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Panasonic Professional AG-HMC40 AVCHD Camcorder and iMovie

R

Ranger Joe

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 30, 2010
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I am interested in purchasing a Panasonic Professional AG-HMC40 AVCHD Camcorder. I use iMovie 8.0.6 and want to know if there would be any problem editing movies from this camcorder.

I"d appreciate any input and advice. Thank you.
 
I find the use of the words "Professional" and "AVCHD" in the same phrase to be a real misnomer, but that's not what you were asking.

There is, as of now, no native handling of AVCHD in any OS X video editing software - including all versions of iMovie - so all the footage you import will have to be converted and take up a lot of space. It'll work, but it's more time, effort, and hard drive space consumed (and low space footprint is really the biggest advantage of using AVCHD)

I also really think AVCHD is to be avoided and recommend against that camera for that reason, but I'm only going to go into that if you ask for more detail.
 
Helpful info

Check this link out. It is from Apple Support and it should answer most of your questions. And yes it will work.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1014

I have been looking at this camera myself. I am still using a Panasonic DVC 30, and footage from that was just used for a national news story.

I like the price of the panasonic, and while it does have its limitations I have found my current camera to be very versatile, and I have made my investment back tenfold.

Hope this helps.
 
"I find the use of the words "Professional" and "AVCHD" in the same phrase to be a real misnomer, but that's not what you were asking." :confused:

I second that. I love miniDV and all the things it can do.
 
I have the camera (great choice, btw) and use it with iMovie '09. Works great.

iMovie will convert footage to AIC automatically. I haven't timed the input/conversion process but it is defintely slower than real time when pulling directly from the SD card.

iMovie will not import the HMC40's 24p footage. For 24p support you need to step up to FCP.

And ignore the AVCHD comments. It is quickly surplanting HDV as the prosumer acquision format. See Panasonic HMC150, HMC40 and expected new Canon cams to be announced at NAB.
 
I have the big brother to the HMC40, the HMC150 and have no problems importing into iMovie. Yeah, AVCHD produces large files when converted but the footage looks awesome. Get a large scratch disc to handle it and you will be fine.
 
Yeah, I know AVCHD is coming down the pipe

While I know it's coming as the industry standard... I still love DV.

BUT... what does industry standard imply?
I look at THE RED and as far as I know that is uncompressed footage right?
And aren't there a couple kinds of AVCHD formats?
So... not to hi-jeck the thread... I'll add to it...


AIC is HUGE. 36 gigs per hour to he exact, at least that's what it is for my Canon HV30. You'll need a 1terrabyte drive easy. Since the files are so huge, it'd be nice to get one of those nice external raid FW800 drives from OWC. I have been looking at one for a while.
 
matteusclement said:
I look at THE RED and as far as I know that is uncompressed footage right?
Click to expand...

No, it's compressed. But timely that you mention it, because yesterday Red announced that their forthcoming EPIC will offer a mathematically lossless (like Apple Lossless Audio Codec) iteration of Redcode, compressing at around 2.5:1.
 
KeithPratt said:
... But timely that you mention it, because yesterday Red announced that their forthcoming EPIC will offer a mathematically lossless (like Apple Lossless Audio Codec) iteration of Redcode, compressing at around 2.5:1.
Click to expand...
More vaporware from RED.
 
sigamy said:
And ignore the AVCHD comments. It is quickly surplanting HDV as the prosumer acquision format.
Click to expand...

But prosumer isn't "professional" so to me those comments still stand.

Would you really choose an avchd camera if you could afford an avc-intra one?
 
totoum said:
Would you really choose an avchd camera if you could afford an avc-intra one?
Click to expand...

Not a chance. I'd pick HDV before I'd use AVCHD. There are plenty of other increasingly affordable formats better than both, such as DVCPROHD or XDCAM and so on.
 
For the time being...

For now, I really like HDV on MINI DV

it edits nice, converts nice and wraps right back into HDV on it's tape when I am done.

But the Canon 7D is the next sexy thing I am looking at.
 
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