Best Digital Camera for use with iMovie 09

i'm purchasing an iMac next week and am looking for a digital camera, a major concern is video compatibility. I have found mostly just threads on problems, OKAY, so i know what NOT to get. But i would like to know what TO get. The camera i have found I like most is the Casio Exilim EX-S12bk, but it doesn't play well with iMovie due to the .AVI format it records to, the actual codec is motion jpeg i believe. I'm looking for something with optical zoom in recording mode, hi def video, and of course great photos. Very noobish to cameras so bells and whistles are not as important as usability. But i want to import straight to iMovie, i don't want to get freeware, no conversions, or anything. That's more work than i want to spend. Any help?

yeah, i've upped my dollar level to 380ish tops,
Sony, i've found that the only one i could really get would be the tx1 or wx1, but they don't come out till sept, and october, so too bad there, Or perhaps the Sony W290, that was an option, there was one thing i didn't like about it though, don't remember what it was, hmmm, otherwise i didn't see something i had to have
If i could wait, I think no doubt i would get the tx1 when it came out,
SOOO, I've settled on the Canon SD960, has all the features i believe i want. I was gonna go with the SD970, but the 960 is smaller and a tad cheaper. I was looking at the SD780 for some time, however, the picture quality came into ? as well as video quality. Haven't seen those complaints as far as video is concerned. Of course there are always gonna be naysayers. All the sample images i've seen look great, reviews seem to be good also. So for now, I think I'm going with the SD960.
Further, I was looking really close at the Lumix ZS3, as stated above, but it's too big for my liking, the whole Lumix line seems to be on the large size, compared to other compacts, especially the Sony cyber shot's which seem to be quite small in comparison with other brands. Overall though it seemed like a great camera.
Still not sure why i'm passing on the Sony W290......and am also VERY, tempted to wait altogether and get the WX1 or TX1, but i really don't want to wait, if i take great care of it, perhaps i can still return it after my trip !!! Walmart takes anything back if you say it *****.......

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Best video camera to use with iMove '11 for iMac

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John Vonk wrote:
You wrote :
I'm interested to buy a Nikon photocamera Coolpix S8100.
This camera is NOT on Apple's list of supported cameras to use with iMovie 11. Nor is the camera Canon SD3500 as mentioned by you, I thought ...
Do you think I could use the Coolpix S8100 camera as well with iMovie 11 ?
Or could I meet a problem ?
In my opinion, the camera will work with iMovie '11, HOWEVER....
I have a Canon SX30IS bridge camera [that is, not a camcorder], and the HD videos work absolutely fine on iMovie with one - for me - important problem.
As my camera is also not supported, when any number of short video files are loaded in together, iMovie will not understand the sequence they were taken in, and MAY load them in a fairly random order into a project.
This is not a problem where one or two files are concerned, but where there are more, it can be a major problem if you want them used in sequence.
You either have to load them into the project one by one, manually, or be able to identify clearly from the thumbnails which is which, or the order will be all wrong. It IS possible to relate what you see as a thumbnail back to the original file, but only one file at a time, so you can't use the thumbnails to work out the order, if the images shown don't do that for you.
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I haven't seen that point.
I worked on my old iMac using just the hard drive for a while. Performance is not the issue, but space can be, which is why I moved to an external drive.
Drive performance is complicated. If you have enough memory, your internal drive will probably have better performance than an external drive. The SATA bus is a lot faster than the FireWire or USB buses.
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In iMovie 08, once you have your video imported into an event, you can edit away, because iMovie is just writing pointers in the project file to the source files in the EVENT. Disk performance is more critical on import (front end) and sharing or rendering (back-end), but internal drives are more than up to this task.
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Well, people are always complaining that their exported movies are not of high quality, but mine look great, and I only export at 720p. The orginal is shot at 1080 30p. Here are some examples.
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http://youtu.be/wu2wyJ6ZWT8
Above are links to my videos of my trip to Holland, Belgium, and Luxemburg.
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note: i was excited about getting the new Kodak Easyshare V1273 but seems like importing the videos into imovie is a hussle. i basicly would like to get the best high-definition resolution in the market today but in an 'ultra-compact' category i can carry with me. any recommendation?

you said it is easy operation, but is it fast?
video quality decreases a bit due to the conversion?
what camera like the ones i mentioned you recoment?
Yes, the conversion is fast since the video (QT MPEG-4) is passed "as is" from the MOV file container to the MP4 file container (i.e., there is no re-compression of the video so quality is exactly the same) while only the audio is converted if applicable. By that last comment I refer to the fact that neither Kodak nor most reviewers bother to say what audio codec is used but that historically, Kodak uses µ-Law 2:1 audio compression which cannot be edited in iMovie '08 and must be converted to AAC in order to be placed in the MP4 file container and that the AAC is compatible with iMovie '08.
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Also, is the conversion using Quicktime straighforward/well done/optimal (ie. the converted audio is great/excellent?), or since i haven't bought the Kodav V1273 do you recommend instead buying something that is fully compatible with imovie out of the box? (my main and final instest is being able to use imovie.
The Conversion is very straight forward. Simply
a) Open the clip in either QT Pro or GarageBand
b) Select the "Movie to MPEG-4" export option
c) In the "options" window select the "MP4" File Format
d) Under the "Video" tab select the "Pass Through' Video Format option
e) Under the Audio tab select: AAC-LC (Music), Data Rate 64 Kbps for mono (128 Kbps for stereo), 44.1 KHz sampling rate, and Better or Best encoding.
Converted audio will be the same quality as the original -- just slightly larger in file size. The settings listed above are much higher than the original so nothing you can hear will be lost. The V1273 is listed as using the QT MPEG-4 video codec. This means it is compatible with iMovie HD as is and will be compatible with iMovie '08 once the audio is modified. About the only problem you might have is the selection of a Kodak model using the M-JPEG/µ-Law video/audio combination. This format cannot be "passed through" and would require separating the audio for conversion and replacement of the original audio if you want to preserve the original video (which is once again iMovie '08 compatible but not not MP4 file container compatible). In other words, any Kodak digital camera storing its video as QT MPEG-4/µ-Law can use the "pass through" work flow described above. If you find that any of the newest models use AAC (with valid data rate/sampling rate combination), then it will be compatible with iMovie '08 "out of the box." But since most manufacturers are strangely quiet regarding their audio compression formats, it is difficult to evaluate total compatibility based just on the specs given.

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Andrew kitesurf wrote:
… what file format will automatically import into imovie the way that iphoto imports from my camera? and if they aren’t recognised, what is the best file converter??
'best' is, what iMovie is intended for - straight from tape-based or AVCHD camcorder.
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Hi,
We have been using Video advantage v 2.1.2 with 7940 series phone since long, it works fine with almost all 3rd party camera`s and even with the inbuilt laptop cameras.
v 2.3 is an enhanced version as compared the one which we are using. So i would suggest you to go ahead and try it with any good qaulity webcameras available in market.
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Best Digital Camera for use with iMovie 09

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