HD Camcorders -- I'm confused
Okay, I'm new to this community, so I apologize in advance if this topic has already been beaten to death...
I just picked up an iMac 20" w/iMovie HD. I need to get a camcorder for Xmas as my wife is 7 months pregnant. But what to get? I was thinking HD because I have a 1080i plasma. But I can't output any HD content without burning it back to an HDV tape and playing it through the camera. On the other hand, I could go with the new HDD camcorders from Sony and deal with the new AVCHD codec -- which is not yet supported by iMovie. Or, scrap HD all together and just go standard def and hope that in 15 years, when my baby is older, I can still play it.
Money isn't really the issue, it's more about what I can get now and what will be relevant in the future.
Does anybody have some advice for a father-to-be that's already drowning in the confusion of a major life change?
I just picked up an iMac 20" w/iMovie HD. I need to get a camcorder for Xmas as my wife is 7 months pregnant. But what to get? I was thinking HD because I have a 1080i plasma. But I can't output any HD content without burning it back to an HDV tape and playing it through the camera. On the other hand, I could go with the new HDD camcorders from Sony and deal with the new AVCHD codec -- which is not yet supported by iMovie. Or, scrap HD all together and just go standard def and hope that in 15 years, when my baby is older, I can still play it.
Money isn't really the issue, it's more about what I can get now and what will be relevant in the future.
Does anybody have some advice for a father-to-be that's already drowning in the confusion of a major life change?
Comments
I myself have HD, keep all tapes I recorded, edit it in HD and and make DVDs out of it (with DVD quality of course). Later when BlueRay and/or HD-DVD will be more affordable I can export my projects in HD.
So, iMovieHD will seamlessly downgrading your HD content to SD for a DVD? I thought there was an issue with this? If I can shoot everything in HD, edit in HD and output to a DVD with ease, this is a much easier solution.
Yes, it will. You can export project to iDVD and it'll resize picture to DVD frame size, preserving 16:9 ratio and stuff. Maybe speed and encoding quality is not as good as in Pro applications, but for this purpose (kids, family) it's very good. Besides this picture you getting from HD is much much crispier than from conventional SD cameras, even after resizing.
Cool. I guess the only decision I need to make now is HDV or AVCHD? Anybody have any insight as to when/if iMovieHD will come out with an appropriate editing codec? Or, should I just stick with HDV?
Cool. I guess the only decision I need to make now is HDV or AVCHD? Anybody have any insight as to when/if iMovieHD will come out with an appropriate editing codec? Or, should I just stick with HDV?
HDV is the follow-on to miniDV. It uses the same tapes. It is one of the formats supported by iMovie HD. AVCHD is a highly compressed output format. It is intended to be shot and played. Video is intended to be stored on miniDVD or memory sticks. Unlike HDV, the format is hostile to editors. Of course, there will be transcoders to convert AVCHD to an editable format. AVCHD is cheaper, but HDV gives better results.
Thanks.
HC1 have both mic input and manual focus ring.
Yeah, but I've read the reviews and it seems like the HC3 pretty much out-performs the HC1 in most categories. No biggie, my wife will appreciate the ease of use on the HC3.
But yes, I'd stay clear of AVCHD, even if Apple adds support for it in the iMovie that will come with iLife '07. It's way too compressed.
But you're right to be looking at Sony, I think. The Canon consumer HDV cam is bottom-loading, which makes tripod usage a pain, and I simply don't think the orientation and general design is as good as Sony's. And, of course, you want to stay away as far as possible from Sanyo...
*wonders why Apple Stores don't have HDV cams on display, given the HDV demos in iMovie on all Macs in-store*
The only good thing about HDV is that the tapes make for good archiving over a greaer period of time.
I hope that AVCHD goes away -- or, at the very least, doesn't displace HDV, so that people who give a crap about the quality and long-term viability of their recordings still have consumer options... \
I also read somewhere that Microsoft isn't too fond of AVCHD because it competes with some technology of their own that is part of Vista. Anyone have some legitimate info on this? If it is true, that does score a point for the SR1.
Just hope the baby doesn't decide to show up too early.
AVCHD, as currently implemented and used by the major players, is a joke. The capacity of consumer cams using it is far less compared to HDV, and it also has dramatically lower quality. Not to mention, iMovie won't play well with it -- you would be importing an already considerably compressed format, and rendering your iMovie project would require compressing it again, even further reducing the quality.
I hope that AVCHD goes away -- or, at the very least, doesn't displace HDV, so that people who give a crap about the quality and long-term viability of their recordings still have consumer options... \
You think HDV is really any better?
HDV is build off of Mpeg2 whereas AVCHD is built off of Mpeg4. The compression may be more but it's also a more advanced form of compression. Editing Mpeg whether it's 2 or 4 is a joke ot begin with, but AVCHD is no worse then HDV. People were laughing at HDV a year or two ago just like people laughed at miniDV 12 years ago and said "it will never be used for professional use" but then it did. Once the software catches up anything is possible. Give it 6 months or so and all the major NLE's will be supporting AVCHD. HDV was never meant to be a permanant format. It was always just a stopgap format just like Digital 8 was meant to bridge the Hi8 and MiniDV formats.
To those of you expecting kids soon, take this advice more then anything. Shoot well, be aware of your lighting and your framing and hold your camera tight so as not to pick up handling noise with your cameras build in mic. Cameras are not guns, don't put your subject in the center of the frame. Google the rule of thirds. Remember that video loves closeups and so does your mic. These things are more important then the format you capture on.
People were laughing at HDV a year or two ago just like people laughed at miniDV 12 years ago and said "it will never be used for professional use" but then it did. Once the software catches up anything is possible. Give it 6 months or so and all the major NLE's will be supporting AVCHD.
So, by your own admission, AVCHD is not even worth thinking about at this point. Perhaps in a year or two.