which video camera to go with my ibook?

[soccerfan]

Any suggestions on a cheap but decent (say sub $400) video camera to purchase for doing home video and snapshots?

I'm looking forward to having the iDVD software so that I can make and edit my own work. Nothing professional, just nice home movies, etc.

A couple of other specific questions:

1. Do I need to go with a digital camera?
2. If I do, is it possible to use the camera itself for video confrencing?

 

[jsw]

Not sure what's out there sub-$400 nowadays, as I haven't shopped in a while, but you either need to get a digital camera, or buy an analog->digital converter for ~$200. Otherwise, you won't be able to import. Well, technically, you just need a camera with DV out, but I think any camera with that is, by default, digital.

And, yes, you definitely can use the camera for videoconferencing. It'll be a source in exactly the same way, for example, an iSight would be - again, assuming you get the signal via Firewire input.

 

[Brother Michael]

And, yes, you definitely can use the camera for videoconferencing. It'll be a source in exactly the same way, for example, an iSight would be - again, assuming you get the signal via Firewire input.

Well that will save me 130 on an iSight.

Mike

 

[puckhead193]

As far as camera go...i like the canon ZR series. I have the ZR40 and its great! Its not that expensive and great for home movies. Its durable, i've traveled around the world and it survived the trips!

 

[jsw]

One thing to check on - if possible, get a videocamera with built-in analog->DV conversion capabilities. Most have them now ("analog to DV passthrough", it's sometimes called). That way, should you wish to import, say, old videotapes, you could hook your VCR up to your videocam, your videocam up to your Mac, and import the tapes directly.

And, as a side thing, hooking up a VCR to the videocam, you could use your VCR as the source for iChat and effectively broadcast a TV show to one iChat viewer (or 3 when OS X 10.4/Tiger is released).