Can anyone name a currently available camcorder that is compatible with iMovie HD 5.0 running on Mac OS 10.4?

Question

Can anyone name a currently available camcorder that is compatible with iMovie HD 5.0 running on Mac OS 10.4?

Answer 1

Any miniDV tape based camcorder can transfer standard definition DV with your configuration - you need to get a 4-pin to 6-pin firewire cable to connect the camcorder's DV port to the Mac's firewire400 port. All Mac's made in about the last 10 years came standard with a Firewire 400 port. The only exception is the new MacBook Air. Video from miniDV tape provides the best available video quality. If you do high definition, HDV, you need to to a custom installation of the Apple Intermediate Codec from the MacOSX system discs - it is a QuickTime component.

Consumer Low end:

Canon ZR900, ZR930 (have a mic jack, but no manual audio control)

Consumer Mid:

Canon HV20, HV30, Sony HDR-HC7, HC9 (have a mic jack, manual audio control, but small lenses because they are consumer)

Consumer high - or "prosumer":

Sony DCR-VX2100, Canon GL2, Panasonic DVX100 series (standard definition only)

Sony HDR-FX1

Low-end pro:

Canon XHA1, Sony HVR-V1U, HVR-Z1U, Panasonic HDX200 series

Any hard drive or flash memory camcorder can copy highly compressed standard definition MPEG2 video data file - you need to download and install StreamClip

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/vi...

and convert those data files to something iMovie likes... .mov, .dv, .mp4... Video from hard drive or flash memory camcorder is not as good as video from miniDV tape. No AVCHD camcorder will work - iMovieHD08 (or FinalCut Express 4 or FinalCut Pro2) is required to deal with AVCHD encoded video.

Whether MPEG2 or AVCHD, these compress too much. You won't see any pros using this gear.

Any DVD based camcorder (but not any that encode to AVCHD) - IF you have a drawer loading DVD drive in (or connected to) your Mac... NEVER put an 8cm DVD or any other odd sized disc in a slot loader... Download and install HandBrake.

http://handbrake.fr/

Rip the video and drag/drop to the iMovie clips pane or timeline. Warning: DVD camcorders are not recommended - they provide the worst available video for editing. I wish the manufacturers would stop making this garbage.