New Del Mar Video

I dropped by the glorious Del Mar last night to test a new videocamera (Panasonic HDC-HS60) on relatively low-quality record-mode. The camera is swell, even sporting a 120-gig hard drive. It's lightweight, has lots of manual functions, and works well in low-light settings. If only the danged thing could accept an external mic. Can you believe that? A videocamera without an audio port.

As I'm prepping for two summer documentary projects - deciding what equipment to bring on my trips to China and Europe - I'm discovering pesky hassles like these.

So far, the most annoying hiccup is the fact that my newish MacBook Pro lacks a Firewire port, which means I've gotta go on campus to dub from a second higher-end camera I borrowed (a Sony HDR-FX1000, with an audio port). My Mac's got everything I need for serious video, including Final Cut Pro; it's practically an aluminum television studio. Without one tiny port, though, that Sony might as well be a paperweight.

Ah, the pleasures of getting machines to communicate.