New camcorder help

I am planning on switching to Mac for the ease of use of the imovie software...I want to get a camcorder that will work with imovie straight out of the box (i am pretty computer deficient). I just want to shoot movies of the kids and do some minor editing, nothing too fancy... I am willing to spend up to $700...any suggestions?
I asked this question a few days ago and got a great answer but with the release of the new imovie I was wondering if hard drive camcorders will now work easily with the imovie or if i should still stick with tape based ones...

When you're working with video on a computer its always a storage intensive situation, especially if you're using HD.
You would do well to get any of the Hard Drive bassed camcorders. With tape drive you have to switch tapes constantly, and you get 60-120 minuts per tape.
My Sony HDR-SR1 gets something like 35 hours of video at the same quality as DV camcorders -- that's like 35 tapes you don't have to carry around.... plus the newer camcorders use better compression and so you have less storage requirements.
DV and HDV are based on a fixed data rate and thus are inefficient compared to modern formats (they're also almost 10 years old) However they have the best support.
So if you want zero hassles, get a DV or HDV camcorder, but if you want to be able to shoot for days without changing tapes or dumping to the computer get a hard drive camcorder.
Most should work just fine with iMovie 8. (Though the software has only been out a day so there are some initial incompatibilities... but these should be fixed quickly.)

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Importing video from old camcorder to mac without using a newer camcorder?

I'm trying to import old home videos from a camcorder (from about 1991) that uses cassettes, onto my Mac. I tried searching for this here and I found this: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1943045&#1943045. But I actually don't have a newer camcorder to rerecord it on. Is there a way to get it on my computer without it?

Hello Cris,
you actually don't need a new camera to get analog video into your mac, in fact there are not so many cameras that support AV-in.
read the thread you posted in your question again and you'll find an AV/DV converter, a device that "translates" from analog to digital, mentioned there.
these converters are not as costly as good camcorders, but of course they do only this one thing, so if you think about buying a new camcorder in the near future, you could buy one with AV-in .... two devices in one.
oh yeah: the canopus converters mentioned in that thread are supposed to be good.
hope this helps
viva la mela

Buying a new camcorder

Hi All,
I have iMovie HD 6 and am going to buy a new camcorder. I am looking at a Sony HDR SR12 which is a high definition one.
What I wanted to check was that will the footage I shoot be compatible with the iMove HD6 and will I be able to produce dvds that will still play on non high definition TVs.
Also does anyone have any comment on that camcorder or another one that has a hard drive and works well with the Apple machines. I went for Sony as I heard they were compatible.
Thanks in advance.
Regards
Steve

Get a mini DV camcorder with a firewire output. I own 3 different Sony Hi-Def HDV camcorders that work very well with iMovie and iDVD. Hard drive might seem like a good idea, but mini DV tapes are $2 each at Costco and you can save the footage as long as the tape will last; with hard drive you have to transfer and edit everything you shoot right away to make room to shoot more.
(Just like every digital camera owner has had to delete photos to shoot more photos when the memory card is full)
iDVD does a great job of converting your movie projects to standard def if you edit in HD in iMovie, but remember HD takes up about 4 times the hard drive space, so be sure to have lots of hard drive available to capture and edit (WD 1 Terabyte $199 @ Costco)
With Toast 9 you can actually burn Hi-Def DVDs that will play on a Blu-Ray player, but you are limited to about a half hour, or an hour if you use a dual-layer DVD.
Hope that helps.
David Y
Message was edited by: David Yellen

Purchasing a new camcorder

I'm on the market for the purchase of a new camcorder. My Sony PC9 is clearly outdated. I've had it for over 8 years now and although it works fine, I would like something smaller and sharper. I do mostly sports videos such as ski and bike trips. I need a small, light, high definition camera with good zoom capability. I'm looking at the Sony HDRCX12 and the Panasonic HDC-SD100. They are pretty much the same size and offer similar options. I would normally lean towards the Sony, but the Panasonic HDC-SD100 is a 3CCD camcorder. The Sony HDRCX12 has only one (although sensor is much larger). To my knowledge, a 3CCD will give me a much better, professional looking image. Is this true? I've surf the internet for an answer and it is rather confusing. I know lens quality is also an important factor, which makes it even more confusing.
Thanks for you help.

If you plan to shoot with any of these AVCHD camera's then you'll probably want to take note of the inherent limitations of working with that format in FCP. You'll need VoltaicHD to transcode the raw source to AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec) in order to edit it. These are BIG files, not like your trusty DV format, so you;ll want good large fast hard drives for storage.
If you want direct support in FCP then you'll be looking at both a hardware upgrade to an Intel based Mac and a software upgrade to FCS2 (FCP6). AVCHD support via Log and Transfer was only introduced since the FCP6 version came about and requires an Intel Mac.
With that in mind you might want consider at the very least a flash based HDV camera which can be effectively used via the new ClipWrap app, or just plump for a tape based HDV camera.

I need a new camcorder

I am totally confused (and not a little annoyed!) with camcorders currently available. I use an IMac running under Leopard 10.5.6 and Final Cut Express version 4.0.1. I need a decent new camcorder - don't care what make so long as it works OK with my hardware and software without any trouble. I don't care whether it records in normal definition or high definition provided I can produce DVD's in normal definition. I don't care whether it records onto DV tapes, a hard disk or an SD chip. I don't care whether it uses Firewire or USB to connect to the computer. Just so long as it works out of the box!
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FCE works with DV, HDV, and AVCHD. It is a little hard to suggest a camcorder within those categories as we don't really know what you are looking for (price, specs, etc).
I use an AVCHD [Canon VIXIA HG21|http://www.amazon.com/Canon-VIXIA-AVCHD-Camcorder-Optical/dp/B001DTXK8G/re f=sr11?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1241355747&sr=8-1] that works well with FCE. Maybe this will help get you started. However, there are many other good DV, HDV, and AVCHD camcorders that I'm sure you would find if you simply googled "HDV camcorder" or something of that variety.

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Using old version iMovie and import from new camcorder

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I got a new camcorder which won't let me import to the old version 4.0.1
As an iLife '08 owner you are also entitled to a free download of iMovie HD v6.0.4 if you want it.
Does anyone have any idea how to move the clips to the old version from the 7.1.4 version which is sooo infuriating.
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Should I care about HD versus SD when buying a new camcorder? I coach track, and need a good optical zoom and want to keep my budget around $300-400. Should I care about HD? Suggested camcorders?

imho, there is no more reason to decide for SDef.
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Questions on making Movies with new camcorder

Hi all,
First, let me say these forums are extremely useful. Thanks for taking a minute to read (and maybe respond). I have a couple of questions / need some advice about making iMovies with my new camcorder.
My camcorder is a Sony DCR-SR40 - it's a 30GB hard-disk based digital camcorder. It creates MPEG-2 files (and connects to my G5 with USB2.0).
1. When I get the camcorder connected and copy over the files, I can't play them in QuickTime 7 (I got an error opening the file). So I spent $20 and bought the QT MPEG-2 plugin - now I can play them but there's no audio. Am I doing something wrong or is there a bug with QT?
2. So I downloaded Streamclip and can happily convert files to a bunch of different formats (what a neat app!). Is there a format that would be best to convert to for making iMovies (iM 6)? DV? MPEG-4? (see next question).
3. When I create my iM6 project, should I create DV or MPEG-4? (Is there a good summary anywhere on all these formats? It confuses the heck outta me.) I want to turn my iMovies into DVDs to watch with my family and QT movies that I can leave as files and watch on my work laptop. What's the best format (DV or MPEG-4) to use?
4. Assuming I create DV iMovie projects, my thought was to convert my MPEG-2 files (from the camcorder) and AVI files (from my digital cam that takes short movies) to DV using Streamclip, then import those into iMovie; all that seems like a bunch of work (I guess I could use the batch function) - but is this the right way of doing things? Or can I just let iMovie do the translation to DV when I import?
Sorry for all the noob questions here, I just don't have a lot of time to tinker (15 month old and newborn) so I'd prefer to just get advice from the folks that know (you all!).
Thanks so much
Steve

Hi Steve,
as you allready realized: the iApps are made for miniDV/D8, … but you have found the workarounds...
1) … you hear no audio when exporting/converting the mpegs with QT... that's no bug, that's due to the nature of mpeg2... the audio and video are "woven together" (tech term= muxxed)... QT supports this playback-format for ... ehm, playback, but "de-muxxing" is not supported by QT....
2) best format for use in iM/iDVD? my standard reply: DV
(I've read in the meantime, some report using the Apple Lossless Codec, you should find in the export options of SC, delivers better results - beauty lies in eye of... needs a powerful Mac and "eats" 4 -5x more diskspace then DV)....
3) DV; mpeg4 is supported to handle iSight "video" and some digi-stills deliver in this format; again, mpegs are for delivery, not for processing.... I didn't found THE website for explaining all that, you can spend hours on wiki and many, many more sites... for the average user (as me), I wrote (still write...) a short summary, click here >> Codexx; an excellent source for background info is forum's member QuickTimeKirk's "book" (=.pdf delivery), you get for 10$ here >> QTpro explained
4) … that IS a bunch of work, because you tought the old dog new tricks... with my miniDV and still-cam all that is done with a single click and works like charm ...
this board is full of Qs concerning support of DVDcorders/HDcorders... One can just speculate, wether Apple will implement the support of these formats... I strongly guess NOT, … we saw in the past e.g. no support of (S)VCD, another popular format (to its time), but not fullfilling the high standards of SJ....
no, you're not a noob - excellent prepared, precise discription of your problems... I wish, all posts are read like that....
have fun with your kids! it's getting better every day!! (my son now is 6y, in two weeks he starts with school....adventure!!!)

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