help on picking an HD camcorder

[mokend]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this website and i've searched the forum on panny's sd9 and found there are some compatibility issues w/ imovie. I was wondering if anybody knew if the new 09 imovie fixes these problems. I also was looking at sony's SR line, particularly the 11 and 10D. I went so sony's website and it says they are only compatible with windows but I read somewhere that as long as there is a firewall they are compatible w/ macs. I have no idea if this is right so before I buy, I figured I'd ask. Thank you for your help and if you have any suggestions on an hd camcorder under 1000 I would greatly appreciate it.

I also forgot to mention that I have access to Final Cut Pro, so would the panny sd9 be compatible with that?

 

[Courtaj]

iMovie '08 (7.1.2 or later) is compatible with the SD9, but not when using the progressive "Digital Cinema" shooting mode (iMovie will corrupt the first 5 seconds of each clip shot using 30p / 25p on this camcorder). I'm not sure whether iMovie '09 provides a fix for this or not. The Sonys you mention are also supported by iMovie. I fail to see why the presence of a firewall would make any difference. If you mean "firewire" then that's not a prerequisite either, as AVCHD camcorders use USB to transfer video, not firewire.

I use an SD9 with FCE4, and imagine that FCS also supports it. Depends on which version you're using, though.

Andrew.

 

[mokend]

If you mean "firewire" then that's not a prerequisite either, as AVCHD camcorders use USB to transfer video, not firewire.

I use an SD9 with FCE4, and imagine that FCS also supports it. Depends on which version you're using, though.

Andrew.

Yeah, firewire is what I meant. Sorry for the confusion, i dont know camcorders well at all and just read it earlier today.

As far as FCS, I would have FCS 6.

Would you recommend the SD9 over the sony? I really don't know anything about camcorders as far as what type of lense is better, etc. I would mostly be using mine for things like snowboard vids and outdoors activity but can imagine myself using it more as I learn more about editing, etc.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[Courtaj]

Would you recommend the SD9 over the sony?

That depends. The SD9 and SR10 are much of a muchness to my mind, the main difference being that the SD9 records to memory card and the SR10 to hard drive. If we're talking SD9 versus SR11 or SR12 goes, the SD9 is cheaper, so if cost is your overriding criterion, then it'd be that or the SR10. But the SR11 / SR12 (the only difference between these two is hard drive size) will beat the SR10 and SD9 for picture quality. The SD9 was superseded late last year by the SD100, which has a manual focus ring and microphone input.

If you're interested in AVCHD camcorders, another worth looking at is the Canon HF100, a very popular consumer camcorder around here.

Bear in mind that Panasonic, Canon, and Sony have just announced new line-ups for 2009, though whether that makes last years camcorders old hat or not is a moot point.

 

[mokend]

i know this is kind of off topic form OP but is my computer fast enough to even handle HD video or FCP... I have an imac from 07, its 2 gb memory and 2ghz

i was planning on getting an external harddrive of 500g or 1t

thanks, sorry for the noob posts

 

[student_trap]

iMovie '08 (7.1.2 or later) is compatible with the SD9, but not when using the progressive "Digital Cinema" shooting mode (iMovie will corrupt the first 5 seconds of each clip shot using 30p / 25p on this camcorder)...

...I use an SD9 with FCE4, and imagine that FCS also supports it. Depends on which version you're using, though.

I have just ordered a SD9 from amazon UK, and at the moment have imovie 08 and Adobe premier pro (which came with the cs3 suite and i haven't used as of yet).

Do you know if a) it works with PPro, and b) whether it would be worth getting FCE4 if it works well with that? Or should i just stick to imovie?

Also, how well does the camcorder work with imovie and FCE4...are we talking plug in and go, or rather (as i have been reading) that you need to import and then undergo some intense file conversion?

 

[Courtaj]

Do you know if a) it works with PPro

Sorry - no idea, never used it.

and b) whether it would be worth getting FCE4 if it works well with that? Or should i just stick to imovie?

Depends whether iMovie is going to do what you need. That's a call only you can make, I suppose.

Also, how well does the camcorder work with imovie and FCE4...are we talking plug in and go, or rather (as i have been reading) that you need to import and then undergo some intense file conversion?

FCE4 imports AVCHD using the Log & Transfer tool. You get a list of thumbnails (sounds like a contradiction in terms!) which are generated much more quickly than iMovie does the job, from which you can select individual clips, preview them and mark in and out points in the viewer window, and add them to the queue for conversion (a.k.a. "transcoding") using AIC (a.k.a Apple Intermediate Codec). Neither iMovie not Final Cut Express or Pro supports "native" editing of AVCHD. But that aside, the process is very simple and about as plug-n-play as it gets. iMovie works in a pretty similar way (import pane, preview clips, transcode to AIC) but is a bit more clunky in my opinion. Gets the job done, though.

 

[student_trap]

Thanks for the quick reply

Sorry - no idea, never used it.

Thats ok, neither have I!

Depends whether iMovie is going to do what you need. That's a call only you can make, I suppose.

Ill have to look into this. Essentially i have used older imovie's before to make your bog standard sowing different bits of video together, but never used the new one which I have heard is vastly different!

FCE4 imports AVCHD using the Log & Transfer tool. You get a list of thumbnails (sounds like a contradiction in terms!) which are generated much more quickly than iMovie does the job, from which you can select individual clips, preview them and mark in and out points in the viewer window, and add them to the queue for conversion (a.k.a. "transcoding") using AIC (a.k.a Apple Intermediate Codec). Neither iMovie not Final Cut Express or Pro supports "native" editing of AVCHD. But that aside, the process is very simple and about as plug-n-play as it gets. iMovie works in a pretty similar way (import pane, preview clips, transcode to AIC) but is a bit more clunky in my opinion. Gets the job done, though.

The extra speed with FCE4 seems worth it alone, although i have one other question:

Does FCE4 allow you to take a bit of video, edit it in adobe after effects, and then slot it back into the time line? or would this involve enormous digital hurdles?