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Video Cameras that can transfer using USB

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duncanapple

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 12, 2008
472
12
Hi all,

I am asking some questions before I buy my new macbook. I am trying to avoid the new PRO if I can - however a big hurdle is the transferring of video and the lack of a firewire port on the new macbook.

I don't own a video camera yet, but plan on purchasing one within the next year or two (ie the lifespan of this upcoming laptop) so i want to be sure I don't have to rebuy later. Are there HD consumer camcorders that will import video to the mac using USB? I have been reading fragments of info on this and from what I hear some cameras will do this but down convert it to a much lower quality? Are there any that will retain the full quality? I assume this is going to take ages longer to import to the mac?

If there are options, can you list some model numbers?

Thanks in advance! (Stinks apple did this, or the new macbook would be a perfect machine!)

- Chris
 
Two main options with consumer HD camcorders, in terms of formats.

1. HDV: tape-based HD format; requires firewire for transfer of HD video;
2. AVCHD: non-tape-based HD format (records to harddrive or SDHC card, depending on the model); transfer by USB.

If you don't have firewire, then option 1 is, as far as I can see, not an option at all, which leaves option 2.

There are a bunch of very good AVCHD camcorders in the stores now. Some examples:

Sony SR11 / SR12: record to harddrive.
Panasonic HDC-HS9 / HDC-HS100: record to harddrive or SDHC card.
Panasonic HDC-SD9 / HDC-SD100: record to SDHC card (same as above, minus the harddrive)
Canon HF10 / HF100 / HF11: record to SDHC card or (in the case of the HF10 and HF11) built-in flash memory.

Go to camcorderinfo.com and do a search for these camcorders for arguably the most thorough reviews around.

Andrew.
 
FWIW, the 'popular camcorders' currently reviewed on that site don't appear to support firewire -- only USB. :confused:

JVC Everio GZ-HD6
Panasonic HDC-SD9
Sony HDR-SR12
Canon Vixia HF10
 
Thanks for the replies guys. A follow up - When using a DV camera and firewire, does it record 1:1, that is to say it takes say 1 hour to import 1 hour of footage, is that right? How about USB 2.0? Or do the flash memory/HD based models allow the footage to be transferred faster? Can someone set me straight here?

And fyi, going back to the original macbook isn't an option. I *just* sold my 2.4 white macbook (the latest rev, less the ones that just came out) looking for an upgrade, which the new model is in every way except firewire. I do some light photoshop and dreamweaver design - even those tasks seemed like too much for the intel graphics card - I often got the beach ball of death. Plus i like that this enclosure isnt prone to cracking (i hope) like the old one was. The backlight keys are a great bonus, as I frequently work in low/no light conditions.

Keep them coming guys!

- Chris
 
Until recently, if you wanted a HD camcorder (and video quality is important to you) then the only sensible choice would have been the Canon HV30 which is firewire.

However, Canon recently released the Canon Vixia HG20 which uses USB and seems just as good.

Although there are USB to firewire adapters around (no idea how well they work though) which might work if you want a firewire camcorder.

Edit: also with firewire camcorders, 1 hour of footage will take 1 hour to import.
 
Dv over firewire is a 1:1 ratio so if you have a lot of footage it can get a bit old... fast! HD cams record to a hard drive and therefore you don't have to "record" it to the computer. You just need to copy the file from the cam's HDD to the computer's... doing this over USB isn't going to be screaming fast, but it will most certainly be faster then a 1:1 ratio... I'm sorry I can't give you more concrete numbers, but it all depends on the transfer rate and the size/quality of your video
 
aristobrat said:
FWIW, the 'popular camcorders' currently reviewed on that site don't appear to support firewire -- only USB. :confused:

JVC Everio GZ-HD6
Panasonic HDC-SD9
Sony HDR-SR12
Canon Vixia HF10
Click to expand...

I have a Vixia HV30 (MiniDV version), so I will capture all my video using my Alu iMac and show off the end result on my new MacBook. :cool:
 
mtfield said:
Dv over firewire is a 1:1 ratio so if you have a lot of footage it can get a bit old... fast! HD cams record to a hard drive and therefore you don't have to "record" it to the computer. You just need to copy the file from the cam's HDD to the computer's... doing this over USB isn't going to be screaming fast, but it will most certainly be faster then a 1:1 ratio... I'm sorry I can't give you more concrete numbers, but it all depends on the transfer rate and the size/quality of your video
Click to expand...

Aha, excellent point that no one seems to have made before! :)
 
Originally Posted by mtfield
Dv over firewire is a 1:1 ratio so if you have a lot of footage it can get a bit old... fast! HD cams record to a hard drive and therefore you don't have to "record" it to the computer. You just need to copy the file from the cam's HDD to the computer's... doing this over USB isn't going to be screaming fast, but it will most certainly be faster then a 1:1 ratio... I'm sorry I can't give you more concrete numbers, but it all depends on the transfer rate and the size/quality of your video
Click to expand...

Not quite. What you guys forgot to tack on is transcode times. AVCHD is needs to be transcoded to ProRes422 or AIC. This can take upwards of hours on even the fastest computers and the result is around a gig minute. DV might be long, but its guaranteed with no strings.
 
Thanks

Thanks guys for the inputs - it sounds like as long as I dont already have a firewire camcorder, I am not missing anything with the new macbook. I was reading about the Canon HF10 (thanks for that website andrew!) and they were raving about it - and it uses USB 2.0 only. Maybe the macbook is the way to go?...

Another question - which I wil prob make a new topic out of - who here works with AVCHD? And of those people, what types of macs are you using? Model, processor, ram, etc? From what I read AVCHD is pretty resource intensive. Are they speaking to the greater audience when they say this - and someone with a brand new 2.4 mac with 4 gb ram would be more than fine, or would this come to a crawl as well? Is a mac pro the only reasonable option?

Thanks for all the help!

- Chris
 
duncanapple said:
I was reading about the Canon HF10 (thanks for that website andrew!) and they were raving about it - and it uses USB 2.0 only. Maybe the macbook is the way to go?
Click to expand...

Lack of firewire's still a pain when it comes to buying a nice fast external harddrive for editing / archiving as you're limited to USB drives.

Another question - which I wil prob make a new topic out of - who here works with AVCHD? And of those people, what types of macs are you using? Model, processor, ram, etc? From what I read AVCHD is pretty resource intensive.
Click to expand...

I think you've already made the new thread, right? (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/582072/) Anyway, long story short, ANY Intel Mac will gobble up AVCHD. Bear in mind that there is at present no Apple support for native AVCHD editing: iMovie, Final Cut both transcode AVCHD into something more NLE-friendly (e.g., AIC / Quicktime .mov) and it's the ingest / conversion process that's the real bottleneck. My mini take about two hours on average to import an hour of video. The faster your processor, the quicker the import / conversion. Once converted, you're laughing.

Andrew.
 
Courtaj said:
Lack of firewire's still a pain when it comes to buying a nice fast external harddrive for editing / archiving as you're limited to USB drives...
Click to expand...

And keep in mind that if you do go AVCHD converted into ProRes, you will need a FW800 drive to edit more than one stream.
 
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