New Camcorders, AVCHD and iLife

[NJRonbo]

I am in the market for a new camcorder.

Been using a terrific Sony HD camcorder that uses DV tape.
The problem is that it needs to be transferred to the Mac
in real time which wastes a lot of my personal time.

I need a format where I can just drag the file off the
camcorder and start editing immediately.

There are a few really terrific camcorders out there: Canon HG10,
Panasonic SD5 and Sony SR7 (among others). The problem is that
they use the newer AVCHD compression which is very difficult to
edit on a Mac.

I don't use Final Cut Pro. I am very used to iMovie '06 and dread
to have to relearn iMovie '08. Unfortunately, it looks as if iMovie '08
is the only software I can use if I go AVCHD.

I am very interested to hear the experience of people who have
a AVCHD camcorder and are editing their footage in iMovie '08 (or
by a miracle of a chance, iMovie '06).

Is it easy to do or should I stay away from these AVCHD camcorders?

Thanks in advance!

 

[CliffHanger]

I haven't used it, but i did run accross a possible conversion solution with Voltaic.

http://mac1080hd.com/

 

[akm3]

Everything I've read said AVCHD takes LONGER than real time to get editable on the Mac.

Yes, iLife08 (and Final Cut Express 4) support it, but they support converting it - which is time consuming.

That is just what I've read, your mileage may vary.

-Allen

 

[MisterMe]

Everything I've read said AVCHD takes LONGER than real time to get editable on the Mac.

Yes, iLife08 (and Final Cut Express 4) support it, but they support converting it - which is time consuming.

...

AVCHD is a highly compressed format. miniDV is not. That it will take longer to transcode AVCHD is obvious and to be expected.

 

[akm3]

AVCHD is a highly compressed format. miniDV is not. That it will take longer to transcode AVCHD is obvious and to be expected.

Yes, but the original poster said that he needed something he can just copy off the camera and begin editing immediately. From that perspective, AVCHD is worse for him then miniDV.

 

[NJRonbo]

So what would you recommend I do?

The standard HD camcorders are the best choice as you can
simply drag the file to iMovie.

However all of the really good HD camcorders today with hard
drives are also AVCHD.