Camcorders forum: Looking for mac compatible camcorder with the right features

which Mac you are using or which version of FinalCut Pro.

Why are you specifying hard disc drive?

Are you planning to take your Mac or another computer with you? What happens if/when the camcorder's hard drive fills.

Why are you specifying 3CCD? CMOS imaging chips are fine.

ALL consumer camcorders have manual zoom, focus, aperture and shutter controls - but consumer cams generally do not make them easily accessible.

No camcorder comes with a "decent battery" in the box (except maybe the flash memory camcorders because they have no moving parts and use the same stuff their HDD and miniDV tape counterparts use - including batteries). Expect to get a high capacity rechargeable battery or two.

I agree with chickenorfish... but be advised that there will be file conversion requirements for the SDR-H200 (StreamClip is a useful tool for converting those very highly compressed MPEG2 standard def files) and the AVCHD video captured by the HDC-HS100 requires your Mac to be Intel-chip based and you MUST be using the current version of FinalCut Pro - earlier versions cannot deal with AVCHD video.

If it was MY money for a once in a lifetime trip and I was budget limited, I'd be looking at the Canon HV30/HV40 or Sony HDR-HC9 - of course, that presumes your Mac has a firewire port (the newest MacBooks and the MacBook Air do not; ALL other Macs made in the last 10 years do). High definition cameras generally have a shorter zoom than standard def camcorders.

When you *think* you have decided on a camcorder. DO NOT buy it until you have done a search at
http://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa
See where others have already bumped their head - no sense not learning from them...

AVCHD compressed video from the Panasonic HDC-HS100. Decompression will take time, but if you are patient, then you'll be fine.

As previously indicated, that earlier version of FinalCut cannot deal with importing/editing AVCHD-compressed video directly. Only the current version.

If you have not already done so, read through:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8013530�
You will need a QuickTime plugin for the .TOD files. This is the same file format JVC camcorders have been using and lots of folks neglect to do that update.

Your camera phone might have a higher megapixel count that the still camera built-in to the camcorder - but when you take a picture as you are recording video, the stills are pretty good (not take a still out of the video - though that is possible and can look decent if you use the right tools). But no one ever said a camcorder DSC feature would take good stills.

You did not tell us how much RAM - 2 meg minimum; more is better. And you did not tell us where you plan to store the FinalCut video project files (external drive is strongly recommended).