[imactheknife]

My wife and I are going to Las Vegas at christmas time to visit my brother and hang out and showe off our ibook!! hehe he's a pc user...I was looking into a DV camcorder and was wondering if anyone knows much about them? I found this one for $350 at a local store here in Red Deer and it's used...here is a link for a brand new one for $399...are these decent cameras? thanks for any info...Mark

http://www.compusmart.com/product.asp?VisitID=84376L20u3Lc2Upbv6i5t3oEV6694594&CatalogID=0&SupplierPartID=877212

 

[The Great Waka]

If the camera is for your brother, its fine. However, Samsung products have problems with macs. I had a Samsung DV camcorder before my Canon, and it basically refused to be recognized. I talk to the sales person at Best Buy that I bought it from, him being a mac person as well, and he told me the same thing...I'm not sure if its a more of a rumour than fact, but there are no Samsung products on Apple's supported hardware page: Supported Camcorders

I remember it being something about Samsung using a proprietary Firewire thing, that wasn't exactly IEEE1394.

Just my 2 bits.

 

[vapour]

Any fire wire DV cam should work but you wont necessarily have full control through the software. For instance you may have to fast forward through the actual camera rather than the software interface. Also on the cheaper cams sound quality might not be as good.

 

[Dr.G.]

imactheknife (any relation to Jack the Knife? Jack the Ripper??), I hava a Canon ZR40 and it works quite well with my new iBook. Still trying to learn iMovie, but I was able to form a short 15 minute iMovie from 2 hours of video.

 

[vacuvox]

I've only had experience with various Sony and Canon models. Never had any problems with any of the Sonys - but i have always had to twiddle a bit to get a Canon to work. Don't know why. This seems a bit odd since Sony is so heavily invested in the PC platform - and they rebranded IEEE1394 as "iLink" which sounds oddly Applelike - at the same time as sounding like it differs from "firewire" in some way. But... seems to work without a hitch.

 

[da_jonesy]

Yeah, I have to say my Sony DCR-PC9 works flawlessly with my 12" PB G4...

The only issue I have is when you use a Mini DV camera to pass through video signals. For example passing through a signal from a VHS VCR or 8mm camera never worked. I always had to record from the source on to MiniDV and then import it into the Mac.

 

[vacuvox]

Ah hah!

I bet that your camera has a "VCR SET" (setting) called
"A/V>DV OUT"

This must be ON inorder to pass analog video input (from a VHS etc) to the firewire output.

Conversely it must be OFF to go the other way - convert firewire data from the computer into an analog signal for display on your TV.

Also - if you want to capture "through" your camera, you should disable "device control" under capture preferences in FCP.

hope this helps!

 

[The Great Waka]

Dr. G, we have the same camcorder! How are you like it? I was actually surprised by the video quality of it. My only complaint is the motor noise that you hear, but that is due to its compact size and thus is a problem for all small camcorders.

 

[mac java]

Why not take your laptop and try it out with the camera to see if it works or not? If the camera is $399.oo new, $350.00 might be a little too much to pay for it used.

 

[imactheknife]

hey MacJava, I was just thinking that! I will print off the link for the camera and see if the guy will knock off another $50-100! but only if the camera works with my ibook! otherwise what do people recommend for good digital camcorders?? thanks Mark

 

[imactheknife]

okay I bought the camera...now why in the freeaking goofy universe will the camera not work in OSX (imovie) but work like a charm in OS 9 (9.2.2) with imovie??? it's not the cable anyways..maybe it's stinkin OSX? man thats annoying! any ideas why in OSX it doesn't work? thanks Mark

it works in OS9 on my ibook 800, imac 800 and G4 tower
it won't work in OSX on all the above...GRRRR
WHY????????

 

[bmovie]

I have the Canon ZR45 and it works GREAT with both OS 9.2 and OS X (panther) in iMovie.
The only thing that pisses me off is I can get 3 models above that now for less than what I paid for my camcorder. and this is all within a year!

Anyway the ZR Canon lines work great Macs. They even have Analog-Digtal coversion built in!

 

[vapour]

Does the camera show up in the system profile when you plug it in under OS X?

 

[D k Cornelius]

There is apparently a known FireWire issue with the ZR 40, 45 & 50 when you something else on the FW bus. I myself run a ZR50 for video of the kids, and have had no problems.

Here is Apple's take:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61603

H.T.H.

 

[Dr.G.]

DkC, I have utilized the Canon Zr40 with Firewire and iMovie, but experienced no problems with my G4 iBook.

 

[Dr.G.]

Great Waka, I love the Zr40, but experienced the same problems with the noise (mostly my breathing). I shall override it in iMovie with music, but when showing it directly to TV, one is able to hear the wind in the trees and the faint barking of dogs in the distance (not my dogs).

 

[Eidetic]

i have a canon zr 65 and am very happy with it, works great and is recognized in imovie, iphoto, ichat and final cut pro 3 and 4

it takes _decent_ still images to smart media, is small enough to take it with you anywhere, battery life with the stock battery is only about an hour with the lcd, but i imagine that is typical with most off the shelf dv's and the OEM battery..

my nephew has a gl2, the 3ccd's obviously makes quite a difference but is a bit overkill for general use... and that thing isn't cheap either...

canon dv's get my thumbs up with mac os9 and x