What is the best camcorder?

I want to buy my dad a new camcorder for Father's Day. Right now, he has a 2-3 year old Canon. The quality isn't very good and in order to watch videos on the television, he has to burn DVDs. He's always looking for the next cool gadget and I wanted to surprise him with a new camcorder. I want to get him something thats trendy, great quality, easy to use, and can be used to play back videos on a TV. Any suggestions?

Eh...I never say anything is the best. It's all subject to opinion. Best one you're likely to see in a store (and even then it's rare) is probably:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Canon+-+VIXIA+HF+G10+32GB+Flash+Memory+Camcorder+-+Black/2089051.p?id=12...
Kind of a Sony fan when it comes to camcorders. I've always liked this series:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+Handycam+HDRCX580V+32GB+HD+Flash+Memory+Camcorder/4919403.p?id=12...
There's a few hundred different models out there. Think he'd be happy with most any of the new HD camcorders that Bestbuy carries.

Similar Messages

What's the best camcorder for mac and quicktime or youtube?

Aloha all,
Instead of iSight,,,, what is the best camcorder compatible for mac and transfering video to powerbook G4 and PPC G5 Quad and for use with youtube and or CitizenTube.... ?
I have a Canon SD 500 this should be enough because only can down load a max of 10mb to youtube. But I cannot use as a webcam to pass straight to computer which is fine,. Any Suggestions???
Mahalo REID

You're welcome, Reid
I was also wondering about microphones.
Which microphone you use is your decision based on what you want to do and the level of quality you need. As explained in this kBase document, you have a wide range of choices of connections:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=165044
I use this Logitech USB Desktop Microphone for my iMovie voice-over, GarageBand podcasting, and other general purpose voice work. It works well for that, but it is obviously not a professional music quality mic.
if the mic ... hooks up to the digital ... or the analog audio input?
The simplest way to connect a mic to your G5 is via USB. That simplicity, adequate sound quality, and low price are the main reasons I chose my Logitech.
If you need a higher quality (and price) mic for more critical applications, this site offers more information about GarageBand, including this page about microphones.
... are there digital optical microphones for the digital in on the G5?
If there are, I would suggest you stay with analog microphones. I may be wrong, but from this Google search for digital microphones, it seems to me that digital microphones are largely subjects of engineering studies at this time. You might find a microphone pre-amp that takes analog microphone inputs but provides a digital output signal you could connect to your Mac's digital input if you really want or need to use your digital in port.
Enjoy shopping,
Jim
Mac OS X (10.4.9) G5 DP 1.8 External iSight

What is the best camcorder to buy using my MacBook Pro

I just purchased the MacBook Pro (1st time Mac owner). I am wondering if there is a particular camcorder that would work best for making videos using iMovie. I have purchased a Sony Handycam AVCHD and googled the reviews. It seems people have some problems using this camcorder with the MacBook. Any suggestions. 1. Will the camcorder I bought be just fine or do I need to return this and purchase a different one. I just want to record my kids activities and make home movies to send to their grandparents. Thanks

Lilypig wrote:
Which is the best mouse to use with my macbook pro?
"It depends" is the correct answer.
If you love using gestures, you'll want a Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad.
If you love high precision, a trackball is often preferable to a mouse.
If you love modified mouse actions, a mouse with extra programmable buttons is a good idea.
If you love gaming, a responsive high-resolution gaming mouse is probably best.
If you love graphics/art, it is possible no mouse is best; instead you want a pressure-sensitive stylus and tablet for maximum control over painting and retouching.
No one else can tell you what the best is, unless they share your preferences exactly.

What is the best camcorder for about $1000. Advise me please I want to buy

What kind of a camcorder you can advise me to buy for about $1000? Whether new, refurbished or used. The one which uses miniDv tapes.

I have used a camera service and repair shop for years. This guy used to be a highly acclaimed lead engineer in Sony's Professional Division, who now runs his own shop and performs all the maintenance, service and repair for a number of broadcasters and TV stations, as well as consumers and professionals. He gets all kinds of cameras and decks in his shop, so he has a very broad experience and sees all kinds of causes for problems.
One is often surprised of the myriad of causes for severe problems one can have with a camera that really looks in pristine condition. Stupid little things like a filter thread on the lens that is ruined, the mini mic connector, that is bent internally, moist that corroded the audio board, salt water spray that ruined the i-Link connector, worn-out drums or heads, head clogging on tape based cameras, overloaded audio connectors that cause a hiss, etc.
There can be so many small but bothersome things with a used camera that looks as if it is brand new, and are very dificult to discern. Example of a used Sony Z1. Looks superb, drum and head hours are OK and looks good. No visible damage, test shows it works without problems, but how do you find the the mic suspension has once been broken and replaced, but not with the original screws, but a size larger. On the Z1 this is a weak point. Now if you break it again and get a replacement, you find out that the original screw size does no longer fit. Minor problem, but it may require additional parts to get it back in original condition. Or you may find out that there are dead pixels on the LCD screen, or one of the sensors has been burned in by shooting an sunrise just a bit late, or the lens is slightly misaligned due to heavy force when removing a filter, etc.
A camera left in the sun in a car and getting very hot, which reduced the life span of the disk, a Monday morning hard disk that developed a number of bad sectors, a camera used at the Niagara Falls in the spray causing internal corrosion, used in the rain without a rainslicker, all these things can not be determined by a visual inspection.
I'm not saying there are no good used cameras, I'm saying you have to be very careful if you want to buy a used camera and ideally you would have a good service shop do a complete inspection of the camera and advising you whether it is worth the asking price, like one does when buying a used car.
To continue the Z1 example. I was on a sailing trip, island hopping in the Caribbean and the accessory shoe on the camera came loose, you still have 6 days before you can find a local shop if you can find one to repair it on Jost van **** or Virgin Gorda or Saba. So you try to repair it on board with limited tools and means. Nail polish and loctite were temporay solutions, but when one wants to remove the screws that were fastened with loctite on board, you have a problem. You don't see it until it is too late. Hidden limitations that a seller usually does not tell you.
Personally I prefer to save a bit longer and buy new.

What is the best camcorder for a mac?

Hello everyone,
I am a total newbie in terms of imovie and video recording. I am also just got this macbook recently and, oh my, I wish I would have gotten a macbook many years sooner
So my question is: what camcorder is easy to use with a macbook from your experience? Something that is not very large in size (I am a petite girl), that can produce a video in a format that is easy to edit, with decent quality (maybe even HD), no tapes, either flash or hard drive memory. I would need a device that could work well outside, in sunny and windy areas (like a beach) as well as in low light situations such at dusk or artificial lighting outside. I going to work at a marine biology lab in a few months so I want to record my adventures.
A big plus would be if it's also sturdy...I snowboard in my spare time and there is a lot of material I'd like to catch on tape i.e. my friend plowing face down into a pile of snow
Thanks a bunch,
-naz

"there is a lot of material I'd like to catch on tape"
You see, subconsciously you know that a miniDV tape cam would be your best choice, but if your new MacBook doesn't have a Firewire port, that option is not available to you.
Look at cams by Sony and Panasonic. Most of them are compatible with iMovie 08 (and most likely iMovie 09 too). Check this list to find models that work : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1014
Then go to this review site: http://www.camcorderinfo.com/ to see what they have to say about particular cams, with attention to the way they perform in the situations you will have, eg. low light. No consumer cam will give you satisfactory audio on a windy beach, unless you buy one that can be fitted with an external microphone.

What's the best camcorder for taking video to edit in final cut express?

I had a sony, but the file type was MTS and it required conversion to edit in Final Cut Express 3. So i sold it on ebay, and I'm looking to replace it. Does anyone have a set up that is easy to transfer HD video from their camera to their Mac, and edit those files right in Final Cut 3?
Thanks!
J

Not sure this is "rubbish" as you say Tom. FCE 4 has to take files directly from the camera. Works fine when I have the files I want to work with on the camera, does not work fine when I saved them to my hard drive, and want to import them later.
In case you don't believe my personal experience, here's another souce that has had the same conslusion:
"Incidentally, Final Cut Express will not transcode the native .MTS files directly; it needs to take the footage from the camcorder. However, a $30 utility called Voltaic can do the job outside Final Cut Express; it works on PowerPC Macs, too."
http://www.macworld.com/article/131409/2008/01/finalcutexpress4.html
To Mr. Fore, I believe you are correct, it works fine to pull right from the camera, no issue there. Issue comes in when I just want to dump video to my local hard drive and clean out the camera's hard drive so I can keep shooting, and come back at a later date to edit and clean up the old footage. I end up having to import everything from the camera to Final Cut Express 4, which is time consuming, rather than just drop the files on to my hard drive.
What I would like to know, is there a camcorder out there that saves files in a format that I can drop on my local hard drive, and then pull into FCE later. I would love to hear from someone who has done that, what camera they are using.

What is the best camcorder for final cut pro 5.1.4

yes i know it is an older program i am having problems uploading video from certain cameras to final cut pro. i was told it was a software problem with certain cameras and i cannot find any cameras that have firewire anymore that are not really expensive. just need some ideas guys thanks

My first question would be how well 5.1 would work with SL. People have reported problems.
As far as cameras are concerned, I would guess most any tape-based camera would work and so much depends on the kind of projects you work on that I wouldn't want to start guessing at your needs.
If you want broad access to tapeless and advanced formats try to locate and purchase an upgrade disk to 6 or 7.
Good luck.
Russ

What's the best way to transfer footage from a Sony miniDVD camcorder?

What's the best way to transfer footage from a Sony miniDVD camcorder?

Do not use "mini" DVD's in any slot loading DVD drive.
Buy a cheap "tray loading" external DVD drive and attach it to your Mac.

What is the best miniDV camcorder to buy to export miniDV tapes to Macbook pro?

Hey there,
I have miniDV tapes with home videos that I want to export to iMovie or FCP 5.0 so I can turn the footage into digital video clips to burn to DVD's. They were shot on a Sony handicam that no longer works. I bought a Panasonic PV-gs15 in order to do the job but it doesn't export video, only pictures from SD card. Now I just want to get the best camcorder or device (within financial reason) for the job. Can anyone tell me the best way/Camcorder to get this video off these miniDV tapes and onto my computer please?

Hi
May be You find something of interest in my notes regarding this (and iMovie - but it is General)
NO CAMERA or A/D-box
Cable
• Are You sure that You are using the FireWire Cable - USB-Cable will not work for miniDV tape Cameras
FireWire - Sure not using the accompany USB-Cable but bought a 4-pin to 6-pin (or 9-pin) FW one ?
• Test another FW-Cable very often the problem maker.
Camera
• Test Your Camera on another Mac so that DV-in still works OK
• Toggle in iMovie pref. Play-back via Camera (on <-> off some times)
• Some Cameras has a Menu where You must select DV-out to get it to work
• Camera connected to "charger" (mains adaptor) - not just on battery
• Camera set in Playback mode - NOT Recording mode
Does Your Camera work on another Mac ?
Sorry to say it is to easy to turn the 6-pin end of the FW-cable 180 deg wrong.
This is lethal to the A/D-chip in the Camera = needs an expensive repair.
(Hard to find out - else than import/export to another Mac ceased to work
everything else is OK e.g. recording and playback to TV)
A/D-box
• Is the dip-switches set right ?
• Set to same standard as recorded/editing e.g. NTSC 29.97fps or PAL 25fps
• Try resetting it
Connections
• Daisy Chaining most often doesn’t work (some unique cases - it’s the only way that work (some Canon Cameras ?))
Try to avoid connecting Camera <--> external HD <--> Mac but import directly to the Mac then move
the Movie project to dedicated external hard disk.
• FireWire-port - Can be re-setted by - Turn off Mac and disconnecting Mac from Mains/Power for 20-30 minutes
External device’s (hard disk’s)
• Should be FireWire as USB/USB2 performs badly and so does Airport or Net-work connected ones too.
• MUST BE - Mac OS Extended formatted - UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange - DO NOT WORK for video due to 4Gb barrier.
Mac
• Free space on internal (start-up) hard disk ? Please specify the amount of free space.
(Other hard disks don't count)
I go for a minimum of 25Gb free space for 4x3 SD Video - and my guess is 5 times more for 16x9 HD ones
after material is imported and edited. No Camera or A/D-box
• GarageBands fix - Close iMovie, Open GarageBand, Play some notes, Close GB and iMove can now be OK
• Does Your Mac have a FireWire Port
• White MacBooks - don't
• MacBook-Air - don't
if not then a few Mac’s has a PCM-CIA slot and there are FW-Cards that makes a FW-port this way
else - NO SOLUTION
Only option as I get it is either
• Use another Mac to Capture material (to an external USB2 - Mac OS Extended formatted hard disk - or -
• Change to another Camera that can be used with Your Mac (no there are no miniDV tape Cameras that can)
• If Your Mac-Book has a PCM-CIA Card place - then there are FW-port-Cards and then
You can import via this - but I've not seen this on more modern Macs. My PowerBook G4
has one and this FW-Card-port works greatly.
SoftWare
• Delete iMovie pref. file may help sometimes. I rather start a new account, log into this and have a re-try.
• Any strange Plug-ins into QuickTime as Perian etc ? Remove and try again.
• FileVault is off ? (hopefully)
• Screen Saver - OFF
• Energy Saver - OFF
Using WHAT versions ? .
• Mac OS - X.5.4 ?
• QuickTime version ? (This is the heart in both iMovie and FinalCut)
• iMovie’08 (7.1.?), 09 or 11 ?
• iMovie HD 6 (6.0.4/3) ?
Other ways to import Your miniDV tape
• Use another Camera. There where tape play-back stations from SONY
but they costed about 2-4 times a normal miniDV Camera.
• If Your Camera works on another Mac. Make an iMovie movie project here and move it
over to Your Mac via an external hard disk.
(HAS TO BE Mac OS Extended formatted - USB/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange WILL NOT DO)
(Should be a FireWire one - USB/USB2 performs badly)
from LKN 1935.
Hi Bengt W, I tried it all, but nothing worked. Your answer has been helpful insofar as all the different trials led to the conclusion that there was something wrong with my iMovie software. I therefore threw everything away and reinstalled iMovie from the HD. After that the exportation of DV videos (there has not been any problem with HDV videos) to my Sony camcorders worked properly as it did before. Thank you. LKN 1935
from Karsten.
in addition to Bengt's excellent '9 yards of advice' ..
camera set to 'Play' , not rec/computer/etc.?
camera not on battery, but power-line?
did your Mac 'recognize' this camera before...?
a technical check.
connect camera, on, playback, fw-connected...
click on the Blue Apple, upper left of your screen ..
choose 'About . . / More . .
under Firewire.. what do you read . . ?
More
• FileVault - Secure that it’s turned off
• Network storage - DOESN’T WORK
• Where did You store/capture/import Your project ?
External USB hard disk = Bad Choice / FireWire = Good
If so it has to be Mac OS Extended formatted
----> UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange is NOT Working for VIDEO !
mbolander
Thanks for all your suggestions. What I learned is that I had a software problem. I had something called "Nikon Transfer" on my Mac that was recognizing my Canon camcorder as a still camera and was preventing iMovie from working properly. After un-installing Nikon Transfer and doing a reboot, everything worked great.
I never liked the Nikon Transfer software anyway--I guess I'll get a cheap card reader and use that to transfer photos in the future.
No Camera or bad import
• USB hard disk
• Network storage
• File Vault is on
jiggaman15dg wrote
if you have adobe cs3 or 4 and have the adobe bridge on close that
or no firewire will work
see if that helps
DJ1249 wrote
The problem was the external backup hard drive that is connected, you need to disconnect the external drive before the mac can see the video camera.
MaryBoog wrote
Maybe your problems is solved in the meantime, but for all others this might help as I had the same problem, also have the Sony HDR-HC7, but the 7e (Europe, PAL). I found this link today and it works perfectly
//support.sony-europe.com/tutorials/dime/videotransfer/vtransfer.aspx site=odw_en_GB&sec=DVH&m=HDR-HC7E
What I exactly did.- put camera in play mode - open guide - choose connection guide - choose comp./printer (where to transfer movie to) - select connection.- i-link (on my camera) but equal to firewire - OK - choose HDV - choose NO for conversion of i.link.
Settings are shown then (VCR HDV/DV.- HDV and i.link-conv..- OFF), press OK, OK, END.
Switch camera off. Connect firewire cable to camera & Mac. Switch camera on, in play/edit mode.
Open i-movie, choose import from camera. On screen below the camera connection is shown.- DV (HDV). Now you can import, automatically or manually.
This worked perfectly for me. Took me 2 days to find out. Could not find any clear thread explaining what I had to do on the camera and the manual was not clear either.
Yours Bengt W

Need an exchange for a HP f210 camcorder what is the best way to go about it

My f210 camcorder will not lock a micro flash card in the drive portion of the camera. It keeps popping out continuously.
What is the best way to get this exchanged for another one. I am hoping it does not need to be in the original packaging to get this done.

You can use the Boot Camp Assistant to remove the Bootcamp Partition - best way to do it.
If you use the Recovery Disk Assistant to create a recovery usb thumbdrive you can boot to that and repartition the MacHd and reinstall the OS directly.
When you purchase the OS you are free to reinstall without repurchasing as long as yo have access tot he Apple Id you used to make the purchase
DL1433 - & - HT4848

What is the best file converter for Panasonic HC-X900M camcorder for use on Final Cut Pro X?

What is the best file converter for Panasonic HC-X900M Camcorder Mts files for use with Final Cut Pro?

This camcorder records in several ways, including AVCHD2, mpeg4 iframe, and 3d, at least that seems to be the case from a quick reading of its specs.
If you get the latest update for fcpx, it will handle video shot in 60P. That is 10.0.4
Here is what Apple says it supports, and one version of the 900 seems to be supported.
I think the Apple site is a little behind its own software update, as one advantage of the new update is that it handles 60P.
Maybe I am missing something, but I wonder what would happen if you get the latest update for fcpx, and try your card again. I did find that fcpx now supports my sony dslr at 60P.
Here is a thread with one person saying they can now use their 900.
Hugh

What are the best asset formats to optimise DVD quality?

Hi Guys
Some of my clients have been complaining about the DVD quality they received from me, and I wondered to myself how can I improve in future.
I just want to confirm if these are the best formats for each asset:
1) Video - AVI format (as opposed to MPEG2)? The major irritation I find about AVI is that it eats up lots of disc space, and it takes a lot of time as far as transcoding in encore is concerned.
2) Photos - TIFF format (as opposed to JPEG)? Same story as above regarding disc space.
3) Audio - AIFF format (as opposed to MP3)? Same space problem as the first 2. Furthermore, my major annoyance with WAV files is that you have to know which version of WAV files are the best quality.
Now, I do not what TVs most of my past and future clients own, i.e. a normal 4:3 TV like mine or the 16:9 plasma ones (although the trend these days seem to be LCD TVs). What is the best aspect ratio to use that will work on most TVs?
Also, I use a Sony 30g HDD video camera to record events. I like it since these is no hassle about carrying tapes or DVDs around. But, the problem with the camera is that MPEG2 is the "highest quality" it can record events; my still camera can take jpeg's as the highest quality. And the photos on the DVD look - most of the time - OK in terms of quality. It's only in my last DVD that I built that I saw some of the photos having some sort of problem in the slideshow (something like a water effect on the blazers and shirts of some of the audience - definitely unwanted).
To edit my assets, I use:
1) Power director 6 (for my video). I know you are going to say I should use Premiere Pro. I'm still reading the manual for PPro2 and Ppro doesn't have SVRT like PD6 does.
2) Photoshop elements or Fireworks (for my photos). Photoshop CS2 looks very complex for me at the moment - will learn later.
3) Adobe Audition (for my audio).
All I want is to have the highest quality possible. What's the best advice?
Thanks for all your help guys.

Since you raised the question of Hi8 versus DV tape formats, here are a few thoughts intended partly for you and partly for those who (unlike you) may be planning to get their first camcorder and are wondering about the different formats available.
Hi8 is a second-generation analog format that was marketed starting about 1988 to permit better resolution than the original VHS and Video8 camcorder formats. It was superseded about 1995 by the digital video, or DV, format.
Hi8 produced video of decent quality and was a good capture medium for material that was going to be distributed on VHS or SVHS tape. But the quality of DV is better, and DV has enormous advantages for editing and distribution. In particular, DV has absolutely no "generation loss" when transferring from tape to computer, from tape to tape, or from computer to tape, and it permits sophisticated editing using any one of many "nonlinear editing" applications that are available on PC's or Macs. Once you have edited your video using one of these applications, you may proceed to "author" your DVD's (i.e. add menus, etc.) and they will be of surprisingly high quality.
In mentioning Hi8 you may actually have been thinking of the Digital8 format. This is a format developed by Sony as a bridge between the older Video8/Hi8 world and the DV world. It is logically identical to DV but it uses the same physical tape as Hi8. This tape is now customarily labelled "Hi8/Digital8" to emphasize this fact. Hi8/Digital8 tape is less expensive and reportedly more robust than DV tape.
In principle Digital8 is just as good a format as DV. However, Digital8 has been targeted at a lower end of the market than DV, so even the best Digital8 camcorders may not have as good optics, as good sensors, or as many features as the better DV camcorders.
A few years ago, many people would recommend Digital8 as a very practical format for someone just getting started in video, since it was available at lower price points than DV, was identical in quality as regards format and perhaps better in value as regards camcorders, i.e. Digital8 camcorders were less expensive than DV camcorders of the same quality. Above all, Digital8 was ideal for someone who had previously used Video8 or Hi8, since the early Digital 8 camcorders would play back analog tapes and so could bridge the transition to digital. In fact, by buying or borrowing a second Digital8 camcorder, you could play back your analog tapes from one camcorder and record them as digital tapes using the other camcorder, forever after enjoying the advantages of the digital format.
At the present time, however, DV would be a much better choice than Digital8. Most (or all?) recent Digital8 camcorders have abandoned the ability to play back analog tapes. Only one or two manufacturers are making Digital8, and their offerings have dropped to a handful in recent years. This hardware will quite likely cease to be available in the near future, though the tapes will probably be marketed for years. When your present equipment wears out you would not want to be left with a library of family videos in an unsupported physical format.
In the last few years the DV format itself has been superseded by various high-definition formats, especially by HDV, a format that records to the same physical tapes as DV, at the same bitrates as DV, but, thanks to much greater compression, with twice the horizontal and more than twice the vertical resolution of DV.
Another format using even greater and more sophisticated compression, AVCHD, promises similar quality as HDV with even greater horizontal resolution, although the implementations of AVCHD available now are probably not as high in quality as the best HDV, and are certainly much harder to edit.
Despite the emergence of high-definition formats, there are good reasons for some people to prefer standard-definition DV at this time. One reason is cost. A good HDV camcorder -- the Canon HV20 is probably the best consumer model right now -- is likely to cost $1,000 or a bit more, while good DV models cost a few hundred. A second reason is low-light capability. The imaging chips for high-definition have many more pixels than the chips for DV. If the lenses are the same size, then these pixels must be crowded into a sensor about the same size as that of a DV camera, meaning that each pixel must be smaller and therefore less responsive to low-light conditions. So a good DV camera may be much better in low light than even the best high-definition camcorder of the same size.
Camcorders are now available that record direct to DVD (NOT advisable as John Smith said: the DVD medium is not robust for long-term storage and the necessary MPEG2 compression robs your source video of the quality it would have on tape and is much harder to edit).
Camcorders are also available that record directly to hard disk. Depending on the implementation, and your handiness with computers, thes might be just right FOR SOME USES. In particular they permit much more rapid turnaround between shooting and editing, so they might be right for something that is needed quickly but where archiving is not important (for example, shots of a football team at practice). But (as you have undoubtedly discovered with your 30gig Sony) you must download the material from camera to hard drive when the camera fills up, and this is not as easy as putting in a new tape. Also, the file may not be stored on disk in the relatively uncompressed, and easily edited, DV format. Finally, no hard drive is as safe a storage medium as a tape. With a hard drive and especially with a DVD, you risk losing everything to a crash or scratch; with a tape, you risk at most losing a few frames to a dropout caused by imperfections in the media.
Only you can balance all these factors knowing the type of things you will be shooting, how you will view or share your videos, and what you plan to do with them in the future. Note that DV can be edited together with HDV by many editing programs, though either the quality or the size on screen or both will be noticeably different. Also note that the high-definition formats are all in the widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, like the newer TV's, while DV was originally 4:3 and may be available in 16:9 but with the additional width achieved by stretching the same number of pixels and possibly by using a smaller fraction of the imaging chip.
I would recommend that you search for articles and forums about camcorders to learn what is available. There is a lot of information out there. As for me, I would certainly not recommend Hi8, or even Digital8, at this time. Choose DV if you have a pressing reason for it, such as cost or the need to get good images in low light; otherwise make yourself more future proof with HDV or AVCHD. They will produce high-quality DVD's when "downconverted" when capturing them into the computer or when exporting them from the nonlinear editor or authoring program (experiment to find which method is best). Unless you are using AVCHD, which is not a tape-based format, stick with tape (for now) if you are concerned with long-term storage.
Best wishes!

What is the best file format to use with imovie?

I am relatively new to Mac and got it for music production, but more recently I have been messing around with video and a I have difficulty dealing with Mpeg and some other file types with imovie. My question is this, 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??

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.
'best' in terms of most versatile and offering the 'best' format (=iM's own AppleIntermediateCodec) is free Mpeg Streamclip
only for convertiing mp2, such as non-copyprotected videoDVDs, you need the 20$ mp2-playback-component ......

What's the best camera to buy?

Going to purchase a video camera. What's the best?

HawksWyler,
I too was recently in the market for a camcorder and decided upon the Sony HDR-SR12 based on its reviews. Sony also makes the SR11, which has a 60 GB hard drive instead of 120 GB like the SR12. This is the only difference between the two (other than the price) and the SR11 can supposedly be purchased for around $1,000. I purchased my camcorder online from B&H Photo and it was just delivered today.
Below are some links that may aid you in your search:
http://www.retrevo.com/
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=a64b78b7906983acc62f345f46f8e4 d3&f=161
http://review.zdnet.com/Reviews/4566-6500_16-0.html
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/

What is the best, safest MXF video converter for mac?

I need to view MXF video files on my macbook pro. Wondering if anyone knows what is the best video converter to use for these files?

Hi, I just got one recommended to you. It is iOrgSoft Video Mate. It can convert camcorder footages like MXF, AVCHD, MTS, XAVC, MOD, etc to regular video formats like MP4, MOV, 3GP, etc. I usually it to convert AVCHD files from my Sony cam. I think it works fine for me. You can have a try using it to convert MXF files.

What is the best camcorder?

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