flashy, and when it works, it works great, but when it doesn't... you're left at the side of the road feeling sorry for yourself.

I've been using this with a brand new iMac and I don't know how it's reached production with such a design flaw - the male thunderbolt connector is just far too short. It seems to fit in fine, although not particularly convincingly, to the back of my iMac, but as soon as it's got a Firewire lead on the end, the weight of the lead on the adaptor means that the adaptor slips out of the back of the imac just enough... and it disconnects in the middle of your transfer / install.

No, I'm not touching it. Yes, it's firmly fitted to start with. It just falls out.
Very frustrating. And not exactly ideal for either of your drives.

Transfer speeds are good enough, and there's no problem with the FireWire end (well done Apple), for which I originally thought I'd award two stars.
But then again, there's the fact that you HAVE to buy this thing because of the introduction of Apple Proprietary Data Transfer Protocol #345 (the artist formerly known as Thunderbolt). One star it is.

Works fine with digi 002 and focusrite saffire 24 audio interfaces.
BUT (and thats why only 3 stars):

Because thunderbolt only delivers 7w thru the FW adapter many bus powered FW-devices need an ac-adapter.

Not all FW800 to FW400 adapters are working with the thunderbolt adapter. Some of my adapters let go power through the cable but the interfaces for example are not recognized. Sonnet FW800 to 400 is working fine with apples thunderbolt to fw

It does what it's supposed to, but I don't understand why it doesn't have another thunderbolt port on the the firewire end, I can't connect two displays and still use firewire, unless I use the HDMI, but than I need another adapter. I thought one of the strong points of thunderbolt is the ability to daisy chain.

I'm using this with a couple of CF card readers:

1. DLOCK - Works fine when directly connected, the DLock seems to have a problem when daisy-chained through a Lacie HDD (which is powered down) with this device.

2. GOLD FLASH - Works perfectly directly or daisy-chained.

Conclusion: The DLOCK may draw more power and so requires other linked devices to be powered up. The Gold Flash is built like a tank and works extremely well with this Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adaptor.

I had no problem using the adapter with external powered Firewire drives. Unfortunately, my bus powered portable Firewire drives (2 different bands) were not recognized and would not boot despite the drives appearing to be powered (LED & spinning disk). I verified the issue on two Macs, a late 2012 iMac and a Macbook Air. Bummer!

Well dang... A brand new Macbook Pro Retina, new Photoshop, new Lightroom and I bought the 2 adapters recommended by Apple- Thunderbolt to Firewire 800, Firewire 800 to Firewire 400- to dump my 132 meg photographs onto my shiny new 16 GB Ram machine... Say What??
NO GO!!! Oweeee. I called apple tech support, the guy runs a few PRAM reset programs and then proceeds to tell me to bring my new computer into an Apple store, the nearest one being about 7 hours round trip.
Let me explain- the Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter works great on my Lacie hard drives. The Firewire 800 to Firewire 400 works great on my older MacBook Pro Firewire 800 port to run the same hard drives. So I guess the adapters are fine.
So WHY Can't the combination work together to run a powered Firewire 400 drive???
I am irked as the Apple tech/sales guy who helped me put this computer together told me Apple had the solution when clearly it hasn't been sorted out yet.
As I said back up there- DANG!!

It works fine, but if you are currently using a Firewire drive with your non-retina macbook, be aware that using the adapter (required for retina macbook pro) makes the drive much slower, at least for large writes.

I copied a 32GB file to my WD MyPassport Studio external firewire drive at it took ~30min when copied from a Macbook Retina Pro 15" SSD (via adapter), compared to ~10min when copied from a early-2011 Macbook Pro 15" SSD (which has a much slower internal drive).

For those experiencing problems using bus-powered FW devices with this adapter ...
The Thunderbolt port supplies only 10W of power
- the adapter uses about 3W
- leaving 7W for bus-power

FW can supply up to 45W
- power capacity depends on the machine - mileage will vary
- some machines supply considerably MORE than 7W
- some Macs specify a *minimum* of 7W
- which is the SAME as the TB spec

So ...
Check the power consumption of your peripheral.
If it uses more than about 7W, you will probably need to use an external power supply.

This product is an ADAPTER - not a substitute.

Apple is not at fault if your peripheral uses more than 7W and doesnt work using ThunderBolt bus power only.