buying the right video camera

Yes, any video camera that records on mini DV tape and which has a firewire connection should do the trick!

I just bought a Sony Camcorder (with a 40GB internal hardrive) and it seems to me that all your missing is the proper software in order to convert your "digital movies" to "digital video" (DV) which is what is needed by iDVD or iMovie. Try this website and purchase the same software that I am currently using. I think you will find that this will work better than going out and buying a new/different video camera, not to mention having to downgrade from "truly Digital" which is what you have in your JVC, to mini-DV which uses tapes (kind of outdated in today's standards of quality video taping).

Go here: http://www.pixela-1.com/sony/hdd/mac/

Good luck my friend!

iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

coolRaul,

I think you will find that this will work better than going out and buying a new/different video camera, not to mention having to downgrade from "truly Digital" which is what you have in your JVC, to mini-DV which uses tapes.

This statement is a misconception, in that all HDD (and DVD) based camcorders record as (highly compressed) MPEG-2 signal, whereas MiniDV cameras (with the exception of HDV camcorders) record full quality DV.
MiniDV is "truly digital" - it records a digital signal to tape and outputs the same digital sgnal through firewire.

MPEG-2 is an intra-frame compression format, in which only some frames (i-frames) contain the full information. All the other frames depend on/refer to the i-frames. This is the reason why MPEG-2 cannot be edited natively, but must be transcoded to a full frame format, such as DV.
This conversion is usually lengthy and also lossy.

.... kind of outdated in today's standards of quality video taping ....
The newest consumer/prosumer HDV camcorders still record to MiniDV tapes .... I wonder what today's standard of quality video taping is.

mish

Yes, any video camera that records on mini DV tape
and which has a firewire connection should do the
trick!

That's right. I think the original poster is asking for specific recommendations. There are some good camcorder review sites on the Internet. If you record a lot of your footage indoors, look for a model that does well in low light conditions. And don't spend extra money on photo features, like more megapixels, as that doesn't do anything for video recording.

Get a camcorder that records to mini-DV tapes. DON'T get one that records to DVDs, hard drives, or memory cards.

My first camcorder was a Canon ZR-60. My current camcorder is a Sony DCR-HC90. They are both "standard definition" camcorders. I have been pleased with both of them. They have produced good footage and have worked flawlessly with iMovie. I have purchased an external microphone for each one. I have read some good things about some of the Panasonic models, but have never tried one.

Rod

I actually have a question. I have the new iMac 20". Recently, I bought a Canon ZR600 MiniDV camcorder. I have the right firewire cable. When I connect my camcorder to the Mac, Mac can recognize the camera. I can also run the DV tape from inside iMovie. My problrm is with importing. As soon as I start importing footage from the tape, iMovie chops up the footage into 1.2 seconds clips. It's happening irrespective of whether I have a scene break or not. I even unchecked the "Start a new clip at each scene break" option in Preferences. The firewire cable I have is about 4feet long. I hope the longer firewire cable has nothing to do with it. I would really appreciate some suggestions!!

iMac 20" Mac OS X (10.4.9) Macbook

Welcome to discussions, Bembrops 🙂

iMovie runs on QuickTime. QuickTime 'sees'the timecode on your video. When it stops, QuickTime stops.
So, this sounds like a timecode prolem that is happening when you import.

Perhaps simply geting rid of the imovie perference files will help.

Close Imovie.

Then locate a file named com.apple.imovie.plist and get rid of it. Then empty the trash, run a permissions repair with disk utility and restart. That should do it. The files you need to delete are found in:

/Users/ YourName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.imovie.plist

Also, Canon cameras don't always play nice with imovie. Especially if the camera is daisy-chained thru another firewire device. Having said this, I think I'd try a shorter Firewire cable.

(Even though your exact model isn't listed-it may still aply to you)

Macintosh: FireWire Issue With Some Canon Mini-DV Cameras
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61603

:)Sue

Thank you Sue very much. I joined the discussion while waiting for my car being fixed. I am going to try your suggestions when I get home later tonight. I will also try to get a shorter firewire cable and see if that might solve the problem. In the meantime, I would appreciate any other suggestions.

I will also try to get a shorter firewire cable

Just for the record, my son uses an 8 foot firewire cable when using his video camera for iChat instead of his built-in iSight camera, and it works fine.

(He doesn't relish the though of dropping his MacBook Pro into my grand daughter's bath....!)

Hi Klaus:

Does he have a Canon Camera? That is the reason I mentioned it to her.

:)Sue

BTW-how is that gorgeous grandchild?

Sue

Hi Sue!

No, no, he has a proper Sony digital mini DV camera! 😉

Does that make a difference?

(She is still gorgeous!)

Hi Sue!

No, no, he has a proper Sony digital mini DV camera!
😉

Does that make a difference?

It can with some models of Canon cameras.

Sue

I see.

Glad my son followed my advice on what camera to get, and noted my threat to write him out of my will if he bought the intended hard disk camera....! 🙂