HD video camera for imovie 11?

Question

molchman Author

Level 1

0 points

HD video camera for imovie 11?

I am currently in the process of purchasing a 21.5 imac.

The specs are:

2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with 6MB on-chip shared L3 cache

4GB (two 2GB) of 1333MHz DDR3 memory

1TB (7200 rpm) hard drive

AMD Radeon HD 6770M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR5 memory

OS X Lion

ilife 11

I want to purchase a HD video camera, but I am not sure what specs I need on the camera. Some of the other discussions are beyond my video knowledge. I am a novice and some simple answers would be helpful. Please include a camera recommendation, if you have one. Thanks in advance.

1. What formats are imported directly into imovie 11 (without conversion) with HD quality?

1a. Can these files be edited?

1b. Are these files large? I do not mind purchasing external hard drive.

1c. Can these files be exported to DVD with HD quality?

2. What formats are easily imported (fast, no loss of quality, and decent file size) to imovie 11 with conversion (no third party converter)?

2a. Can these files be edited?

2b. Are these files large? I do not mind purchasing external hard drive.

2c. Can these files be exported to DVD with HD quality?

2d. Is AIC a good choice?

Thanks again. Any simple answers to my questions will be helpful.

iMovie '11

Posted on Mar 24, 2012 7:45 AM

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Answer 1

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Mar 24, 2012 9:12 AM in response to molchman

iMovie 11 - cameras supported:

http://help.apple.com/imovie/cameras/en/index.html?lang=en_US

iMovie 9 - cameras supported:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3290?viewlocale=en_US

iMovie 8 Camcorders supported:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1014

Digital camera RAW formats supported by OS X Lion:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4757?viewlocale=en_US

Digital camera RAW formats supported by OS X Snow Leopard:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3825?viewlocale=en_US

iMovie tutorials:

http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie

and also this:

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/imovie_09_stone.html

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Answer 2

molchman Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 29, 2012 5:09 PM in response to Klaus1

I already checked out most of the links that were attached. After much searching. From my understanding the best format to record in is AVCHD. You will need to convert AIC to edit with imovie 11. Edit your video and convert back to AVCHD to save on space. Looking at the Canon Vixia HF R300 ($349). It is new and I can't find any reviews. Has anyone heard about it? Thanks

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Answer 3

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Mar 29, 2012 5:24 PM in response to molchman

I would suggest that you download the instruction manual from here:

http://www.manualowl.com/p/Canon/VIXIA-HF-R300/Manual/152846

I believe you may need a service pack to get it to work with a Mac.

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Answer 4

johnday

Level 1

25 points

Mar 29, 2012 6:59 PM in response to molchman

HD and iMovie are inherently flawed. I have been trying to achieve this for a vey long time now and you will be wasting your money (like I did) in buying an iMac hoping to reproduce the fantastic HD footage you have captured. There is only one option to retain the HD quality with the Dolby sound too and that is to create a partition and then (wait for it!) install Windows 7 to provide a platform for the much better video editing software available!

I can now edit .mts uploaded files from my Canon Legria HF S21 high def camera, then save/expert to an external drive in .mts format and play this through a Western Digital media player onto a plasma tv. The results are truly magnificent. The quality is as good as plugging the video camera directly into your AV amp. I have spent hours on he phone to Apple about ths and hey clearly are not interested. So, for me it was Windows and Corel Video Studio Pro X5 that completed his task on an Apple machine!!! What a shame!

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