Camcorder and iMovie 08-09

[mattmiles]

Hi,
I am just about to go traveling round America and North America and want to purchase a camcorder. I have never had one before and want to film my travel and then edit them on my Mac using iMovie and then burn them to DVD to send home to family so they can see what I have been up to. Could anyone recommend a few good camera. I am not sure what would produce the best picture quality, MiniDV or Flash camcorders. I know flash use compression which can reduce the quality of the image.

nay help would be hugely appreciated.

thank you

Matt

[A n d r e w]

Hi, Matt.

There are two questions you really need to give us the answers for, so we can be of more help:

1. how much are you looking to spend?
2. do you want high definition or standard definition?

As far as the tape vs. memory card debate goes, there are fans on both sides of the divide. The latest AVCHD camcorders (high definition recorded to memory card or hard drive) employ a very efficient codec and produce video on par with similarly-priced HDV offerings (high definition recorded to mini-DV tape). Both kinds of camcorder are compatible with iMovie (see the links below):

iMovie '08: Camcorder Support
iMovie '09: Camcorder Support

Incidentally, do you have an Intel Mac?

Andrew.

[mattmiles]

Hi Andrew,

Many thanks for the reply.

Yes I have an intel Mac. I have about £400 to spend maybe a bit more at a push. I would like High Definaition but, as I don't have a Blue Ray DVD or any suchlike is it really worth it?

If I was to opt for standard definaition would I be better going for a tape based camcorder rather than flash memory?

If I am being honest it is all about the viewing quality of the movie once I have burned it to DVD using Apple standard iLife software. I have tried editing movies that have come from an MPEG2 or MPEG4 format and they seem to lose there quality once I have transfered them to my Mac.

Any help angain would be appreciated.

Matt

[A n d r e w]

Personally, I don't see the point any longer in spending £400 on a new camcorder and not buying a high definition model. Not having Blu-ray doesn't matter too much: your next TV is very likely to be HD anyway, and you'll have the HD video archived and ready to go. And HD video downsized to standard definition DVD looks just as good if not better than equivalently-priced standard definition offerings. High definition simply means higer resolution and you'll definitely notice the difference watching videos on your Mac or publishing them on the web on sites that support high def uploads (e.g. Vimeo, YouTube).

I have a Panasonic SD9 (which you can pick up around the £300 where stocks last) though I'd recommend also taking a look at the Canon HF100: a bit pricier, but it has a number of advantages over the SD9, including a larger sensor (making it better at shooting video indoors).

One advantage of travelling with a laptop and a camcorder that records to memory cards as opposed to tape is that you can dump the card contents directly to hard drive (i make a disk image [.dmg] using Disk Utility and copy each full card's entire contents into it: the advantage of a disk image is that you can mount it and iMovie behaves as if you'd just connected your camcorder) and then format the card in the camcorder ready for more.

[mattmiles]

Many Thanks for your opinion. I t is the best information anyone has manged to give me at the moment.

HD is definately what I am looking for after thinking about it.

I have looked at these Camcorders and wondered what your opinion is on them:

Samsung SC-HMX20
Sanyo VPC-HD2000
Sony HDR-CX12
Cannon Vixia HF11.

What aould anyone recommend?

[A n d r e w]

Don't know much about the Sanyo. The Samsung is meant to be pretty good, the Sony a little better, and the Canon possibly the pick of the bunch. However: the HF11 replaced the HF10 but, although the HF11 employs a higher bitrate than the HF10, reviews found the image quality to be about the same, and sales of the HF11 never really took off in the UK. Also, given that the HF10 and the HF100 are basically the same camcorder except the HF10 is black rather than gunmetal grey and has built-in memory (16GB unlike the HF11's 32GB), the price difference between the HF100 and HF10 seemed to put most people off. As a result the HF100 was - and still is - very, very popular.

Bottom line is, it's definitely worth considering the HF100 too.

Also, if you're considering purchasing online and you're not sure about the reliability of the seller, be sure to check here.