Hard Drive Camcorders
What is the difference between flash, hard drive, high definition, Hi8, mini DV Camcorders? What is good?
I am looking to buy a camcorder that I can use on my macbook when I am in Korea. What is the difference between these and are they compatible with mac?
high definition is to do with the amount of detail the camera resolves. This can be on various formats.
If your apple mac runs the Leopard OS then you should be compatible with just about everything, certainly iMovie8 should work with AVCHD (the HDD HD format) but if you want the best quality you should look at a tape based format, such as HDV (if you want hidef) or miniDV if you want standard def.
If you have tiger or earlier then avoid AVCHD like you would avoid syphilis.
Digital formats compress footage before storing it, of the consumer formats, tape compresses it the least.
Your apple macs built in hard drive will not be fast enough to handle running the OS the video software and the actual video content, you will need an external harddrive, at least 7200rpm, with at least 8MB cache.
If you go down the tape route then you will need the firewire port for the camera (some external hard drives let you daisy chain firewire devices, the iomega 500GB firewire drieve does, as do the Lacie D2 triple interfaces) otheriwse USB 2.0 is fine so long as you keep the capture clips fairly short.
IMovie will le t you do the basics, Final Cut Express will give you a lot more scope for not an awful lot more money, considering what you get.
So in short, buy tape for quality. Pansonic for standard def DV, Sony for tape HDV.
Rodger K: Sonys Z1, A1, FX1 and HC1 are all Hi-Def camcorders and all can record onto miniDV tape in HDV mode. miniDV tape is capable of recording either SD DV video or HDV video as they both use the same data rate.
JVC Everio 30 GB Hard drive camcorder night vision performance test 1
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Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11 Production Suite $54.95 Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11 Production Suite |
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Roxio Easy VHS to DVD for Mac $49.99 Roxio Easy VHS to DVD for Mac includes everything you need to easily transfer video from VHS, Hi8, V8 or analog camcorders to DVD. Perfect for digitizing and protecting home videos on outdated media. Easy VHS to DVD for Mac supports most analog camcorders, VCRs and even DVD players. Capture video at full DVD-quality resolution. Add Hollywood style menus and chapters for impressive results. Edit yo… |
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Roxio Creator Pro 2012 $49.99 ROXIO CREATOR 2012 PRO (WIN XPVISTAWIN 7)… |
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Canon NB-2LH Rechargeable Battery Pack for Rebel XT/XTi Digital SLR Cameras and VIXIA HV Series and ZR Series Camcorders (Retail Package) $70.00 The Canon NB-2LH rechargeable battery pack for Canon digital cameras features lithium-ion technology for maximum battery life power. It retains full charge capacity after multiple recharges, making it free from memory effect. It is extremely lightweight and easy to carry. Compatible with: Digital Rebel XT Elura 40mc Elura 50 Elura 60 Elura 65 Elura 70 Elura 80 Elura 85 Elura 90 Optura 30 Optur… |
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TAMRAC 5522 Video Bag 2(RED /BLACK $24.95 The Adventure Video 2 is a compact, foam-padded video bag perfect for today’s mini DV, DVD and hard drive camcorders. Inside the zipper-closing top, a foam-padded divider adjusts to provide a custom fit to equipment. A front and two side pockets organize accessories and personal items. This compact bag features a carrying handle and an adjustable shoulder strap for convenient carrying options. |
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TAMRAC 5522 Video Bag 2(GRAY /BLACK) $24.95 The Adventure Video 2 is a compact, foam-padded video bag perfect for today’s mini DV, DVD and hard drive camcorders. Inside the zipper-closing top, a foam-padded divider adjusts to provide a custom fit to equipment. A front and two side pockets organize accessories and personal items. This compact bag features a carrying handle and an adjustable shoulder strap for convenient carrying options. |