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General discussion

Camcorder for Macbook Pro MC724, OS X snowleopard, iLIFE'11

Mar 26, 2011 11:07PM PDT

I would like a list of good quality camcorders that work well with our new Pro and iMovie'11. Was hoping to get HD camcorder but, if the Mac Pro can't handle MPEG 4 files, we will settle for what the Mac can handle.
We want to record classical music ensembles (good audio required, probably low light, maybe zoom to single players) as well as modern dance and gymnastics. Important that modest editing can be done in iMovie (though could purchase another program, but not the very expensive professional program). Want to produce good quality audio + video file that can be played on PC's as well as Macs and that can be burned onto DVD. Would also like to play videos from the Mac on our HD-TV.

A full list of camcorders would be appreciated. There were so many "Visual stabiliztion limitations" with iLIFE'09 (listed on the Mac website), I suspect that the list of compatible camcorders for iLIFE'11 is small. I hope that Apple and Mac fans will be upfront and guide us to a camcorder that really works well with a new Macbook Pro. Thanks very much, I will report back on our choice, hopefully in the next 4-5 weeks.

Discussion is locked

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Not a list, but
Mar 26, 2011 11:35PM PDT

I can tell you that most of the Hard Drive based cameras work well with iMovie.

Avoid, like the plague, any camera that puts the video directly down onto a DVD. Because the DVD is the finished thing, it is extremely difficult to edit the footage without having to convert the footage to DV or something similar.

And then, because it is Sunday and I have nothing to do right now, I went in search of a definitive answer for you.
I finally found it in iMovie 11, under Help.

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

Just select the options that you want, remember to avoid DVD based cameras, and hit the Go button.

Voila! A list of compatible cameras.

Let us know what you decide

P

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About the Video Stabilization Limitation problem.
Mar 27, 2011 12:03AM PDT

iMovie 11 is capable of stabilizing a shaky picture on its own.

All the warning is saying is that any camera that uses the CMOS image sensors often use a technology called a "rolling shutter" and that, if you use iMovie 11 Video Stabilization when you are editing the raw footage, you will likely have a result that looks distorted.

A workaround is to either use a tripod while filming your event, which will give you a stable picture to begin with

OR

Do not use iMovie 11's built in Video Stabilization feature.

P

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Found that webside too, but it does not render a list for me
Mar 27, 2011 1:15AM PDT

help.apple.com is one of my trusted websites, but the options, in any combination, render a warning window with an exclamation in a yellow triangle and a "yes" with an OK button. When I click the button, nothing happens. Why is this happening? I have tried several combinations, same result.

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iLife 11
Mar 27, 2011 3:56AM PDT

the video stabilization is not something that needs to be turned off in iMovie, it is off by default.

To stabilize a piece of video there are a number of steps to got through before it does its thing.

Not sure what is happening with the Apple site for you with Windows 7, I'll check with a Winbox here, only XP, and see if I have the same problem.
Just checked, works fine in XP with IE and Firefox.
Try it with Firefox and see if you get the same result.