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SDHC Cards, Canon HF200, and iMovie Conversion

M

mikeyman13

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 2, 2007
20
0
I am going to go ahead and admit that I brand new to camcorders and digital video.

In reading some of the threads, I have come to the conclusion that a Canon HF200 would be a good pick as there are plenty of good deals out there. I have a couple of questions I was hoping someone could answer or point me in the right direction for answer:

1. I have seen people comment on having extreme difficulty converting the video from the flash card to iMovie. Is this true?

2. I was looking at the Transend 32gb SDHC card (Model # TS32GSDHC6). It is a Class 6 card. Do I need to get anything additional for the camcorder/computer (iMac) to use this card or upload to the computer?

3. Canon recommends using a minimum of a Class 4 SDHC card, should I spend more to get anything above a Class 6? I am not sure if I will get any additional benefits.

Any comments or recommendations would be much appreciated.
 
I can only comment on your 1st question.

I started a similar thread just a few days ago at http://www.macworld.com/article/1337...2:b23850578:z0 and haven't had much luck with responses... But here is an interesting article that you may want to read

http://www.macworld.com/article/133...mia_ow=t0:s0:a38:g2:r9:c0.142312:b23850578:z0

and

http://www.macworld.com/article/132...a_ow=t0:s0:a38:g26:r10:c0.062173:b21002403:z0

Personally, I'm about to buy a camcorder, and I think I'm leaning towards an older style miniDV tape recorder just to avoid these problems.
 
The Canon HF series play nicely with iMovie 09.

I have the HF11 with internal flash memory, but the HF200 with SD cards should perform the same.

My workflow is to first mount the HF on the desktop. Launch iMovie, archive the AVCHD video to my RAID at about 9gb/hr, unmount the camera and import the HD video into iMovie from the RAID archive. iMovie with convert the AVCHD into AIC for editing. AIC is about 50gb/hr so be prepared with a big HD. After editing and publishing, I delete the AIC video.

It works seamlessly. Just have to invest in disk space.
 
mikeyman13 said:
1. I have seen people comment on having extreme difficulty converting the video from the flash card to iMovie. Is this true?

2. I was looking at the Transend 32gb SDHC card (Model # TS32GSDHC6). It is a Class 6 card. Do I need to get anything additional for the camcorder/computer (iMac) to use this card or upload to the computer?

3. Canon recommends using a minimum of a Class 4 SDHC card, should I spend more to get anything above a Class 6? I am not sure if I will get any additional benefits.
Click to expand...

I have worked with HF100, so your workflow should be very similar.

1. Nonsense. Put the card in an SD reader, plug it into the USB port, and iMovie will recognize it automatically. If you want to 'archive' the raw data, save all contents into a .dmg image. Read up on it at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/514751/

2. You can plug your camera directly to the Mac via USB. My preference is to pop the card out and put it in a SD card reader. Not all SD card readers are created equal. Buying a quality one helps with transfer times to your Mac.

3. Class 6 should be plenty. I would recommend buying several 8 or 16GB ones for the ease of breaking up various takes of a project. Personal preference.

Play and experiment. Enjoy. Repeat. :)

I highly recommend browsing through http://hv20.com for lots of great ideas.
 
Super helpful advice.

3. Class 6 should be plenty. I would recommend buying several 8 or 16GB ones for the ease of breaking up various takes of a project. Personal preference.
Click to expand...

I agree. In addition, having two 16gb cards will "encourage" frequent uploading; therefore, the chances of losing large amounts of footage would decrease should something go wrong.

Thanks!
 
Cannot import video into iMovie 09 from Canon HF200

It sounded like importing video from the Canon HF200 into imovie 09 was a piece of cake from what I read on Apple's website and other blogs. However, I'm finding it quite opposite to everyone's testimony. Perhaps, I am missing something here. I've hooked up my USB cable accordingly, launched iMovie '09, clicked on import from camera, but I receive a message stating, "No Camera Connected". To import video, please connect a camera.

Yes, the power is on the camera. It even mounts the the drive on the desktop. I've even closed the app and relaunched it. iMovie starts searching for a Canon device, but never finds the device. I've also tested another USB cable, but I don't think the cable is it since it does mount the drive with the original, I can get to my still pictures but cannot import my video. Also, in my system profile, under USB, it shows that it detected a Canon device. So the HF200 is talking to the computer, it's just not working nicely with iMovie.

Does computer hardware specs make a difference? I have a G5 - 2 Ghz, 1 GB SDRAM, Version 10.5.8.

Any suggestions?
 
Power cord must be plugged in

I was told by a friend that works at the Mac store that the camera will not download unless the camera power cord is plugged in. It will not work when you are working on battery power.
 
HF200 not importing in imovie 09 on G5

Thanks, that makes sense. I'll give it a try on an Intel Proc. :)
 
I have a HF200 and the easiest way is to use a memory card reader, open imovie and simply choose import from camera
 
I have this camera, and have used it for the past year. Happy with the purchase. I use several SDHC cards, and rotate among them. To load into iMovie 09, I remove the card from the camera, and use an SDHC card reader. Sometimes it is automatically recognized, but mostly I have to iMovie->Import. Works every time. Would it be nice if it was automatically recognized? Sure. But in the scheme/workflow of creating and exporting a video, it's hardly a big deal. Besides, this gives me the option to easily copy over the AVCHD files if need be.
One reason that a Mac may not read an SDHC card is that it may be plugged into a SD reader, not SDHC. I have since thrown away all our old SD readers to avoid any problems. As a previous poster noted, you have to have the camera plugged in to the power cord to read directly from the camera.
 
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