Which HD camcorder? (1 Viewer)

[Yumbo]

Is Final Cut Express worth getting to use with a new AVCHD camera compared to iMovie?

 

[Sam Posten]

Yes, iMovie got all dorked up, This may all change Tuesday tho...

 

[Sam Posten]

Check out this software, it got rave reviews at Luminous Landscape:
Squared 5 - MPEG Streamclip video converter for Mac and Windows

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Sam,

Is this an AVCHD to MPEG converter? Unless I missed something
I don't see AVCHD mentioned in the description.

If this is what it does, I would love to read reviews as far as how
much easier it makes working with these camcorders in the Mac
environment. As a Mac owner I am so hesitant to buy an AVCHD
camcorder.

 

[DaveF]

MacWorld (print edition) has an article about tape-less HD video cameras that talks about these format issues. You may find it helpful. It's in print now; should be online soon.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I'm about due to get this month's magazine delivered to my door.
I will certainly look out for that article.

 

[Sam Posten]

Ron that was my understanding but I don't have any of these clips to try it on, sorry! I still havent bought an HD camcorder.

 

[Phil Kim]

I have an AVCHD camcorder (Canon VIXIA HF100) and Final Cut Express (FCE) 4.0.1. As with iMovie '08, FCE converts AVCHD footage into Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) at 1920x1080 29.97 fps 48 kHz 16-bit stereo audio.

At highest quality and resolution (1920x1080), AIC consumes about 9 times more storage space (about 15 MB/sec) than the original footage (about 2 MB/sec). Unlike AVCHD (MPEG-4 H.264), however, AIC is lighter on the CPU and linear editing friendly. BTW, both FCE and iMovie converts HDV into AIC as well, negating much of the format advantage, at least in iMovie '08 and FCE 4 (Final Cut Pro can natively edit HDV without conversion). Since many competing products support native editing of HDV and AVCD, I think it's reasonable to expect the same for the next versions of iMovie and FCE. iMovie and FCE do not preserve multi-channel Dolby Digital audio nor xvYCC colorspace (both of which are supported by Sony's AVCHD camcorders).

I have thought long and hard about HDV (Canon VIXIA HV30), which is preferred by prosumers everywhere. But I have experienced many mechanical issues with two MiniDV camcorders in the past. Aside from zoom/focus motor, flash memory based AVCHD camcorders are essentially free of moving parts, making them highly reliable and quiet (no tape motor noise). In addition, HDV is limited to 1440x1080 resolution (which isn't dramatically different from 1920x1080, but the differences can be observed side-by-side on larger TV). And I really enjoy random access nature of AVCHD -- easily review, playback, and delete footage.

There are three types of AVCHD camcorders: hard disk, DVD, and flash memory. I went with flash memory because (1) no moving part and (2) SDHC memory cards have become fairly cheap (less than $40 for 16 GB class 6, good for over 2 hours of highest quality footage). And finally, latest 3rd generation AVCHD camcorders from Canon and Sony (and probably Panasonic and Samsung as well) have largely eliminated performance gap against HDV counterparts.

I am very satisfied with HF100, which is only $600 at Amazon right now. Very good handling, very good low light performance, virtually no compression artifacts at highest quality (even after transcoding to AIC). My only complaints are short battery life (about 80 minutes) and some ergonomic issues, such as dinky joystick control (I wish it was cursor key-based like their SLR cameras) and lack of manual focus ring (found on some Panasonic models).

As for backup, I save the original files as a disk image, followed by Time Machine. Import + backup is a 3-step process: (1) Create a disk image whose size is equal to the memory card's used space, (2) drag memory card's AVCHD folder into disk image, and (3) use FCE's Log & Transfer feature to transfer footage. iMovie should work with similar workflow.

 

[Sam Posten]

$180 price drop on the HG20, AVC with 60gb HD and SD slot:
Canon VIXIA HG20 HD Video Camcorder - 12x HD Video Lens, 200x Digital Zoom, 1920x1080 Full HD, CODEC capable of recording 24Mbps, AVCHD bitrate 3085B001 at TigerDirect.com

Note the newer model is the 21, dont mean to confuse anyone, still its a big drop:
Canon VIXIA HG21 High Definition Camcorder - 3.1 Megapixel, 12x HD Video Lens, 200x Digital Zoom, 2.7" LCD, 24Mbps, USB, HDMI, 1920x1080 Recording 2704B001 at TigerDirect.com