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43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Observations from an Apple Mac user, 5 Mar 2003
I will not state the obvious in this text, but it's a great little videocamera. I have jotted down some things no-one else mentioned yet (I think), stuff I've observed today (my first day as a PocketDV II cam-owner). I hope this is helpful!Good: The camera itself does work with Apple Mac and OSX! Shows up as an USB mass storage device without any special drivers. Plug and play! Drag and drop! Good: The program CD has an extensive pdf-file with instructions readable in both PC and Apple Macintosh computers (Acrobat Reader or OSX Preview). Multiple language. Good: Camera saves video clips as .AVI, no problem for my iBook. I used Quicktime Pro to edit clips together - just drag and drop, cut away unwanted material, and save as a self-contained movie. QT Pro saves it as a .mov for you. Good (but extreme): If you want the camera to become a specialised makro-cam, you CAN (but don't sue me if something goes wrong!) take the focus-turning-cap away from around the lens (it is fastened with two tiny plastic grips inside - just put a thumb between the lenscap and the mirror and push carefully upwards, wiggle it a bit). Manually turn the lens further than the preset flower/mountaineer setting. Careful not to screw it too far out for macromacro - it will come off in your hand! (Keep it cool and screw it back on..! See the CMOS sensor behind the lens? Great! Now, put it back together.) Bad: Eats up the included batteries in a single day. (I got about 36MB video and photo material on my 64MB card.) Solution: Get rechargeable batteries. Quick! (And turn off the screen. You don't need it when you're filming anyway. No fear, man!) Bad: I can't get it to work as a webcam. There's no Apple drivers/camprogram. Solution: None yet. Maybe that will appear in the future? I hope so. Bad: Unmounting procedures in OSX doesn't work properly. Solution: Hotswap the USB-cable works fine so far. Just pull the cable out. (!) Nothing damaged here. Did mount again without reboot. Crashed once. Bad: No lens cap. Solution: I made one from a coke bottle cap. I put a window insulation strip (foam rubber) inside. Works fine. (I even painted it silver!) Careful not to make it too tight! (That's how I found out about the makro lens function..! The focus ring got stuck in the Coke-cap!) Conclusion: This little baby is really something that Apple Mac owners can enjoy a lot even if the official information says "Not Mac compatible". It is closer to life than my Sony DCR-PC9E, if you know what I mean. It's dirty, Lo-Fi, pixelated happiness - and you want one. Have fun!
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