Mac-Friendly Camcorders

This has probably been posted here numerous times before, but most of the stuff I can find it from the mid 2000's!

I am new to iMovie, but not to Macs, and I am looking to buy a camcorder. I want it for shooting fairly basic stuff to start with, so I guess I'm looking to spend under £300 if possible. If I enjoy it, perhaps I'll invest more money in the future.

Basically the advice I'm after is what camcorders are best in terms of their compatability with Macs and iMovie. I have visited the Apple website for iMovie '11, but there are just so many cameras there I don't know where to start. I also don't know what some of the additional notes mean. Should I go for mini-DV or tapeless recording? Firewire or USB?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

MacWorld Magazine has done numerous reviews over the years on various camcorders for the Mac. A search through their archived articles may help you to choose one. There are many camcorders available and it seems new models are appearing all the time.

I personally like tapeless recording and FW, however, some newer model MacBooks do not have a FW port so it depends on which machine you intend to use it with.

Hopefully you'll receive some more replies with suggestions.

A MiniDV recorder requires a firewire connection on your Mac. There is no other way to import the video.

I would look for a camcorder that records in AVCHD on an SD card, I do not think that there is an easier way to record video and to get it onto your iMac.

I have tested this with various cameras Canon T2i and Sone DSC-HX5V for example and it works flawless.

Greetings

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I have happily used a mini dv recorder for some years and I particularly like the ability to record the finished edited work back to tape for archival purposes.

One likes to move with the times, but this is a puzzle for me:

With the gradual disappearance of dvd's, what do the 'tapeless' fans do for archiving?

Answers please on a postcard.

Cheers

Mitcherooney

I don't want to hijack this thread,

Click to expand...

You can't hijack a thread that's more than two years old.......

Oops. Didn't spot that....

Hahaha.

Actually a good question.

One of the limits of my Blackberry is the video ... so I'm in the market for a camcorder. Never would have thought that there'd be an issue or a "better on Mac" camcorder.

Thanks Mitch..

Rule one: avoid Sony.

Rule two: no rule two.