Sony Camcorders Compatible with Final Cut Pro?

and if you'd like to answer two questions, haha, which Sony Camcorder would you get???



http://support.apple.com/kb/TA26860?view...





That website lists all Final Cut Pro compatible Sony Camcorders.





It all depends what you need the camcorder for and what you'd use it for, I can't recommend any single camcorder.




I have not yet found a Sony Camcorder that won't work with FinalCut Pro... sometimes the video needs to be converted, first, though... Which Macintosh computer are you using? Which version of Final Cut?





MiniDV and Digital8 tape based camcorders transfer video - DV or HDV - with a firewire camble connecting the camcorder's DV port to the Mac's firewire port. The newest MacBooks and MacBook Air do not have a firewire port so there is no direct importing mechanism. The DCR-HC series are standard definition; the HDR-HC series are high definition.





Hard disc drive or flash memory camcorders connect to a Mac with a USB cable. The external "mass storage device" mounts to the desktop and the video files are copied to the Mac. If standard definition MPEG files (like form the DCR-SR series), you need to convert the video files first - I like StreamClip


http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/vi...


and HandBrake


http://handbrake.fr/


After converting the video, drag the converted clips to the Log & Capture area.





If high definition hard disc drive or flash memory camcorders are used - consumer-grade cams save to a very highly compressed AVCHD format. You must be running the current viersion of FinalCut on an Intel-chip based Mac. Earlier versions or PPC based Macs cannot deal with AVCHD/MTS files.





I own and use a Sony HDR-HC1 and HDR-FX1. If I could only buy new, today, I would have the following on my short list:


HDR-HC9


HDR-FX1000


HVR-Z1U


HVR-Z5U





The HDR-HC9 is the least expensive camcorder Sony makes that has a mic jack AND manual audio control. None of the other consumer hard disc drive or flash memory camcorders up to about $1,300 have both (they have a mic jack, but no manual audio control). The HVR-HD1000 has a mic jack (1/8" - 3.5mm) and manual audio control - and is a shoulder mount - but it uses the same lenses and imaging chips used by the HDR-HC9. The HVR-A1U also is in that same ball-park, but it uses much better XLR connectors for external audio inputs.





Neither the DCR-HC52 or DCR-HC62 have a mic jack. I would suggest looking at the Canon FS and ZR seireis for standard definition camcorders with a mic jack - but they do not have manual audio control.





You did not tell us your budget.