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All Camcorders Mac compatible?

jophassa

jophassa

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 30, 2006
10
0
Hello. My first post in these fine forums.

I just bought a new Mac Mini from ebay primarily for Movie editing on iMovie.

I am, naturally, now looking for a camcorder for making my films but the only niggle I am having with looking for a camcorder is if it is MAC compatible.

So I thought I would come straight to the professionals and ask them: are all camcorders Mac Compatible? If not, are there any particular brands which are?

Thanks in advance...
 
jophasssa said:
are all camcorders Mac Compatible? If not, are there any particular brands which are?
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Look for a camcorder with FireWire/iLink/IEEE1394/DV out (they all essentially mean the same thing) to guarantee compatibility. If it only has USB, there's a chance it won't be compatible.

B
 
WOW!

this is the fastest responding forum ever! Thanks!

I am a frequent visitor of a xbox360 forum and never have replies been so speedy!

i will take a look at that list and look out for those cable requirements. cheers!
 
Benjamindaines said:
I've yet to find a video camera that isn't FireWire compatible.
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A good example of an incompatible camera are the Sony mini-DVD camcorders. AS they are MPEG-2/DVD based they don't work with iLife well at all.

I agree though that as long as you stick with miniDV you're almost guaranteed Firewire.

B
 
balamw said:
A good example of an incompatible camera are the Sony mini-DVD camcorders. AS they are MPEG-2/DVD based they don't work with iLife well at all.

I agree though that as long as you stick with miniDV you're almost guaranteed Firewire.

B
Click to expand...
yeah i hate them DVD camcorders , not my taste at all
 
Yeah, they have to be the worst idea ever! even people shooting home movies will want to edit what they have taken, surely??

It is an over-hyped idea that is totally unnecessary. I think that mini-DV provides unparalled image quality for that price range.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
 
ALL CAMERCORDERS WITH FIREWIRE ARE NOT MAC COMPATIBLE!!

Sorry for the all caps, but I didn't want someone to purchase a camera based on incorrect information.

Check out the Sony DCR-IP5 for an example. It has an iLink port (Sony's name for the 1394 standard which is Firewire). It is not supported by OS X. (If anyone knows how to get it to work with OS X, please let me know. Otherwise, it works great with windows). I'm sure there are others that don't work either.
 
hmmmmmmmmmm. that makes my revision even harder. i suppose it is good that i won't buy an incompatible camera. it is a bit annoying that some are and some aren't Mac compatible but i suppose i will just have to look harder.


can anyone recommend a specific Mac compatible camcorder? Thanks
 
jophasssa said:
hmmmmmmmmmm. that makes my revision even harder. i suppose it is good that i won't buy an incompatible camera. it is a bit annoying that some are and some aren't Mac compatible but i suppose i will just have to look harder.


can anyone recommend a specific Mac compatible camcorder? Thanks
Click to expand...
i'm using a Sony dcr-hc19e right now and it works fine ( will be upgrading to a 3ccd cam soon)
 
yeah, i was considering a 3ccd camera but i dont think i can justify it.

maybe once i win my first golden globe award i might splash out on a JVC 3CCD.

PS. thanks to the admin dudes for correcting my name so fast!
 
jophassa said:
yeah, i was considering a 3ccd camera but i dont think i can justify it.

maybe once i win my first golden globe award i might splash out on a JVC 3CCD.

PS. thanks to the admin dudes for correcting my name so fast!
Click to expand...
JVC are about to release one for around £500 ish mark in April can't remember the model number but that looks to be very good IMO
 
Thanks for that link, Artful.

Tom, yeah, there is a JVC 3CCD tiny black camcorder which i was looking at, but i decided that I would be better spending half the cash and getting accessories like Filters, tripods etc.
 
grapes911 said:
ALL CAMERCORDERS WITH FIREWIRE ARE NOT MAC COMPATIBLE!!
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Good point. I remember struggling with a firend and one of those MicroMV cameras.

Basically stay away fom Sony. ;)

B
 
Panasonic video camera SCR-H250

Just bought this camera and it won't work with my new Imac 20 inch. Not compatable. Can download via USB to the Desktop but cannot transfer into Imovie. Tried all sorts of conversion programms but no luck.
 
Panasonic video camera SDR-H250 3CCD HDD ( 30 gb)

Just bought this camera and it won't work with my new Imac 20 inch. Not compatable. Can download via USB to the Desktop but cannot transfer into Imovie. Tried all sorts of conversion programms but no luck.
 
jrmell said:
Just bought this camera and it won't work with my new Imac 20 inch. Not compatable. Can download via USB to the Desktop but cannot transfer into Imovie. Tried all sorts of conversion programms but no luck.
Click to expand...

That's because it's a hard drive camera, it doesn't record to a standard. It records to a Panasonic proprietary format that needs to be converted with the supplied Panasonic application.
 
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