Cameras & Camcorders

[gsink29]

I need a camcorder that has a decent zoom, image stabilization, high rate of frames per second, has to be decent in low light, decent battery life, internal hard drive with sd card slots, and it has to work with a macbook.  We will be using the camcorder for our high school softball program,

in the store i was steered towards the Cannon HFR21 HD i was okay with that b/c it had mac copright info on the bottom of the box, but i see a review online says that it isn't compatible with the mac.

[xl]

A few questions and concerns....

• what do you call " high rate of frames per second"?  Some like 24, average is 30, some can do 60..... there are cameras that can go higher.   Are you trying to do slo-motion?
• decent battery life?  I prefer to get an extended battery that can double or triple battery life
• why do you need an interal hard drive when you have SD slots.  Internal hard drives means shock concerns and a shorter battery life.
• what do you plan to use for video editing?
• have you considered a fluid tripod with minimize relying on the image stabilization?
• I had a look at the entry model you selected.... where does the battery load?  Not from the back.... it's likely at the bottom.  Bottom loading batteries means you cannot get an extended battery as it would interfer with the tripod mount.  With 20-30 minutes of battery life, you will need additional batteries.  I hate frequent battery changes because the batteries go down during inconvenient times.  I love Canon HD camdorders for the high bit rates.  I hate bottom loading batteries.  This model is on my DO NOT BUY list.
  http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Canon+-+VIXIA+HF+R21+32GB+HD+Flash+Memory+Camcorder+-+Black/2088317.p?id...

[gsink29]

-30 frames per second should be acceptable, anything more is good but no crucial

-yeah, we will need the extended battery

-i guess it doesnt matter, if we can download with a usb port, thats all we need especially if the hard drive eats the battery life!

-dont plan to do a ton of editing, just need to be able to review,  we will need whatever is simple!!

-have not considered a fluid tripod, how much $ are we talking

-just need something pretty straightforward, fairly durable, when watching frame by frame its not blurry,  decent zoom and stable picture    

do you have a reccomendation?  we are fairly open on our budget and it has to work with a mac book

[gsink29]

we would also need to uplaod the video to an ipad.....

[xl]

• downloading from an internal camcorder does matter... you need a charged battery.  Popping out the SD card and using a reader on your computer is much safer as you don't need to worry about a dead camcorder battery corrupting the transfer.
• you get what you a pay for a fluid head on a tripod.  Jerky and shaky HD footage is such a huge turn-off.  Who want's HD motion sickness?  If you want people to watch your content, putting your camera on a solid support makes a huge difference.
• if you plan to do live frame by frame analysis.... I suggest you experiment with this at the store display.... It's much easier once downloaded onto a computer.
• I just had a look at the Canon camcorders on the website, not all of them have pictures of the camcorder back.  I recommend you visit the store and see which cameras have batteries from the back, instead of the bottom.
• I don't use a Mac for video editing.... you need to do your own research.
• I don't use an iPad for my home videos.  I use a Blackberry Playbook.  Playbooks have stereo speakers to preserve the stereo audio.  iPad's single speakers will just "mash it" the audio..... Ugh.