I hear good things about Panasonics. Have had Sony and Canon in the past. Want the camera to be easy to use with iMovie and FCE4. Great color. Sharp lens?
I know that you guys here are the experts. There are so many camera threads, but this stuff gets dated so quickly. What are your opinions right now? I am sure that there are a number of us who will benefit from a recap of the state of the art right now as Christmas is approaching fast.
Depends on what you're looking for. Top-of-the-line for hobbyist camcorders right now is the Canon HV30, which is a 1080p MiniDV tape-based camcorder. It's about $550 on Amazon right now. For ease of use, the Canon HF100 ($530 on Amazon) is great because it's flash-based - you just use a fast Class 6 SDHC memory card. You still have to convert the files into an editable format (unless you have a monster computer that can edit AVCHD), but this way you don't have to import the tape in realtime, you can just drag-and-drop the files over. However, the HF100 is only something like 17 MB/sec, so the picture quality isn't quite as good as the HV30. The HV30 has a few extra goodies too like a manual focus wheel. For a good inbetween camera, check out the Canon HF10 or HF11 ($630 & $850, respectively), with the HF11 being better of the two (full 24 MB/sec AVCHD).
Since you're using iMovie and Final Cut Express, I'd recommend going with the Canon HF100. Get some memory cards (8gb or 16gb), a spare knockoff battery plus wall & car charger from eBay, a padded bag, a UV lens (lens protector), and the Voltaic HD software. VoltaicHD converts AVCHD into an editable format like ProRes and can do batch processing. This is my favorite app for working with digital video files because it's small and simple. Just convert your clips overnight when you're sleeping. It's $35 and is available here:
http://www.shedworx.com/
I think FCE might be able to convert the files, but it's just so much easier with that little app, it's a real lifesaver. Beyond that, you'll want some kind of stabilization. I don't know how familiar you are with camcorder equipment, but for the sake of anyone else looking for information on this topic, I'll go on
I recommend, at minimum, a Gorillapod. A Gorillapod is a tiny, portable tripod with bendable legs that you can wrap around chairs, fenceposts, set up as a tripod, etc. I use mine nearly every time I shoot! Make sure to get the right size for whichever camera you get:
http://www.joby.com/products/gorillapod/
I also recommend a fluid-head tripod. These will run at least $110 for a quality one, like a Velbon DV-7000, but your footage will come out looking 1000x better than by hand. A fluid-head tripod is different from a regular tripod because it has a kind of thick liquid inside, like honey, that makes tilts and pans nice and smooth instead of j-j-jerky. I really wish someone had told me about them sooner lol.
So that's pretty much it - a handful of accessories and a good fluid-head tripod and Gorillapod. If you want better audio, pick up a Rode VideoMic or a Zoom H2 digital microphone. It doesn't take much to get a good setup going...for about $1,000 you can have incredible audio & video quality that will blow people away. For another few hundred more, you can get a 3-piece lighting kit off eBay and a greenscreen to start having some real fun!
