video camera question

[dean owens]

i know we're not all film students but i'm sure there are some of you on here that can help me out.

quick details....
i'm a campus minister. every week we have to do announcements. everyone hates them. so we try to do video announcements. short little (3-5 min) "movies" for our announcements. they work great. everyone loves them and we get our announcements out.

for two years i've been having to bring my personal camera to work and get up with students so they could film. then they give the camera back to me and i start editing it.

last week i went to go by a camera for the ministry so i could stop bringing mine back and forth. right now i'm not to pleased with my purchase. i bought one of these

Sony - Flash Memory Handycam Camcorder with 2.7" Color LCD - Silver - DCR-SX40

i like that it's small, i kept the purchase under $350.00 with the bag and i could just drag the files into the computer rather than having to record them off a tape in real time.

here are the bads...
i have a mac (that's not a bad thing ) and i like to use imovie hd (the older imovie). when i tried to upload the clips imovie wouldn't recognize the camera. so i opened final cut express (which i still don't know how to use) and it didn't recognize the camera. i finally opened up itubie (mac's horrible video editing software that they call imovie that is only good if you're planning on making some short thing to put on youtube).

well, itubie recognized the camera and imported the files. i was then able to open imovie hd and import the files from itubie (imovie hd still not recognizing the camera). only problem is the camera films in 16:9 and imovie hd had to squeeze everything to make it fit 4:3. i HATE when this happens. plus, the picture wasn't all that great.

so, i'm looking at taking the camera back. does anyone have any suggestions for a decent camera? i'd like something relatively cheap (we don't have a lot of money in campus ministry), small, able to record in 4:3 and open in imovie hd.

any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

[Funkmaxtor]

Two things!

iMovie HD (or any other version) will only recognize Firewire devices. So if your connecting using USB (common mistake) it will never work.

Two:

When you create a new iMovie file choose widescreen format. It will adjust for the 16:9 ratio.

If you cannot connect the camera using firewire drag and drop the files to the computer first then import into iMovie.

I teach this stuff to high school kids, so if you have any more questions feel free to ask.

Hope this helps!

 

[dean owens]

iMovie HD (or any other version) will only recognize Firewire devices. So if your connecting using USB (common mistake) it will never work.

You are correct my friend... that is problem number one. The camera that I bought is a Sony DCR-SX40 and it only has a USB hookup. So yes, iMovie HD 6 doesn't recognize it. But iTubie (the iMovie with a star) does. also, Final Cut Express does not recognize it. Does Final Cut also need a firewire camera?

When you create a new iMovie file choose widescreen format. It will adjust for the 16:9 ratio.

Good to know. I didn't even see that option before. iTubie didn't have a problem with it. It was only when I tried to import the files from iTubie into iMovie HD6 that I had the widescreen issues.

If you cannot connect the camera using firewire drag and drop the files to the computer first then import into iMovie.

I was hoping this was going to be the fix... but this didn't work. Here's what happens.

- plug the video camera in
- iPhoto opens and gives me the option of importing the files. Only thing is I don't get thumbnails, I just get a "dotted outline" where the files should be.
- I hit import and get this message

Being that doesn't work I tried to import the files directly from the camera into iMovie HD6. To do this I...
open imovie hd
click on file
scroll down to import
find the files in hit ok.
When I do it looks like it wants to import them but I get this message.

I then tried to just drag and drop the files from the camera onto my desktop. Then try to import them. I get the same message as above except for the obvious changes that the file is coming from my desktop.

I don't know what exactly this means but the files on the camera (and when dragged and dropped onto my desktop) are MPG files. For some reason when they are imported into iTubie they become MOV files. Now I can import the MOV files into iMovie HD but they get "squeezed" from 16:9 to 4:3. This happens even if the iMovie HD file is set up for widescreen. It "squeezes" the picture in and put two black strips on the side. It looks like this.

So what do I need to do? Can I use this camera or do I need to take it back and look for something that saves the files in a different format? Is there some free software somewhere that will convert the MPG file to something that iMovie HD6 will be able to use?

I teach this stuff to high school kids, so if you have any more questions feel free to ask.

Hope this helps!

I bet they understand it better than I do. And it has been helpful. Here's to hoping you can help me the rest of the way through this.

 

[Funkmaxtor]

Final Cut only uses Firewire as well. (It is an industry standard)

The importing options are due to Quicktime not being able to read the format.
There are a 101 different answers to this question so I will try my best without actually sitting at the computer with that camera. Please bear with me on this one.

First check the preferences of the camera. See if you can record in a different format. Quicktime would be best if it is an option.

OR

Since you can import to itubie you can setup your preferences in iMovie HD to NOT Letterbox or Pillarbox (which changes your aspect ratio)

To do this click on iMovie HD>Preferences. Then click the Import tab. Uncheck the box at the bottom "Automatic DV Pillarboxing & Letterboxing". Or if you need it to scale the image check it. You can letterbox or pillarbox later using Video FX under the editing tab.

This should fix your problem.

Let me know how you make out!

 

[dean owens]

Final Cut only uses Firewire as well. (It is an industry standard)

i want to learn final cut so after i get imovie sorted out i might be asking you questions about how to get these files into final cut.

First check the preferences of the camera. See if you can record in a different format. Quicktime would be best if it is an option.

no can do. i looked through the manual and hit every button i could. seems to just do one format. i did some fishing and if i understand correctly i can download streamclip to change the mpg files over to something usable. so i tried that. turns out they are mpeg-2 (?) files and i would have to buy a $20.00 part of the program from apple to be able to convert mpeg-2 files. is this worth it?

Since you can import to itubie you can setup your preferences in iMovie HD to NOT Letterbox or Pillarbox (which changes your aspect ratio)

To do this click on iMovie HD>Preferences. Then click the Import tab. Uncheck the box at the bottom "Automatic DV Pillarboxing & Letterboxing". Or if you need it to scale the image check it. You can letterbox or pillarbox later using Video FX under the editing tab.

This should fix your problem.

i did that and was so excited... but then it just did the same. the only fix i've found is going into the camera and setting it to 4:3 and recording that way. then opening up imovie hd in 4:3 and importing the files that way.

if you have a mac at home and would like to screen share to see some of this i would not turn it down. could be i'm just not doing it right.

also, just so you know the camera... it's a sony - model dcr-sx40.

if nothing else happens, i at least have a work around now. but if there's a way to take advantage of the 16:9 i'd love to figure that out. thanks a ton.

Let me know how you make out!

i'm not really sure what this has to do with cameras. i think if you asked my wife she'd say not very well. so i'm not really sure i'm the best one to be asking for advice on this subject.