Canon Vixia camcorder and Imovie09 anyone have any issues?

Question

Hi I have a 2009 2.66 ghz Quad Core Mac Pro. I plan on purchasing a high definition camcorder, I was very interested in the Canon Vixia series but was concerned because I read that people had issues with their canon Vixia camcorder and Imovie. Should I be concerned? Anyone have any issues with the Canon VIXIA HFS100, HF200, or the HF20 and Imovie09 on their 2009 intel Mac Pro? I don't want to spend 750-900 dollars on a camcorder if I'm going to have issues importing the videos into my mac. Any info is greatly appreciated

Answer 1

Sheryl Kingstone wrote:
Other issues were around the 1080p is not really 1080p. meaning it says it records 30p, but it imports it at 60i. Don't really understand why.
Today I tried 30p on my Canon HF-S100 for the first time. If I understand correctly it's still saving the video in 60i format -- e.g. all of the odd scan lines in one field, then all of the even scan lines in the next field. The visible difference is that you don't see the interleaving when you view the results in iMovie or Final Cut Pro.
With 30p it's as if the camera captures an entire frame at once, then saves it as two interleaved 60i fields. By contrast, when the camera is recording 60i it captures one field (every other scan line) and records that, then captures and records the other field separately.
In other words, in 60i mode, the subject may move between the recording of the first field and the recording of the 2nd field, resulting in interleave "jaggies". In 30p mode the subject doesn't move between the recording of the fields, since both were captured at the same time.
I wish I could insert some pictures to better explain myself