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Video Camera that plays nice with macs

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darkpixie08

macrumors member
Original poster
Is there a HD video camera out there that creates video files that I can put directly into iMovie without having to convert them first? Any recommendations?
 
Anything that's DV, but I don't know if anyone's even making DV cameras anymore.

Anything else is going to be compressed, and in the very least, iMovie will have to import it. You're probably just going to have to Google whichever cameras you're considering at. But, Macs are pretty awesome with video, so as long as Quicktime can play it, the whole system can. Apple also seems to be adding support for different video camera formats from time to time, so you might not even totally be out of luck with a camera that doesn't work out of the box.
 
JVC makes (made?) a couple of prosumer cameras that can capture video in .mov format: GY-HM150U and GY-HM100U. I know one of them was introduced a couple of years ago. I don't know about the other. Maybe you can find some reviews on-line.

Good luck.
 
darkpixie08 said:
Is there a HD video camera out there that creates video files that I can put directly into iMovie without having to convert them first? Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

It's impossible to recommend a camera without knowing your budget and the requirements for the camera.
 
darkpixie08 said:
Is there a HD video camera out there that creates video files that I can put directly into iMovie without having to convert them first? Any recommendations?
Click to expand...
  1. From Canon, you may choose among AVCHD, MPEG-2 Long GOP, and HDV models.
  2. From Panasonic, you may choose among AVCHD, AVCCAM (a form of AVCHD), DV, and DVCPRO HD-based models.
  3. From Sony, you may choose between AVCHD and HDV models.
For the most part, importing video is an issue with tape-based camcorders. All tape-based models linked above should work with your Mac software without issue. Card and stick-based storage store video as files. These give a lot more flexibility. You may copy video files from your storage cards to your hard drive or other storage at will.
 
RED one using R3D code. Waitwut..haha no seriously though just be patient and transcode everything..I don't think you really want to compromise quality for playing nice with your computer.
 
MisterMe, the Canon XF series doesn't really work nicely with Mac. At least not with FCP X (there's no compatible plugin yet).
 
I use a Canon Vixia HF s100 (flash card) camera.

I've never had any issues as far as importing the files and using them.

I'm using Snow Leopard (10.6.8) on a MacBook Pro 4,1.
 
Yep, the JVC Hm100, and the newer model HM150U can record and be wrapped in .mov. I had one, using FCP, I just drag the clip into the FCP timeline without having to transcode or render, as convenient as it gets. The best thing about is not having HUGE transcoded file sizes, if I record 16GB of video from the camcorder, I import that 16GB of video to my scratch disk, drag and drop into timeline, and start editing. SO GOOD.

However, I am guessing the HM100 and HM150U would be out of you price range, if you are using imovie.

Otherwise, you will just have to deal with transcoding and getting hugenormous file sizes. 🙁
 
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