I am looking for a new HD camcorder to use with iMovie (latest version). I currently have a 5 year old Sanyo Xacti HD which is brilliant but struggles a little with panning shots ( a bit jumpy).
My requirements are
1) New HD Camcorder
2) SD card format
3) recording file format that is easily upload able from SD card to iMac to use without converting in iMovie
4) price (£350-£600) - ($555-950)
Simples
Thanks
Andy
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.6), iMac i5 27" 12gb ram
The best camcorders in your price range are AVCHD, so they would not meet your criteria of no conversion.
You can import from camcorders that shoot h.264 with no conversion, but practically speaking, you do not do this in HD sizes. For performance and editing reasons, most people convert h.264 to an editing codec at HD sizes.
So you are left with camcorders that shoot in the iFrame codec. You will need no conversion.
Here is Apple's list of supported camcorders.http://help.apple.com/imovie/cameras/en/index.html?lang=en_US
New camcorders from these same manufacturers will likely work as well. However, iMovie does not support the 60P or 50P mode of these cameras. You would need to select the 30P, 60i, 25P, ot 50i modes for iMovie.
The best camcorders in your price range are AVCHD, so they would not meet your criteria of no conversion.
You can import from camcorders that shoot h.264 with no conversion, but practically speaking, you do not do this in HD sizes. For performance and editing reasons, most people convert h.264 to an editing codec at HD sizes.
So you are left with camcorders that shoot in the iFrame codec. You will need no conversion.
Here is Apple's list of supported camcorders.http://help.apple.com/imovie/cameras/en/index.html?lang=en_US
New camcorders from these same manufacturers will likely work as well. However, iMovie does not support the 60P or 50P mode of these cameras. You would need to select the 30P, 60i, 25P, ot 50i modes for iMovie.
Thanks for your reply. A little confused. My Sanyo Xacti HD2000 is AVCHD h.264 and I can just remove the SD card and pop it in my iMac and import to iMovie in seconds. I thinks the file format is MP4, but it works well.
For example, I was looking at the Panasonic SD800 or the Sony CX570E, both are AVCHD, in principle they should work but it is difficult to find the file format they record too to check compatability with converting needed.
There appears to be issues with popping these into iMovie. Surely in this day and age,mcompatability issues should've been resolved??
AVCHD works great. When you import it in iMovie it converts to Apple Intermediate Codec.
H.264 works fine. If you keep your movie simple, you can edit natively. If you start doing things like image stabilization, effects, picture in picture, cutaway, sound, color, titles, transitions, etc. you will likely need to Optimize the file, which converts it to Apple Intermediate Codec.
AVCHD and h.264 are both highly compressed formats which are suitable for playback. They use a Group Of Pictures compression algorithm which uses one full frame about every 24 frames. The rest of the frames are partial frames, which contain compressed information like direction of motion, what has changed since the last frame, etc. When you canovert to Apple Intermediate Codec, every frame is converted to a full frame. This makes editing much easier on your computer.
I am also in the same spot as the above user, though I know less than he does about all the tech part. I just want a great camcorder where I can easily import the highest quality video to imovie 11. I don't want imovie to convert it down to a lesser quality of change it to full screen. I want wide screen super crisp HD. I would prefer to be able to download directly to imovie 11 but if recommended I could use a camera that needs a conversion program to do it, as long as it isn't to complicated. I was looking at the new Canon HF M52, M50, or M500. Any recommendations?
Daannzzz
I see that nobody replied back to you, but just for your info, I have stuck with my Sanyo Xacti and delighted. The camcorders that are out now as consumer lever camcorders still do not reach the quality level of it so I'm sticking with it and it works flawlessly with my imove and FC.
Thanks
Thanks. Too late though. 🙂 I ended up with a Canon and then purchased Adobe Elements 11 and a BluRay burner. A portion of the Adobe Elements works a bit sluggishly on the iMac but the rest of it is fine. I have been able to create great looking videos fairly easily and faster than I expected. Thanks again.
I've been using a Sony Handycam for years.
What canon camcorder did you buy?
My sony handicam no longer works with iMovie 10.1 and el capitan it wont read the firewire cable
BEST HD CAMCORDER FOR IMOVIE11
