Which is the best HD camcorder for iMovie 6?

If you haven't read this review from camcorderinfo.com, it may help you decide. Being tape, it should work fine with iMovie HD6.

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Sony-HDR-HC9-Camcorder-Review-34562.htm

I had a fine Canon HV20 tape based HD camcorder that worked well with iMovie HD. I got an HDMI cable and the HD on a LCD screen was remarkable.I stopped using the HD taping as it made for huge files that I didn't need. I then sold that and got a flash-based Canon HF100, that also tapes in HD. (If I want to tape in HD quality with the HF100, I just download in iMovie 08, and then I export it full quality to the desktop and then use iMovie 06 to edit).
I liked the Canon HV20 for its ease of uploading the edited movie back to tape. Canon now sells it as the HV30, though you can still find the HV20. Best camcorder...hmmm...all I know is the Canon.

Hi Lincoln,

Go back to that camcorderinfo.com website and read the reviews for all the HDV cams. There should be reviews there for anything you can find in the store. You should be able to make a wise decision by comparing those reviews.

I am not into HD as yet, so I have no recommendations on those cams, but definitely go with tape for using iMovie HD6.

Disclaimer...I'm not a pro, but I was looking for a "prosumer" camera...this is just my 2 cents. I recently bought a Panasonic HDC-SD9 that takes phenomenal HD video and great audio. My only beef is that the low light video quality isn't that great. I've heard that the Canon Vixia HF100 is better in low light and overall edges out the Panasonic so that is worth consideration. I personally would not invest in a Mini DV based cam due to 1.) the time it takes to import video (ie realtime: 35 min of video would take you 35 min. to import), and 2.) size & weight, and 3.) all the moving mechanical parts subject to failure compared to the other memory technologies. I decided to go with SD Card based memory (similar to the chips in most digital still shot cameras except the chips are more high tech). Mine came with a removable 8GB chip which holds about 1.5 hours of video at full HD (1920 X 1080). The problem is handling the AVCHD format.

As far as I know the AVCHD format will not work with iMovie 06 but can be converted by jumping through some hoops, which may cause video degradation. This thread explains the conversion process: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8223041&#8223041 What a headache! I use IMovie 08 but it will only export the video at at much lower resolution (for instance when trying to burn it to a DVD). And iDVD won't burn it in HD. So the only way I can watch it in HD is on my PC right now. In hindsight, maybe I should have gone with a DV camera for more convenience managing the video. I'm sure a solution will eventually come but it should not be this hard.

I have a Canon Vixia HV30. Phenomenal quality. Only problem : huge file! We're talking 30G + for 60 minutes. Using this in imovie HD , with its tendency to keep everything, I ended up with a 70G file. And I have some problem tranferring this to a DVD using iDVD.

A bit of last minute advice..

The Sony HC1..



..is no longer made, but if you can find one (..the 'pro' version, called the A1..



..IS still available, but is a bit awkward with the extra mic connections on the top and costs much more..) you've found a great small camcorder. It can be used as a point-and-shoot camera, but has a huge range of manual settings, too. It's also a stills camera, storing photos on a Memory Stick, and has a built-in pop-up flash for dim light photos. (The A1 version does not have the inbuilt flash.)

Oh, LOOK: You can still find the HDR-HC1 via Amazon.. http://www.amazon.com/Sony-HDR-HC1-Definition-Camcorder-Optical/dp/B0009Q4W9A

MOST useful of all is its simple switch on the front left side, which instantly changes from auto to manual exposure. Which means that you point the camera where you want to shoot, but if you're going to follow someone who's going to move towards or past a bright background (..sea, sky, snow, bright window, etc..) then you just nudge the switch and the camera holds its exposure, instead of darkening the whole picture when the bright background intrudes. (..Great for shooting model aeroplanes against the sky..)

Its sound is also excellent, it has a solid metal body, and will last for years (mine has!) and it has excellent picture stabilisation.

So you may find it worth considering..

(..Here are two short hi-def movies I shot with the HC1 .. Ballooning and Boating ..you'll need a fast broadband connection and a fast Mac to play these movies smoothly, by the way..)

David,
My wife enjoyed your balloon flight movie. A lovely vicarious flight for one is afraid of heights. She is from Little Hampton. We were married in Banbury, near the Banbury Cross, Friday April 13, 1956.
Speaking of camcorders, my original Sony was an analog one purchased in 1989. It had a lever on the side of the lens for manual focus. It was great for near to far focusing effect. Miss that feature on my DCR-TRV120. Maybe one day I will replace it with an HDV one.
David

I think Sony has done what other camcorder manufacturers have done to their miniDV lines and that is to dumb them down somewhat. The big push these days, oddly forgetting all about the superior quality of tape, is towards flash memory cams, so fewer miniDV's are available to the unsuspecting/uninformed buyers.

Panasonic did the same. I have the last of Panasonic's best consumer miniDV cams, the GS500. It is capable of near broadcast quality SD video. If you want really top quality in miniDV now, you'll be looking at pro model cams that can run up into thousands of dollars.

Newer does not always mean better and that certainly applies to many current consumer miniDV offerings. Another example - iMovie HD6 and the newer iMovie 08 . . .

The HC9 is similar to the HC1, but with some of the HC1's features removed so that the HC9 costs less.

For instance, the HC9 - and its HC7 predecessor - have a manual focus option: to alter the focus you select 'Manual' by going to the relevant onscreen Menu item, then tap a region of the viewfinder screen to focus further away or closer, as described in camcorderinfo..



On the HC1 you just push a switch beside the lens, then rotate the focus control ring around the lens ..in other words, you can instantly switch between auto and manual without hunting through onscreen menus, and you can focus -s-m-o-o-t-h-l-y- instead of in small, imprecise jumps.

Similarly, manual exposure can be instantly locked and released by a small switch beside the lens on the HC1.

The HC1 also has - like its big brother, massive FX1 - a facility to pre-set shots, like a change of focus and zoom from, say, a distant object to something close (..the top of the Eiffel Tower, to a little iPod in your hand..) then just activate that change of focus and zoom by tapping the monitor screen.

So there are lots of little details which differ ..but if you're unlikely to use those "semi-pro" features, then the HC9 is a better bargain. The HC9 also has "Smooth Slow Record - The Smooth Slow Record is a Sony-only feature that allows for three seconds of recording. This gets slowed down by a factor of four, to create a 12-second clip". The HC1 doesn't have that. The HC1 also loads tapes from the bottom, not the top, so it has to be unclipped from a tripod for changing tapes. But it does have a tilting eye-level viewfinder. The HC1 doesn't have an HDMI output (..for connecting to hi-def TVs..) only Component Out for hi-def and A/V Out. But my big-screen TV doesn't have an HDMI input, only a Component hi-def input ..so the HC1 suits me better than the HC9.

So ..mix and match the features you want, or don't want, and weigh up prices, and that'll help you decide whether the HC1 (..more "semi-pro"..) or HC9/HC7 (..shoot for fun..) may suit you better. I'd guess the HC9 is probably the one for you!

We called into Littlehampton in the boat (..Eastbourne, Brighton, Littlehampton, Isle of Wight, etc..) ..we were there on my birthday in 2005 and 2006 (..or 2006 and 2007). And April 13th was my father's birthday!

The approach to Littlehampton is all sand at low water ..just a continuous bucket-and-spade beach. So it has to be half-tide at least before you can think of entering the harbour, up the River Arun.

In fact, here we are, moored up at Littlehampton, in 2005 (..before I put the name of the boat on the front..)



(..click on the picture for a larger, clearer image..)

It had recently been "done up" and improved, instead of just rotting wooden pilings and planks to moor up to. And the Harbour Master knocked at the door and came aboard on my birthday to bring us a weather forecast and all kinds of friendly news and some tide tables!

P.S: 1956! ..Congratulations for next years 53rd Wedding Anniversary! - phew! -

Very difficult question to answer. I use the HDR-HC5 - a predecessor to the HC7 and HC9. Bought it because
- the sensor / photochip was one of the best to buy at the time
- I have a penchant for Carl Zeiss objectives (the best ones around, only narrowly beating Leitz, me thinks). This is despite their rather murky history, where Leni Riefenstahl insisted that Zeiss were to produce better objectives for her 1936 Olympics movie - the 85 mm objective for SLR cameras is still world class, but the 50, 135 and 400mm also come from that stable.
- I like something robust and not too fiddly, with options if I want them, but not so option-rich that it gets in the way of shooting film. So a professional camera is out for me, even if I had the money.
- fast start-up. Few things are as annoying as having to miss a nice shot simply because the camera first has to put on a cuppa before it decides to let you tape a shot.

So I tried to find a camera with a really good optical system, that has build quality. It performs on all scores perfectly. Very nice pictures (despite the person pressing the record button...), easy to use, the Firewire / iLink connection has never let me down, and importing from that was as esay as it was from lower-resolution cameras. Works a treat. In terms of price/value, it is very good value.

Two words of caution, HD videos are large - 0.5-1 GByte per minute is a ballpark figure, so make sure that you have plenty of diskspace on your Mac or your external harddrive. Because (my?) Mac cannot cope with that amount of data, iMovie reduces transfer speed to 1/2, then 1/4 and at times even to 1/8th of "normal speed". This could be because the Firewire port is not up to the task or because the harddrive is not that fast, I don't know. But, importing a 30 minute tape takes me easily 60 minutes (where does the signal / data go in the meantime...??), and sometimes, if I import more than 20 minutes of tape at a time, iMovie crashes. (My way out is to stop the tape every 15 minutes, so that iMovie can catch up). I don't think this is any different from any other camcorder - I tried to import HD tape into Windoze's Moviemaker, and the problem was A LOT worse.

Secondly, make sure you can operate the camera with one hand, and that the handles, knobs and buttons are not too fiddly. I had an earlier Canon camera where the on/off switch got over time sticky and quite difficult to handle, and one-hand use is important if you want to capture moments quickly.

I don't think the question is which HD camera is right for iMovie 06. As long as they have a firewire output and tape as storage medium, it probably would work. What matters is what is the best camera for you...

Good luck!

BeateW