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General discussion

New camcorder for iMac, Help!

Dec 6, 2009 4:16PM PST

I am looking for a camcorder that is guaranteed to be compatible with my iMac 5,1. I have iMovie HD 6.0.3 and Final Cut Express HD 3.5.1. My operating system is Mac OS X 10.4.11 with Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

Last year, I bought a canon HG10 HDD but later found out it was not compatible with my mac and gave it to my cousin.

I hope to avoid doing that again!

Thanks in advance for your help.

Discussion is locked

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More info, more Help?
Dec 6, 2009 5:18PM PST

So I am looking at a Canon Vixia HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD. Will this work? It is on the list of cameras that is compatible to iMovies 08, but so is the HG10 that I gave away. And can I burn DVDs? I have a superdrive that I have already used to burn photos.

I just want to be able to record some things, edit them on my computer, and burn a DVD to give to friends. It seems that this would be fairly easy.

Does anybody know?

I am so lost.

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Actually, that Core Duo iMac
Dec 6, 2009 9:55PM PST

hardware and operating system are fine with the AVCHD camcorders you're looking at - and gave away.

The problem is with the video editing applications you want to use. The first version of iMovie that can deal with AVCHD MTS files directly is iMovie '08. For FinalCut, it is version 4.

If you want high definition and are not going to update the video editing applications, then your best bet is to stay away from anemic AVCHD (which is normally a good idea, anyway, but I won't get into that here) and use what the professionals use: DV and HDV. In the consumer space, that means recording to miniDV tape (and importing the video with a firewire cable). The suggested camcorder is a Canon HV40.

With iMovie '06, you will likely need to do a custom install using the OSX system discs - what needs to be installed is "Apple Intermediate Codec". Without this, HDV won't be understood by the video editing apps. It is possible that the newer dot release operating system has included it, but I just remember having to do the custom install (AIC is a QuickTime component - you don't need anything else). Once installed, iMovie and FinalCut can use AIC to decompress HDV and HDV format video will be understood.

Since you did not tell us exactly which iMac, I don't know which firewire cable you need. The miniDV tape camcorder's DV port is always 4-pin. The iMac can have either a 6-pin or 9-pin firewire port.

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great
Dec 7, 2009 3:52PM PST

thanks, will try it.

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Seeking best choice camcorder for IMac 10.6.5
Dec 29, 2010 11:00AM PST

My IMac is equipped with I-Movie 09. Am interested in purchasing a quality camcorder that will work efficiently from my I-Mac. Please help, Thanks

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Any price limit?
Dec 29, 2010 11:04AM PST

The Big Red oozes quality. see http://www.red.com/

Frankly your question leads to many other questions. Set a price point and tell if you are willing to buy a few software add ons for imovie.
Bob