[nbkicker33]

Hi ive got a mackbook, with imovie hd and imovie 08 on it and plan on buying final cut express 4, current camcorders i have been looking at are panasonic sd5 , sony sr5 and also seen a good review of the samsung hmx10 (but dont no what format it records at), dont no which of the 3 to pick, has anyone got any of the above models and a macbook, dont want to spend a bit of money for macbook not to reconise the camera and not be able to edit my footage, any help appreciated.

[xmb]

For the best quality and ease of editing (less load for your MacBook) you need to stick to a DV tape based camcorder. Take a look at CamcorderInfo for their opinion.

I would spend my money on a Canon HV20 or Sony HC7 if I were in the market for a HD camcorder as the whole point of HD is quality so why compromise?

[steve77uk]

Originally Posted by xmb

For the best quality and ease of editing (less load for your MacBook) you need to stick to a DV tape based camcorder. Take a look at CamcorderInfo for their opinion.

I would spend my money on a Canon HV20 or Sony HC7 if I were in the market for a HD camcorder as the whole point of HD is quality so why compromise?

I have a C2D MacBook Black and have recently purchased a Sony HDR-SR5. It works absolutly fine, no issues, iMovie 08 works great, automatically recognises the camera and editing has been a breeze. iMovie 8 supports the new AVCHD format and there is no lag and does it all in fast time too. I was amazed how iMovie 8 handles the footage I did, well impressed.

I also have Final Cut Express 4.0. This is the big brother of iMovie 08 for semi-pro's and I am hooked. It is a fantastic program and works seamlessly with the AVCHD Camcorders.

However, I am sending my SR5 back today as the colour quality is very poor IMHO and also the auto-focus is very slow, I am thinking about the SR7 instead unless there is anything better out there?

In a nutshell, your Macbook will work find as long as you are using iMovie 08 and FCE 4, the previous versions do not work...

[nbkicker33]

cool, at moment very tempted by the panasonic sd5, especially with avchd as i could play this through my ps3 to view.

[steve77uk]

Well I have just got back from Currys and tried the JVC - out of all of them we tested live and on TV the panasonic came out best -

Panasonic HDC-SD5EG Digital Camcorder

The JVC GZHD3 was better at Auto Focusing over along with the colour but still was washed out...

[senu]

Originally Posted by steve77uk

I have a C2D MacBook Black and have recently purchased a Sony HDR-SR5. It works absolutly fine, no issues, iMovie 08 works great, automatically recognises the camera and editing has been a breeze. iMovie 8 supports the new AVCHD format and there is no lag and does it all in fast time too. I was amazed how iMovie 8 handles the footage I did, well impressed.

I also have Final Cut Express 4.0. This is the big brother of iMovie 08 for semi-pro's and I am hooked. It is a fantastic program and works seamlessly with the AVCHD Camcorders.

However, I am sending my SR5 back today as the colour quality is very poor IMHO and also the auto-focus is very slow, I am thinking about the SR7 instead unless there is anything better out there?

In a nutshell, your Macbook will work find as long as you are using iMovie 08 and FCE 4, the previous versions do not work...

True
I would avoid the Samsung
And I would also consider the Canon HG10, if you must use AVCHD
All the HDV camcorders work well with the Mac and PC