camcorder for mac

Teebs18

I am going to be making a short film, i've been waiting for the new imacs to be released before I decided which camcorder I would buy. I'm wondering about what type of digital camcorder is best to use with an imac with final cut.

mobiushky

For ease, you probably want something that records in the .mov format. Not many of the HD camcorders do. Do any?

Otherwise you are going to have to do some conversion first.

Something I think most Mac owners or potential owners may not know is that AVCHD (becoming the HD camcorder standard) is the native Blu-Ray format. Panasonic and Sony developed the format jointly to allow consumer level HD cameras a standard format. It also happens to be the same format as BD movies. How does this apply? Apple has essentially refused to adopt the BD format. Because of that, they do not have a native AVCHD editor. Microsoft adopted Blu-Ray and are the first to add native AVCHD support. BTW, not trying to knock Apple. But it's something you are not exactly going to hear Apple brag about.

__________________
DRM is roughly the equivalent of poking you in the eye, repeatedly.
----------------------------------------------------
Main Setup:
Pioneer PDP-5070HD
Pioneer VSX-80TXV
Dish Vip622
PS3 (120Gb, w/BC) Like a BD player can play games too, how silly.
Logitech Harmony 1000 remote
All Klipsch speakers

Bedroom Setup:
Sony KDR-40XBR4
Dish Vip622
PS3 Slim (120Gb) I think I have too many PS3s.
Sony Commander RM-AV3000

Serena

Does that mean (you can tell that I don't use Mac) that you can't render and burn to Blu-Ray from FCP and Mac?

__________________
Serena

mobiushky

I also don't have a mac (got a brother who got one). But AFAIK, there isn't a Mac with a Blu-Ray drive let alone a burner. MCE apparently makes one, but it's $500 and it's add on. Other than that, you are out of luck.

__________________
DRM is roughly the equivalent of poking you in the eye, repeatedly.
----------------------------------------------------
Main Setup:
Pioneer PDP-5070HD
Pioneer VSX-80TXV
Dish Vip622
PS3 (120Gb, w/BC) Like a BD player can play games too, how silly.
Logitech Harmony 1000 remote
All Klipsch speakers

Bedroom Setup:
Sony KDR-40XBR4
Dish Vip622
PS3 Slim (120Gb) I think I have too many PS3s.
Sony Commander RM-AV3000

169addict

Just get a copy of Toast with BD support and burn DVD or DVD-DL to play on Blu Ray. (yes, I am doing it on a macbook pro internal dvd)

mobiushky

Does Toast have native AVCHD support? If so, that's not a bad way to go.

I do this a lot too (using Pinnacle on a PC) but sometimes you run into the cap of space. Granted, most people can't stand watching more than a 30-50 minute family home video. But if you go over 60 minutes of HD video, a dual layer DVD will not hold it unless you throttle back the resolution and bump up the compression.

__________________
DRM is roughly the equivalent of poking you in the eye, repeatedly.
----------------------------------------------------
Main Setup:
Pioneer PDP-5070HD
Pioneer VSX-80TXV
Dish Vip622
PS3 (120Gb, w/BC) Like a BD player can play games too, how silly.
Logitech Harmony 1000 remote
All Klipsch speakers

Bedroom Setup:
Sony KDR-40XBR4
Dish Vip622
PS3 Slim (120Gb) I think I have too many PS3s.
Sony Commander RM-AV3000