Avchd panasonic camera to imovie works!!!!!!

Question

k, i tried a suggestion buried deep in the discussions for importing from the panasonic hdc-sd5 and it works. my camera would not show in imovie when connected:however, the 4G sd card did show as a CAMERA when i connected the avcwriter(sansdisk micromate with card inserted of course) to the usb hub on keyboard. it is importing/converting 2 min. clips in less than 2 minutes!. i was using voltaic before with my power pc, great product but took 12-15 times the length of the clip

Answer 1

jchuston, remember that our SD9s, and many other small camcorders, use puny 1/6" sensors, albeit absolutely crammed with pixels. These tiny sensors are very limited by their small size in their ability to capture the most important element of any still or video shot - LIGHT. The grain you see is noise the camera has placed into the shot in place of 'unknown' information, unknown because the amount of light gathered is less than what the processor needs to give you a crisp image.
If you take your camera outside during the daytime, any footage you take should look absolutely stellar. The grainyness will increase as the light level decreases. This frustrating for many users, including myslef, as it doesn't seem that the camera is accurately capturing what our eyes are seeing. This stands in stark contrast to my Nikon D70 still camera which, with an f1.8 lens, does a good job of this.
Cameras with larger sensors, such as the Sony PMW-EX1, which uses three 1/2" sensors, deliver terrific low-light performance mostly because they can gather much more light but also because they use much bigger lenses. Of course, that camera goes for about $7,000. My suggestion: turn on all the lights when you shoot, or ideally try to go outside more, you'll like the video much better.
Message was edited by: joeyc923