Buying A Camcorder

Recently made the switch to Apple (Ibook G4), and also recently had my first child.

I'm looking to buy a camcorder, and want one that is compatible with my Mac. I have heard some are not.

My iBook plays, but does not burn DVDs. Can I still edit and view my films using iMovie? Also, if I buy a camcorder that records right onto the mini DVDs, can I put those right in my CD slot of my ibook even though they are smaller?

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

I have a Canon miniDV camcorder that works very well. I also purchased an external DVD burner from LaCie. You should be able to edit video with out a burner. As for the mini DVDs, I know you should not use them in PowerBook's slot drive. I don't know about the iBook drawer drive. I would not use them at all.

I have a Canon Optura 20 which works perfectly with my iBook. It may be discontinued now, but I'm sure its successor models work just as well.

I edit the tapes in iMovie, and then I create the disk image which I bring over to my PC and burn the DVD there.

This may be a stupid question, but if the mini dvd camcorders record right to the dvd and not to the hard drive, and you can't put the mini dvd in the iBook .... how do you go about using the iBook to edit your recordings?

Thank you very much for the feedback!

rman said he has a miniDV recorder, not mini-DVD. (Mine is miniDV, too.) miniDV is a tape-based format.

You get the recorded material from your camera to your iBook via a Firewire cable.

Hope this helps!

I have the Canon Optura 20 also.

aha ... thanks! So a miniDV records to a tape ... I would imagine I would also have to purchase a DVD burner if I wanted to make DVD's from my recordings.

I have heard good things about the Canon Optura 60 ... I think that is Canon's latest, and records right on to the mini DVDs.

you could also get the canon zr100, it costs less

Alright, this is what I have found out.

iMovie on my iBook G4 is not compatible (for editing purposes) with many of the newer camcorders, including all the mini-DVD ones that just came out.

Since editing my movies with iMovie is one of my main objectives, I am thinking that I would be much better off getting one of the mini-DV camcorders. They also are much cheaper. My iBook does not have a superdrive, so I will also have to purchase an external CD Burner.

Does anyone have any recommendations on a mini-DV camcorder, or a burner?

The mini-DV camcorders I'm looking at are ...

Sony HC-32
Canon ZR200
Panasonic GS-120
JVC GRDF-550

Look at a Sony TRV-19, they're 2 years old, but you can get one on eBay for $150-$200 and the quality is better than most new Canons. It records on miniDV and imports with Firewire.

Swerb said:

The mini-DV camcorders I'm looking at are ...

Sony HC-32
Canon ZR200
Panasonic GS-120
JVC GRDF-550

Click to expand...

I haven't messed with Sony or JVC consumer cams in well over 5 years, so I'm not sure how they stack up. I do know that Sony's touch screen for their consumer cams can be great, or horrible. Depends on who you are! However, both the Canon ZR200 and the Panny GS-120 are great cameras. If you're going to be shooting indoors (like so many parents do), I'd suggest the Panny GS-120. It's got better lowlight than the Canon does, and color reproduction will be better than the ZR200, as it's using 3CCD's to capture the primary colors. The next closest thing you're going to get to a 3CCD cam is one of Canon's Optura line cams that uses the Primary RGB Filter.

There's a bunch of camcorder sites on the net, such as Camcorderinfo.com or DVspot.com that give insightful reviews of some of the latest cams out there. One thing though, with the size of consumer cams getting smaller and smaller, it's a good idea to try and go to a local store to see how the cams you're looking at feel in your hand. Good luck! :mac:

Swerb said:

Alright, this is what I have found out.

iMovie on my iBook G4 is not compatible (for editing purposes) with many of the newer camcorders, including all the mini-DVD ones that just came out.

Since editing my movies with iMovie is one of my main objectives, I am thinking that I would be much better off getting one of the mini-DV camcorders. They also are much cheaper. My iBook does not have a superdrive, so I will also have to purchase an external CD Burner.

Does anyone have any recommendations on a mini-DV camcorder, or a burner?

The mini-DV camcorders I'm looking at are ...

Sony HC-32
Canon ZR200
Panasonic GS-120
JVC GRDF-550

Click to expand...

Mini-DV camera's are not inferior technology, they are as good, if not better in most cases, and in alot of cases are alot more expensive then the mini dvd. Mini DVD cameras can not be used to edit at all with any kind of apple laptop because of the slot loading drive. They can how ever be use with desktop models that do nto have slot loading drives... This however is not as good as mini dv because with the dvd you have to use a prgram like handbrake taht takes a really long time to put the movie into a editable format, where as mini dv, as you watch it it is recording it to your computer via a firewire cable. Good luck with your video editing, and may i suggest that after you are confortable with the concepts you learn in iMovie, you should invest in final cut express since you do not need the features that are in pro, but final cut its more advanced so you can do more things with it, such as video layers and more then one audio layer track. It is also easier to add in and out points and drag your clips to the time line to speed up editing.. just a thought, good luk with your new camera.

I haven't come across a miniDV cam that HASN'T worked with an Apple computer. JVC pretty much is crap but Sony and Panasonic make nice ones.

Big thanks to all that opined.

While I have yet to purchase the camcorder, I now know what I need (mini-DV) and have it narrowed it down to a handful of models. I am going to use iMovie initially to edit my movies, and gauge whether or not I need some of the things Final Cut offers. I am going to buy an external DVD burner (any suggestions?) to burn my DVDs after I am done using my iBook (no superdrive) to edit them.

I was just going to purchase a mini DVD camcorder because thats the newest thing. Luckily I took the time to research things. www.camcorderinfo.com is an amazing website, and I've recieved great help and suggestions from fellow Mac users on this website.

Thanks again.

I personally don't think that the DVD camcorder thing is going to take off. It will probably be hard drive camcorders. But you will definately be good with a CANON Mini DV. And check out LaCie for a firewire DVD burner. LaCie is usually the best with Mac.