$299 HD Camcorder - 720P

[smitha96]

I came across this 720P Aiptek camcorder, and now I'm actually thinking it might be worth it? I'm obviously more on the consumer end of things, and what I've read so far on another forum makes it sound not too bad. (http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=570952&forum_id=92&jump_to=749915)

Anyone have any experience with this camera, or any experience with it on a Mac/iMovie? Any other thoughts are welcome.

 

[ppc_michael]

I did a little research and it looks like it should be compatible with Macs. Records to an SD card so you won't be able to capture it like you would with a tape-based camcorder, but the camera saves the videos in Quicktime format so you can just drag the video files off the camera and shouldn't have to do any format conversions (although I don't know what compressor it uses, so iMovie might transcode it automatically which would take a while).

So that's all good.

But! It appears that this uses a very low bitrate, so lots of movement will become artifacty.

You might want to read the customer reviews on Amazon, because they seem to sum up what is said elsewhere.

So I guess it just depends on what you want out of the camera. For presentable video intended for DVD, etc, you'll be disappointed. For YouTube, this would be fine.

Personally I would save my money more and get something nicer. You get what you pay for.

 

[Beligerent]

I HAVE that camcorder. It's ok. Just ok. I have taken lots of HD footage with it and the worst part of it is when you import it into iMovie it goes thru a painfully long coversion process. If you use a tripod with it you will be VERY happy.

-Norm