Best low cost camcorder to use with imovie?

Currently use windows movie maker and Canon A620 for simple home movies. Some other movie programs won't recognize the Canon format from the camera. Considering macbookpro when leopard and ilife 07 released.
Looking at lower cost comparisons between Sony and Canon in tape and mini DVD. Sony had better reliability & picture & sound ratings in leading consumer magazine of older similar models, but I had the impression Canon might work better with Apple in general?
Also is the current version of iMovie not compatible with formats used by miniDVD?
Since these cameras are all newer will iMovie recognize them, or is there an update to improve compatibility with newer models
Specifically comparing:
Canon ZR850 to Sony DCR-HC38 Mini DV
Canon DC-210 to Sony DCR-DVD108 Mini DVD
Looking for comments or other recommendations
Thanks,
Windows XP

Mark,
You wrote: "..My iMac has 1-400MB and 1-800MB Firewire port. The 400MB port is in use by a hard drive so I want to use the 800MB port for a camcorder. My research has led me to a Firewiredirect.com site that has 4pin to 9pin cables, so I think this will work.."
..but I doubt it.
I've never got a Sony camcorder to work with a Mac by connecting it with a 4-pin-to-9-pin cable to a FireWire 800 port. But you may be luckier!
However, I often get a Sony camcorder to work by "daisy-chaining" it through an FW400 hard drive, as long as the external hard drive has two FW400 sockets on it. Not all camcorders will work this way - and notably not Canons.
But if the hard drive has two FW400 connections, connect the drive to the Mac with one of them, and plug the camcorder into the other socket on the hard drive. (..You may have to experiment by swapping over the connections to see which way works best..)
With a Sony camcorder plugged into the hard drive, and the hard drive plugged into the Mac, the camcorder should be perfectly visible to the Mac ..and you should be able to save your video onto either the Mac's internal disc, or the external disc ..as long as the external disc is formatted as 'Mac OS Extended', and not as MS-DOS-compatible, or FAT32, or some other Windows format.
If your external hard disc has an FW800 socket, then I'd connect it into your iMac via FW800, and plug the camcorder into the FW400 socket on the Mac. The hard disc - if it has an FW800 connection - will probably work better (..i.e; faster..) through that connection anyway.

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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.
http://youtu.be/Vi9XieIcvl4
http://youtu.be/o8fU9_V8Ky8
http://youtu.be/wu2wyJ6ZWT8
Above are links to my videos of my trip to Holland, Belgium, and Luxemburg.
Be sure to view them at 720p on Youtune, or they will not look that good.
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Yes. I have done a search.
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Sadly I bought a Sony DCR SR85 60GB HDD Camcorder because my videographer friends told me not to buy anything but a Sony.
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You can do that with any FireWire camcorder - well, certainly in iMovie HD 6 and previous ..I haven't tested that in iMovie '08.
Sony aren't really in direct competition with Apple, as Apple don't make camcorders ..and you may remember that the head honcho from Sony burst onto the stage during SJ's MacWorld address the other year (2005..?) and was introduced by Steve as he announced iMovie HD, because Sony was overwhelming happy that iMovie could import hi-def material from Sony's new hi-def Z1 and FX1 cameras. Apple and Sony worked together to ensure that iMovie could handle hi-def video shot with Sony camcorders.
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A computer with a spinning hard disc inside is a fragile thing to use as a monitor, if your rig has to be moved: it's only sensible if you're in one fixed spot while you're recording. If I'm shooting with the camcorder on the end of a pole, I just run a video-out cable from the camera to a mini monitor (..or even to video glasses!..) so that I can see what I'm shooting with the remote camera: drop your Mac and you're really in trouble!
To use your Mac as a monitor, you should also first calibrate the Mac's screen so that its colours and brightness ("gamma") match that of the camcorder, otherwise you might adjust the camera to match what you see on the Mac, and end up with over-exposure, or the wrong colours.
So maybe you might rethink why you want to use your Mac as a monitor. And continuous capture to a Mac's internal disc while shooting may put too much strain on the system (..as the Mac will want to do various 'housekeeping' jobs while the video's coming in, such as indexing files, swapping memory to and from disc, etc). It may be better to capture to an external disc ..which Canons don't like to do: they like to be the only FireWire device in the circuit. But as you want to capture to a hard disc camcorder, maybe capture straight onto the Mac isn't what you have in mind.
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(..Maybe that's what you're trying to do, as you said "..I was astounded to find out that I was unable to record directly onto iMovie. Oh well. Further iMovie has to convert the file after it is downloaded from the camera's HD. I'm disappointed.." ..all hi-def has to be 'converted', standard-def miniDV tape doesn't, but standard-def AVCHD, as from a hard disc camcorder or a camcorder which records to internal memory chips or onto a miniDVD, does need conversion during import..)

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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 ...
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Hey
I just bought the new Panasonic SDR-SW20 and it doesn't work with a Mac.
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http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Panasonic-SDR-SW20-Camcorder-Review-35018/F ormat.htm
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