I’ve been toying with the idea of an HD camcorder to replace our Sony DCR-HC28 casette-based camera. However, a friend has advised against it on the grounds that there is no standard for HD. Therefore, using anything else but proprietary editing software will be problematic.
If anyone owns an HD camcorder, I’d appreciate your opinion.
My suggestion would be to get the editing software first, then figure out which HD formats it supports. Importing HD files is a b****, even on high-end editors. Some of our photographers at my station have bought personal HD cameras, and it’s hit or miss when we try to import the video into the Avid editors. I tried to import some HD clips from a Panasonic camera on my Avid at home, and was met with disappointment. I’ve still got to do some research before buying an HD camera for myself. I’ll probably end up going with something like Panasonic’s high-end P2 protocol, just because I know it works with Avid. I’m not looking forward to the price, which is why I haven’t done anything with it yet. When I have a financial reason to spend the money, then I’ll jump on it. For now, my standard-def MiniDV does fine and dandy for getting my kids being kids. I’m fairly sure they’ll thank me down the road for not shooting their first baths in HD.
Later,
K
Kevin Strong said:Chuckle!
I'm fairly sure they'll thank me down the road for not shooting their first baths in HD.
The man with three married daughters suggests you remember the blackmail potential of kid videos depicting bare flesh when you are asked to prepare a wedding presentation. A guaranteed lifetime supply of chocolate cake is not be be sneezed at!
Yes, the software side comes first. Our current PC doesn’t have enough grunt to carry CS4, for which I can get a work-at-home licence, so I can’t mess with Premiere yet. Don’t know that I want to fork out for a better PC (or a Mac) at the moment. I think prices still have a fair ways to fall.
ULead 8 on a slow old Celeron works fine with my tape-based Sony camcorder, and it’s simple to cut DVDs for family in the USA and Europe. I don’t want to lose that simplicity. Your post coincides exactly with what my good mate is telling me about HD editing - it’s anything but simple.
What version of Avid are you using? What hardware does it sit on? The strife we’re having getting CS4 to function properly on our W08 network hasn’t impressed me, and I’m on the look-out for something better.
While I like the quality of HD, it’s a luxury, not a necessity. I won’t be going into it without careful planning. Your post has helped to clarify my thinking on the issue.
Bump!
I got the OnLine edition of Videomaker mag (it was such a bargain, no way I could pass on it!). They have a chart for such
http://www.videomaker.com/grid/hd-editing-software/
with the min. specs!
Dave Healy said:Aside from the editing questions ... I was seriously considering a Canon HF-M30, even tried it out at the store to test the ergonomics etc. (you never know which buttons they moved :) ) However the 15x zoom is just not enough for my purposes, I'll stick with my Canon FS-100 for the forseeable future.
......... While I like the quality of HD, it's a luxury, not a necessity. I won't be going into it without careful planning. Your post has helped to clarify my thinking on the issue.
Quote:At work, we're using Avid Newscutter on quad-core HPs and Windows XP. I've got Avid XpressPro at home running on a dual processor G5/os 10.4.9. Xpress has been since been dropped in favor of Media Composer. Operationally, they're all pretty much identical. The differences lie primarily in the effects packages and how they handle the latest file formats. Both platforms seem to be stable. We tried upgrading to the latest and greatest Newscutter on Vista at work which proved very stable, but there were other issues with how it interacted with our file server which need to be fixed before we can upgrade. The beauty of the latest version is that it's very accommodating of file formats and mixed resolutions.
... What version of Avid are you using? What hardware does it sit on?
I just bought Final Cut for my wife’s iMac, so once I get my fingers around how to use that software, I’ll be able to better compare the two. It’s reportedly more accommodating of different file formats as well.
Later,
K