I am in the market for a new camcorder.

Been using a terrific Sony HD camcorder that uses DV tape.
The problem is that it needs to be transferred to the Mac
in real time which wastes a lot of my personal time.

I need a format where I can just drag the file off the
camcorder and start editing immediately.

There are a few really terrific camcorders out there: Canon HG10,
Panasonic SD5 and Sony SR7 (among others). The problem is that
they use the newer AVCHD compression which is very difficult to
edit on a Mac.

I don't use Final Cut Pro. I am very used to iMovie '06 and dread
to have to relearn iMovie '08. Unfortunately, it looks as if iMovie '08
is the only software I can use if I go AVCHD.

I am very interested to hear the experience of people who have
a AVCHD camcorder and are editing their footage in iMovie '08 (or
by a miracle of a chance, iMovie '06).

Is it easy to do or should I stay away from these AVCHD camcorders?

Thanks in advance!

NJ Ronbo, first I have to tell you- you're going to take a hit in video quality as HDV is the best of the non-pro HD codecs. HDV is at a stage where most modern pc's & Mac's can edit the footage natively. The AVCHD cams use a very compressed video standard and although Apple claims iMovie 08 and FCE HD handles AVCHD- the truth is they do it by using Apple's AIC codec meaning it get's converted into a format that's easily editable with a slight degradtion in quality (another hit in quality to another codec!)
The reason why AVCHD is becoming so popular is because the camcorder manufacturers can claim long recording times on removeable media as well as on internal HD's with it's low bit-rate and file sizes. The mass consumer market is buying up HDTV's at a fever pitch and thusfar the HD camcorder market needed something to keep pace and user friendly. The big negative is the drop in quality when compared to the HDV spec which was more adopted by the prosumer crowd (who still use tape as a storage medium) where consumers want instant viewability with SD cards or onboard HD's.
That being said, the new bunch of AVCHD camcorders do produce very nice video, especially the Canon HG10 and Sony CX7. But the new AVCHD codec isn't natively editable with any software as of yet on the Mac- not even FCS 2!
~~ However, you might want to look into the Sanyo HD1000 which uses AVC-Mpeg4 as it's compression which can be edited natively in iMovie 8, FCE4 HD and FCS2. This is the only non HDV codec i'm aware of that these Mac NLE's can edit. The biggest problem is that the newest Quicktime has been altered and can't playback the 1080i footage but can play & edit the 720P30 and 60 footage (which is better than the 1080i footage anyway- who wants interlaced footage??)

I've owned tons of high end HDV cams and various DV cams and find the Sanyo a really nice hd progressive 720p (esp in 60fps mode!) camcorder that's easy to use and edit. I recently sold an Everio HD7 which used mpeg2 compression and the Sanyo HD1000 simply produces better footage and uses very little disk space with it's small file sized clips.
I'm sure Quicktime will be updated to resolve the 1080i issue with the AVC-mpeg4 clips the Xacti HD1000 produces. And eventually Quicktime will be setup to allow native AVCHD footage- but until then the files from the Sanyo are your best bet for drag and drop editing as you've requested. Take a real good luck into the Xacti HD1000- I think you'll be as surprised as I was at just how good this camera really is!
(True progressive scan high-def 60 fps footage!!!!)

Good luck Ron.
(If you have some serious cash you can look into the Panasonic HVX200 or new Sony EX cams which use more pro codecs- but at a serious price!)


steve@stevenunez.com

__________________
Steve Nunez (NYC)
www.stevenunez.com

Steve,

Thank You for the detailed response.

Seems like I will not be purchasing an AVCHD camcorder.

I already own the Sony HDR-HC1 which is still regarded
as one of the better Mini DV camcorders out there, despite
the fact it's now 3 years old.

I just get tired of having to wait 60 minutes to transfer an
hour of footage to my Mac. That's an hour wasted that I could
be editing.

However, your response has certainly opened my eyes to the
fact that I am working with the best format available right
now, and for that, I should learn to suffer with tape.

Thank you so much for your response!

Steve,

One last question....

Do you think that the future of camcorders lies in AVCHD?

It would be a shame if it does, because for those of us that
rely on quality video that's easy to edit, this is a step backwards.

In your opinion, if I wait another year to buy a new HD camcorder
do you think I'll be still faced with newer AVCHD options or do you
think Mac will step up to the plate and modify their software to
accommodate the new format?

Just wondering where you think the future is heading.

PS: Looked at the Sanyo HD1000. Don't like it, and the
reviews have been less than stellar. Thanks for the recommendation
anyway.

Unfortunately- the AVCHD camcorders look to be gaining ground in the marketplace exponentially and seem to be sprouting new cams weekly- so I'm betting they're here to stay for awhile. HDV cameras are selling at a much slower pace as consumers just don't want to deal with tape and find the instant gratification of DVD, SD and internal hd's a great asset. If anything, HDV cameras will likely fade to a small "prosumer" segment and the HDV spec is a "tape only" spec, unfortunately there are no HDV cams that record directly to hard drive.
The Canon HG10 is the best of the AVCHD cams and its identical HDV variant the HV20, produces better video simply because of the better HDV codec as opposed to the AVCHD spec. That being said, aside from the problem with fast motion pans- the HG10 produces stellar video and will likely be supported natively in upcoming Quicktime updates (there's a new Quicktime update out today matter of fact- check specs!)
When/if Quicktime plays the HG10 files and allows for native editing- I'll buy one ASAP.
As for now the Xacti HD1000 mpeg 4 videos are editable straight from card to NLE and the quality of the footage is slightly better than that from AVCHD cams (it doesn't use AVCHD compression)....I have yet to read a thorough review of the HD1000 and have only found web snippets usually from photo sites because of the still photos the HD1000 captures. But I can personally attest to the commendable video quality especially when tripod mounted.

~~Here's a very quick clip in 720P60 right out of the camera with no adjustments at all other than cutting the clip's duration (hence the .mov extension instead of .mp4)
All I did was kneel down and shoot into my snakes cage~~~(had a very harsh LED flashlight on top of the cage so there's slight clipping with a blue hue)
Check out the smooth motion 60fps allows!

(right click and save file)
http://www.stevenunez.com/video/SANY0010.mov
__________________
Steve Nunez-New York City
www.stevenunez.com

If you have a HDV camcorder and can bare the real time batch capturing necessary- you wont beat HDV quality unless you enter the realm of the Panny HVX200 or new Sony XDCam EX's and thier HD codecs!

__________________
Steve Nunez (NYC)
www.stevenunez.com

I bought a Panasonic SD5 and returned it because of excessive blockiness on pans due to compression and a white balance circuit that sucks. You'll have to manually screw with it to get the right colors outdoors; indoors forget about it.

The only machine I could shuttle back and forth on the footage was a quad-core. And try using a camera with no viewfinder on the beach!

Most people appear more positive about this camera than me, so buy one and see what you think. I've really been down on AVCHD so far.

Love this camera !
Very small and takes great video AND pics...

Problem is -> I use a MAC Leopard Imovie 08 .

When I connect the cam via USB it automatically opens Imovie 08 and I select import all ... the app appears to work fopr a moment ... then ... nothing.

Just shuts down and asks to relaunch or report ...


Arrrghhhhh!


Any ideas ?

What kind of mac are you using?

I had that problem too, straight out of the box. Turns out I needed to update to latest version of imovie 08 - they had a patch that fixed it