I'm looking for a camcorder compatible with Mac. The only one advantage I can think of is the ability to use iMovies to edit your clips from the camcorder. Are there any other advantages aside from this? Also, a lot of people have recommended hard-drive camcorders due to its storage capacity, but others argue that MiniDV camcorders can produce much better quality. The best video cameras for Mac nowadays are those that, like the best Mac compatible digital cameras, record to SD Cards. These are also sometimes known as “Flash Drive” camcorders because they are the easiest to transfer video to a Mac and start editing video in iMovie or other video editing software for Mac. Is this true? I am eyeing a couple of camcorders: Panasonic SDR-H18 ( and Sony Handycam HDR-SR7 ( I guess being able to edit video clips isn't that important to me, but I'd like my clips to be compatible to Mac to prevent more troubles in the future. I like the idea of getting a hard-drive since the storage capacity would be much bigger while at the same time, I would not want to compromise video quality. What advice and camcorders would you all suggest? Thanks for reading. Buy a mini-DV camcorder and buy a Firewire cable (camcorders come with a USB cable, not Firewire). I've connected countless mini-DV camcorders via Firewire to my Mac and I have NEVER had any issues with connectivity. Simple How-To: Before you start iMovie and before you power-up the camcorder, plug the camera in with Firewire, then launch iMovie, start a new project, then power-up the camcorder. Make sure the camcorder is in Playback mode, not Record mode. You can now control the camcorder with the buttons provided within iMovie. Video making apps for laptop. Now you can smile and relish in the fact that you have a computer that works brilliantly and easily with mini-DV camcorders and you will be very happy. Mini-DV does have its downsides. First, tapes can get pricey-- $15 for three tapes. Which is fairly nominal until you have to buy new ones because the quality becomes lower with each time you 're-record' over the same tape. Additionally, if you're taping long events (like your daughter's ballet recital, idk), it's a huge pain to change your tape right in the middle. I haven't had any problems with my Mac and any video format, and I was actually thinking about buying the Panasonic that you mentioned seeing as how my 2 year old Sony Mini-DV seems to have given up the ghost. Hopefully that helps! They are not INTENDED to be reused. If $5 for a one hour recording, which can be archived for the next ten plus years is 'pricey', then you should use other, lower quality technology. You will, however, have to come up with a plan for backing up the video generated by that lower quality technology. Backup can get VERY pricey. If your daughter performs ballet for over an hour without a break, then you may need some other technology. How about capturing the video on a portable computer's hard drive. Just remember that the drive needs to be fast, and that DV generates 13.5 gigabytes per hour. You will still need a backup plan.
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