mac compatible camcorder - pls help dads day gift!

RoxieW

Dear lord someone pls help me! I want to buy a new camcorder for personal use for my hubby for fathers day. I thought it would be relatively straight forward but as I have a mini mac i'm finding it not to be.
I've been reading all about firewires and lots of other things I dont understand but apparantly need.
pls can someone just recommend a nice camcorder that works easily with imovie? i preferred a memory card or hard drive memory but apparantly this is not possible, it has to be tapes?
Budget wise under £300. Would prefer a sony but again have read that they are not good with macs??
please help!

diable

I haven't read through he reviews myself but have a look on here http://www.macworld.com/browse.html?type=3&cat=226 hopefully someone will pop along with some more advice.

timbim_2

Any camcorder with firewire will work, the mac mini had a firewire 800 port, and that will work via the standard DV interface.

RoxieW

ok - well have had a look and am thinking if the panasonic sdr h90

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/8821589/Panasonic-SDR-H90-80GB-SD-HDD-Camcorder/Product.html?source=5065&engine=froogle_electronics&keyword=Panasonic+SDR-H90+80GB+SD+HDD+Camcorder

Is that ok? please help me I have no clue and it's a lot of money to us. I cant see anything about firewire though?

I would have prefered a sony but according the the imovie support site they have problems with sony and mac compatibility.

Any opinions on the above camcorder? Thanks

almillar

Hold on - what age is your Mac Mini - or really, have a look round the back and check what FireWire you have. Only the very newest ones have FireWire 800. Firewire is better than USB, but USB will be fine too. You don't need tapes/disks for Macs, this has nothing to do with compatibility.

bob_a_builder

but USB will be fine too

Are you sure, sometimes USB interface is only available for transfering still images not video from camcorders ( I know the bandwidth is not really that differnet between firewire and USB - but I'm sure I've read of this limitation in the past)

Edit :

ok I'll get my coat ...

"Then, you can easily transfer captured still images to your computer for use ... The SDR-H90 supports USB 2.0 High Speed enabling real time video transfers. ...
"
https://video-direct.com/panasonic/digitalcc/panasonic-sdr-h90-sd-hdd-camcorder.html

RoxieW

I'm confused - should I buy this camcorder?? Pls humour me I'm a complete techno-idiot and am scared of wasting money on the wrong thing. Normally my husband buys all the gadgety stuff but I want to get it for him as a fathers day surprise! Thanks!!

diable

Just get him a tie and a pair off socks to keep him happy and spend the rest on a pair of shoes for yourself ;o))

Joking apart though, think before spending too much on a video camera as most people use them a few times then they are left gathering dust and no one watches the films.