Apologies for this, but I need some camera advice....again.

Rawky

Rawky

I am really sorry, it must be a pain in the arse to have to keep dealing with us 'Newbies' and our constant camera questions. But I assure you this will be the last one from me......hopefully :bag:

Anyway, I've had a few issues with the original camera that I purchased a couple of weeks ago. It was a great camera, full HD, hard drive/SD card, detachable shotgun mic, super slo mo function and even a night shot function. To me it was pretty perfect. That was however until I tried to import some practice footage, I filmed, onto my brand new iMac Computer.....it wasn't compatible.

Thinking this was a major oversight on my behalf, what with being so enamoured with the other specs of the camera, I looked into further research and reviews but no-where said anything about it being incompatible with Mac Computers, not even SONY's official site.

So with my tail between my legs, I sent to camera back and got a refund. Now I need to look into another camera, for my first film, and could use a bit of advice.

What I would like the camera to have would be:

Full HD
Hard Drive/SD Card
Mac Compatible/ Final Cut Pro Compatible
Night Shot/Vision would be a great bonus.

One more thing, have Firewires changed? I've got a fairly old one but its connections don't fit with my new iMac. Any suggestions there?

Again, thank you in advance, I'm very sorry and hopefully this is something I will learn from.

Cheers.
 
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It was a SONY HXR-MC50E HD

I have the latest iMac with with MAC OS X 10.6.6

The camera didn't have a firewire connection, it was just a USB and the camera would record the footage and into files that weren't readable on macs or Final Cut Pro. I'm just thinking if it does have firewire, it would be easier to capture....or I could just be having a 'blonde moment'.

Also I e-mailed SONY about it and the reply was that I could only view still images with a Mac computer, not video.
 
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That camera records AVCHD files. They need to be converted to
Quicktime (.mov) files to use in Final Cut. It wasn't the camera
or the computer. Most hard drive and SD card cameras record to
AVCHD.
 
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Really?

Because I tried to convert it using Quicktime and iMovie but it just wouldn't read it. Would you suggest a DV camera instead? What is the HD quality of them like?
 
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I own the JVC HM100 and HM700 but I have used just about
every camera out there from the Canon HV20 to RED. I edit
with Final Cut using the latest iMac.

What I love about those JVC's is the .mov file directly to SDHC
cards.
 
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In regards to the iMac's Firewire, the latest iMacs have a single 9-pin Firewire 800 port. Older models had 6-pin Firewire 400 ports (some had one of each). FW800 will work with older Firewire cameras and devices, but you need the right cable. If you use a typical Firewire camera (which use the mini 4-pin FW connector), you need a FW800 9-pin to 4-pin cable, like this one.

And yes, AVCHD is somewhat of a pain to work with FCP. Any footage I have to use that isn't capture from my camera via Firewire is transcoded to either Apple ProRes or AIC. Had to do this for some underwater footage we shot with a Flip HD cam. Those cameras record in MPEG-4, which is a delivery format, not an editing format.
 
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I gotta say I've never even tried it in low light. I just don't shoot
that way. I use light when I make my movies. And I've never
attached a light to it. There isn't a "hot shoe" on that camera. I
did use it to shoot some shots for a reality TV show - in a train,
in a taxi - but it was always in daylight conditions and it looked
pretty good. Not as good at the HM700, but usable.

If you are looking for a "point and shoot" camera it's not the right
camera for you. It's on the expensive side and is close to a "pro"
camera in its operation. And since "Night Shot/Vision" is important
to you this isn't the camera you should be looking at.
 
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Well Night shot/vision isn't super important. Its not like every project I make will need it, its just an added bonus.

the HM100 does look good, and the whole .mov file is very handy. I will still think about it, but do you know of any other cameras that capture to .mov? I really don't want to have to convert files.
 
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