DVIO is a very small and free tool for capturing video files from FireWire/IEEE.1394 compatible digital videocameras (most miniDV and D8 cameras).

DVIO also supports transferring the edited video back to the digital videocamera as well. The user interface is very, very simple to use -- obviously some people would prefer to have an option to see the output of the video on PC screen as well, but then again, you need to play the video on camcorder anyway. DVIO allows you to choose the codec for transferring videos (although for flawless quality you obviously need to use the same codec -- normally DV type 2 -- that your cam uses).

If you have experienced dropped frames with other tools or just simply want to have the simplest possible options for DV transfers, DVIO is definitely a tool for you.