What to look for in a video camera

i have an apple ibook 700 mhz with imovie....but ill be buying a mac mini within the next few months so i will then have idvd..what are some things that i need to make sure i look for in a video camera. like i dont want to buy something that isnt going to be compatible with my ibook/macmini. im assuming i want a mini dv recorder. any help is greatly appreciated thanks

... ah,we had that a while ago... no bookmark... hm?? :
* miniDV, no miniDVD/flashmem/whatever..
* firewire connected (all miniDV do so, some call it iLink or IE1394) ask dealer for a cable! (some manufacturers "forget" to include...)
* stay with the big brands, no exotic cheapos...
* I highly recommend Sony, pic & audio quality perfect! very good energy management ("stamina")
* in case you need: look for ext. mic plug-in
* in case you need conversion from analogue (beta, VHS, PSP..), look for analogue-IN
* spending BigBucks: HD is a nice-have, but besides playback to tape no other media in sight ("HDDVD")
* 3ccd has "better" pic quality, better lowlight/lowkey quality
* you shouldn't pay for any in-camera-fx (sepia, posterize, ...), you'll do that in iMovie...
* get hands-on experience in shop! some cameras are too small...
* set camera to 16bit audio (my Sony "prefers" 12bit - NoGo with iApps)
* get a tripod

Similar Messages

Looking for a sports video camera that is compatible with the mac

Looking for a video camera that can record sports well and is also compatible with the mac. I've been using iMovie to edit videos for a highlight reel of my highschool soccer games that I coach.

I like Sony HD MiniDV (HDV) Handycam Camcorder - HDRFX1000, but I have also used several older Sony (DCR-TRV17 and DCR-TRV70) and Canon (VIXIA HV20, VIXIA HV30, and VIXIA HV40) tape-based Firewire-equipped camcorders with good results.
I prefer tape-based Firewire-equipped cameras because of their IEEE 1394 transfer speed, compatibility with iMovie HD, and ability to serve as the source recording directly into iMovie when desired. If none of these characteristics is important to you, other Mac-compatible camcorders with suitable zoom ranges and lens speeds for the light levels you encounter should also do nicely for recording at your games.
You do not say which iMovie version you are using, but you can find about known compatible camcorders by searching for the info in a search like this one.
Message was edited by: EZ Jim
Mac OSX 10.9

Looking for an HD video camera

I am a teaching student and I need to film myself in a classroom activity next Tuesday. My school rents cameras, but for two days, it would cost $120 and it would cost $180 for a week. May as well buy one if I am spending that much.
I have an older Mac Pro Quad Core and I am running 10.6.7 and Final Cut Studio 2 (I bought FCS3 not too long ago, but have not installed it yet).
I'd like to go HD (I think) and spend no more than $500.
What I want to do is be able to film stuff, dump it into Final Cut Pro and make standard definition DVDs. I know how to capture video using a Canopus ADVC-100 and make DVDs from the resulting DV files using compressor and DVDSP, but from what I am seeing, cameras record in MTS and I'd need to do a log and transfer? Would I transfer to ProRes and make my DVD as usual out of that file? I have never actually captured video directly from a video camera, just VHS through the Canopus so this is ALL new to me.
I'd shoot mostly home movies and the occasional live band. Would a camera like either of these be good for my needs?
Sony HDR-CX160 LI
Canon - VIXIA HF R21
Any suggestions?

Good point(s). That's why I said I think I'd like to go HD. I didn't know how necessary it was, I just knew it was what was popular now. I'd mainly be using it to do home movies, maybe the occasional web clip and make regular SD DVDs. I don't even have a Blu-Ray player yet, though I plan on getting one and I don't think I'd take enough movies to have a burning desire to plug the camera into an HDTV to watch videos.

Buying Used iMac - What to look for?

Hello,
I'm a devoted mac user. I currently own a late 2008 unibody Macbook, and have been looking for an upgrade. I came across a used iMac posting on a craigslist-like website. The configuration is a low-end mid-2011 21" iMac (quad core i5, 4gb, 500gb).
I asked the seller for the serial number and checked it out the support site. The warranty is due to run out on Thursday, just enough time for me to buy extended AppleCare. The price seems reasonable (approx $730 whereas a new iMac is $1200), and I've asked to see the iMac in person tomorrow. I wanted to know what to look for when making the final decision.
Also do you think I should hold out for an Ivy Bridge iMac (rumoured to be coming soon??) or will it not make a difference for normal coding/browsing (no photo/video editing/gaming)? One factor discouraging me is that Apple has hitched up the prices for the newly released Macbooks here in India (the base 13" pro used to be $1250, now $1530!!!).
Thanks a lot!
Meghana

RRFS wrote:
Then you have to make sure the original owner releases their account at Apple or purchases and upgrades will be impossible.
Oh! Had no idea about this... how does one release the account? I mean, is there a way i can check it on the machine itself? The applecare site doesn't show any registration info.
Thanks!!

Any suggestions for what to look for in a good production monitor?

I'm in the market for a production monitor and I'm looking at B&H's online catalogue now. Any tips on what to look for and if anyone has any recommendations or favorites? Thanks.

it would help if you could determine a budget and then shop for models within or slightly above that budget.
basically, some necessary items are switchable aspect ratio, underscan/overscan and then some sort of blue check for proper chroma and phase calibration. some monitors have a gray scale blue check which i think completely blows. it's better to have a monitor with viewable red, blue and green guns as the blue gun is more accurate for calibration than a grayscale blue check feature. also, there are other diagnostic functions that are viewable by using the red or green guns to view color bars.
some other nice features to have are horizontal/vertical delay, sdi inputs, hd-sdi inputs.
it's been mentioned in the last larry jordan newsletter than the crt monitor is going the way of the dinosaur and now sony and panasonic are marketing lcd products only. i think this is a very sad trend. as a freelance video operator/camera shader, i am of the opinion that lcd monitors are horrible; they hurt my eyes and the color rendition isn't as accurate as a crt. leitch is now manufacturing an lcd scope which is just terrible to behold. the black area of the vectorscope is a huge, amorphous blob of white light that shows no signal detail whatsoever.
i don't know what to make of larry's statement as a quick check of the sony business website reveals only bvm crt's in their product lineup, no more pvm series. i haven't looked at the panasonic product catalog yet.
although the sony pvm L5 that shane mentioned is a quality product, to my eyes, i would get an ikegami monitor but you'll find that the superior imaging of the ikegami also has a superior price point.
one last point, don't buy an used monitor from ebay, you don't know where it's been or how it's been treated. give jvc monitors a fair shake as well, not a bad product for the price, no matter what their reputation is.
good luck.

Looking for a good Video intro generator. Any recommendation ?

Hi there,
I am looking for some impressive video intro generator & bump into this:
http://www.reallusion.com/contentstore/cstore_vshowcase.aspx?id=525&CategoryName =iClone
I bought the iClone4 plus the Motion Montage because I like the part where it will generate the impressive video intro sequence automatically & all I need to do was to drag my pictures & videos into it.
But, when I used it, this software turns out to be very complicated. When I drag a picture into it, it turns dark immediately !! My guess is that I have to adjust the lighting & a whole series of buttons to get the effect. So, this is too cumbersome & too time consuming for me.
I need one that can generate an impressive video intro & all I have to do is to select my pictures & video files.
Any recommendation from experts here ?
Thanks

skalicki` wrote:
I'd never seen any program that could make something like that so easily until I clicked your link! Generally to do that kind of work you need a working knowledge of programs that support editing/modeling in 3D space.
If nobody else can name another product, you might try the "Contact Us" part of their website:
http://www.reallusion.com/aboutus.asp#contact
Yes, I have tried that, all they did was ask me to see their tutorial & manual & forum. But their forum are mostly on iClone4 and not Motion Montage.
Also, it is too time consuming to learn the iClone4. I bought it because I thought I can produce the impressive video intro by just dragging in my video files & picture files.
It work to a certain extend but the problem is that the very minute I drag my files into it, it becomes very dark & resolution quality drop to a very bad level, unlike what I see on the sales video.
I hope others can recommend me another product.
Thanks

Looking for a retail available camera that is compatible with FMLE

I am looking for a retail available camera that is compatible with FMLE. I do not have a computer with HDMI input, and in the past, I have typically ran with a USB connection. Does anyone know of a camera that is available at a local retail store that would work with FMLE through a USB connection?

Webcams will work, although they may not give you the flexibility that you're looking for with a more traditional "camera".
You may be more interested in looking at a converter/digitizer -- something that can take a variety of inputs and pull those into your computer as a a video source that your computer, and FMLE, sees as a "camera".
Look at this page: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashmediaserver/flashmediaencoder/devicematrix.html
You'll see a variety of webcams, capture cards, cameras, and other devices that are known to work with FMLE. Most of those solutions, however, require the installation of a card or require that you have Thunderbolt connections or FireWire connections. Not on that list is the Dazzle line of digitizers. I know several people who use Dazzles with FMLE -- and while each one seems to have issues that you have to be aware of, they do work (some better than others). As long as you're aware of the issues, it's not a problem working with these devices -- and they're pretty inexpensive. The Dazzle Video Creator Platinum seems to have the least amount of problems (the only real problem that I'm aware of is that you have to be sure to disable your preview windows in FMLE if you want to make changes to the source settings -- or it will crash FMLE. But, once you get your settings in place you can enable the preview windows again and don't have to worry about it). The great thing about a digitizer is that you can now use any camera that can output to standard composite cables (the yellow, red, and white 'RCA' cables -- or SVideo cable). So your camera selection possabilities increase greatly.
If you're looking for a standalone camera that can deliver a live video feed through USB -- good luck. I'm sure they're out there, but your choices are going to be very limited.
Personally, I use the Canopus ADVC110 -- which allows me to hook up any camera (or even a playback deck/DVR/DVD player, etc.) that can output composite (RCA) or FireWire or S-Video. The ADVC110 will not work for you, as you need FireWire to hook up to your computer, but just in case you do have FireWire I can tell you that it is a stellar box with no issues at all.

What to look for in free fonts?

I want to download some free fonts (I am a student) to use for some 300ppi print pieces and am wondering what to look for in a free font to determine whether it will print nicely at a high quality. What makes a good quality font? I know there is lots of garbage out there though there are also many good quality free fonts.
Thanks.

This is not remotely a Photoshop question.
Try the Adobe Typography forum:
http://forums.adobe.com/community/design_development/typography

How do i find a recent backup from on icloud. i don't want to restore on my iphone, just view on my Pc and keep as file. looking for pics and video i recorded thanks

How do i find a recent backup from on icloud. i don't want to restore on my iphone, just view on my Pc and keep as file. looking for pics and video i recorded thanks

The password is set on the WiFi router providing the service, by the owner of the network to prevent unwanted "guests" accessing the network. The only way to know it is to ask the owner permission to use the network. Otherwise, you have to find a free WiFi hotspot that doesn't require a password.

I'm looking for a music video that's not...

I'm looking for a music video that's not on itunes. Where can I express a wish?
(My wish: ofra haza "im nin alu" - musicvideo)
I want it because of the good quality recording.
Greetz!

MPD rocks, runs here for months without major problems.
The client side is very flexible, you can choose many players:
http://www.musicpd.org/clients.shtml
For X, for console, etc..
Edit:
MPD supports Icecast also, to create streams.
Last edited by mephisto (2007-05-15 14:00:36)

Pointer on what to look for (NullPointerException in FontManager.getFont2D)

I have a screen that we are trying to display remotely (via an RMI bridge). On the local application it displays properly everytime, but when displayed remotely It displays properly once. From then on it comes up blank with a null pointer exception (Posted below). Right now I'm thinking there is something in the set-up for the local applicateion that is not happening on the remote one. But I didn't write either and my brute force investigation hasn't trned up anything.
Since I only have to disconnect and close the remote application and restart to get it to display again this could also be a problem cleaning up resources on a window close. I'm hoping that someonw might have an idea of what causes this Exception. Moste references I've found to it appear to be listed as fixed (And aren't the same thing since they happen all the time) or are in threads that just stopped with no resolution. I'm hoping that if I find out what it means I might have a better idea what to look for.
java.lang.NullPointerException
     at sun.font.FontManager.getFont2D(Native Method)
     at sun.font.FontDesignMetrics.initMatrixAndMetrics(FontDesignMetrics.java:343)
     at sun.font.FontDesignMetrics.<init>(FontDesignMetrics.java:336)
     at sun.font.FontDesignMetrics.getMetrics(FontDesignMetrics.java:284)
     at sun.swing.SwingUtilities2.getFontMetrics(SwingUtilities2.java:943)
     at javax.swing.JComponent.getFontMetrics(JComponent.java:1599)
     at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicTabbedPaneUI.getFontMetrics(BasicTabbedPaneUI.java:1801)
     at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicTabbedPaneUI.calculateMaxTabWidth(BasicTabbedPaneUI.java:1754)
     at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicTabbedPaneUI$TabbedPaneLayout.calculateSize(BasicTabbedPaneUI.java:2314)
     at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicTabbedPaneUI$TabbedPaneLayout.preferredLayoutSize(BasicTabbedPaneUI.java:2261)
     at java.awt.Container.preferredSize(Container.java:1599)
     at java.awt.Container.getPreferredSize(Container.java:1584)
     at javax.swing.JComponent.getPreferredSize(JComponent.java:1636)
     at psip.gui.util.UIDelegate.defineComponentSizes(UIDelegate.java:927)
     at psip.gui.util.UIDelegate.applyAllResources(UIDelegate.java:865)
     at psip.gui.jfc.panel.AbstractContainer.applyAllResources(AbstractContainer.java:254)
     at psip.gui.jfc.panel.AGDTabbedPane.applyAllResources(AGDTabbedPane.java:471)
     at psip.gui.jfc.panel.AGDTabbedPane.<init>(AGDTabbedPane.java:101)
     at psip.gui.jfc.panel.ControlPanelFactory.getUIDelegate(ControlPanelFactory.java:167)
     at psip.gui.uiDelegate.UIDelegateDirector.getUIDelegate(UIDelegateDirector.java:124)
     at psip.gui.viewMap.GUIComponentFactory.createUIDelegate(GUIComponentFactory.java:593)

Anna:
Yes, rule no. 1, Firewire or FW/USB
2. Largest HDD you can afford (having more space than you need it not a problem; needing more space than you have, is.)
3. 7200 rpms. (Most of them are, but not all)
Here is a list of some of the best buys already sorted for 200-300 GB.
Different folks like different manufacturers. I have had my LaCie for 2 years. No problems. I like it for it's compact size and elegance.
Here are some good hints from Dr. Smoke on Backup and Recovery. Instead of Retropect, which I could never quite figure out, I use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper.
Post back with further questions or comments.
Good luck.
cornelius
Message was edited by: cornelius

Studio Monitors - what to look for...

I'm going to say this right now - I'm NOT asking "hey, whats the best studio monitors I can get for x dollars." That's not what I'm interested in.
What I AM interested in is what TO look for, and what NOT to look for in buying a new set of stereo monitors.
I've decided I'd like to upgrade my studio monitors. I'm mixing on a pair of Event TR8 XL monitors - they're great, but i know there's better out there. I spent about $600 on the pair.
At this point, my limited knowledge of monitors only allow me to assume that more expensive means better, but I don't understand WHY, or what to look for. So, my question is this. What is more money buying me? Are there brands that are more or less reputable than others?
I'm really looking for general, or specific, advice on shopping for new monitors. Help me make an educated decision, there are too **** many monitors out there to choose from.
For what it's worth, I'd like to keep it under 1k. I'm interested in active near-fields, good for mixing, with decent clarity and few gimiks. Granted, nothing beats getting into a GC and listening to a few (which I intend to do in the next day or two), but I need a little more to go on when I take a look at these in person and listen to some of my mixes on them.
Thanks!
Chris

To add to the previous poster, I have a pair of old NS10's and I use them because I'm used to how they sound and how their sound translates to several other of my references, i.e. my SET/Bottlehead listening system, my car CD player, my table radio. One reason a studio owner would buy say Genelecs or Mackie HR 824's is because they have become somewhat of a standard and like the NS10's of 15 years ago, people know what they're getting once you're used the way mixes translate from them to other systems. That being said, get the Mackies, or Dynaudio BM5A's. Both those seem to be widely accepted and studio proven. That's a good place to start.

Raid Card, what to look for in a card?

Hi guys,
Im looking for help on what to look for in a Raid card. Im new to Raid, but i have read the tweakers pages and it seems like the way forward.
Im a full time editor working with AVC-Intra footage doing fast cuts. Im about to ditch my 2008 mac pro and build a up to date PC around the i7 4930k. Im planning on running 8x3-4tb drives for footage; raid 5, 3x3tb raid 3 for exports, maybe 2x256 ssd raid 0 for boot, 2x3tb drive for page file and media cache, and maybe 3x3tb for stock footage raid 0.
Im totally lost in what to look for in a Raid card?
Cheers Ryan

For 13 drives is there a cheaper option?
Yes, Areca 1882ix-16, 1264IL-16, Intel RS2WG160, LSI 9260-16i - or for that matter, any RAID controller with 13+ internal connections. There are much cheaper controllers from Highpoint and others, as well.
If your next question is, is it worth it going cheaper? ...Usually not for me personally - at least certainly not with Highpoint or other entry level controllers with subpar support and all kinds of performance and reliability problems. Even Tier 1 controllers aren't exempt from them.
That said, I am curious about Intel and LSI controllers I listed above. The LSI one especially so given the availability of SSD caching and other neat features.
Hope this helps.

What to look for when purchasing external display

Hey everyone,
First and foremost I want to say I am a web developer and graphic designer so what I am looking for is a display (not too big) 20" - 23" TV OR Monitor. This way when I am developing I am not making things HUGE so i can see them while other viewers can't. I have seen the display on a 30" screen and no that isn't going ot work.
I am now searching for an external display for my newly built office but I don't know what to look for besides DVI support. What resolution do I need to make sure it goes to? There is just so many options when looking at TVs or Monitors..
any input?

DVI support is a must and most LCDs in the size that you are looking for are going to have it.
Your MB can drive a display with a resolution of up to 1920 x 1200 which just happens to be the resolution of the 23" Apple Cinema HD Display. I didn't want to pay Apple prices for a display, so I went looking at Dell. I picked up a 20" 2007WFP display from them for about $360 shipped and it works like a charm with the Apple Mini-DVI to DVI adapter.
I prefer displays that use a S-IPS panel over the more common and cheaper TN panels. S-IPS is much better for color reproduction and that is why Apple uses them in their Cinema Displays. Dell uses the same panel is some of their 20" models - I got one - but some buyers are very upset that they got a TN panel instead of the S-IPS panel. I was lucky I guess.

Color issue with pdf from Indesign. I have a special cmyk mix for a bcard in Indesign. When I export the pdf the cmyk mix has changed Just started today 1.13.15 Running Yosemite 10.10.1 Any help on what to look for would be greatly appreciated.

I have a special cmyk mix for a bcard in Indesign. When I export the pdf the cmyk mix has changed Just started today 1.13.15 Running Yosemite 10.10.1 Any help on what to look for would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you Peter. Someone else must have been on my computer because I do not change the settings. You pointed me in the right direction.
Thanks again.
Patrick

What to look for in a video camera

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for