camcorders recommendation

The_Dude8

Diamond Member
Jan 8, 2000
5,167
1
71
Absolutely must:
- Have compatibility with Mac OSx and in particular Final Cut Pro x editing SW
- Sub $500

Wish List:
- Have a good video performance in both good and poor lighting conditions
- Be rugged.. preferably shock proof
- 16:9 format
- Be water resistant.. not water proof
- Doesn’t have to be rich with bells and whistles.. most of which you never use anyway or can introduce during editing.

This may sound strange but is it possible to get a camcorder that will recognize an external HD when it’s plugged in and download to that HD? (formatted in OSX extended journal)
The reason I ask this is that we often go away for a while and don’t have the modern facilities like computers etc. It would be nice to just download my camcorder to an HD when the memory is full? Any other ideas apart from stock up with memory cards?

Another thing is that we sometimes travel to Malaysia, where it’s extremely humid. In the past my camcorder has had big problems with humidity! So a camcorder that is resistant to that would be great. I’m not quite sure what water resistant sport camcorders mean. If they just shrug of splashes or are they actually sealed?

If I could find a sports camcorder that had a viewfinder as well then it would be perfect!

Something like this would be good: http://store.contour.com/contourgps-1080p-camera-p5.aspx

But it doesn’t have a viewfinder. Of course I can get a connect card and view on my ipod.. but that seems a little clumsy and troublesome. Something like this with a build in LCD screen would be perfect

thanks