Took the plunge, HD100U
 

I looked at the current crop of cameras and when a deal on a used 100 came up I went for it!

For the short time I've had this camera (1 whole day) I'm finding out the goods and bads first hand.

Pros: As a shooter this camera is just right. It's as close to a pro camera as you'll get for under 10K. Just a really nice layout and what a shooter wants. This is ultimately what swayed me to buy this camera of the A1. Well built body. I have no problems with the viewfinder (shoting docs/events, not film here).

Cons: Workflow is very difficult. Not quite plug and play editing like you get with a 1080i unit.

Overall: No regrets, this is a great camera and it really was the best choice for me. Because I won't be using the camera more than occasionally I can handle the slower workflow so that the times I do shoot I get the camera layout and feel that I really want.

So be ready to see some posts from me in the next month or so as I go through the in's and out's of incorporating this to my workflow. I'm using Vegas 6 right now with the upgrade coming next month (can't buy everything in one week ^_^). I'm looking forward to the material that this camera will shoot.

Happy shooting.

Ben

What workflow issues do you have? I've found it quite painless with Vegas.

I'm also curious, not saying that you are not having problems but this camera and Vegas have worked great for me. What kind of problems specifically - we might have solutions :)

I wouldn't say there's any direct problem with Vegas (I can't say enough good things about Vegas), it's more an question of the 720p and HDV in general. Something that ANY editor would be dealing with.

For starters, how well is this camera going to intercut with other 1080i cameras. I don't see any other 720 prosumer cameras out there other than this one. So at some point I'll be mixing footage with 1080i cameras. Do I up-res the 720 material to 1080, or do I down-res the 1080 to 720 for the best results? When your camera is the minority (1080 is more widespread than 720) then you normally up-convert. That's why I said it wasn't plug and play, you have to look at conversions and which way to take it.

Next comes capture. I want to shoot some material in 24p and have Vegas capture it native. I'm not sure if version 7 offers this or if I need to use Connect HD. Reading on the cineform site it may be worth the money to have Connect HD just for the faster timeline.

And my next big concern is just the jump to HDV in general. Firewire is great, but it would really be nice to have a capture card that could ingest the material in a format that the editor could work with right from the get go. I understand that vegas 7 is much better in this regard, but you still convert to an intermediate file for the best perfomance. I feel like cpu's are a couple of years behind the curve right now and playing catch up like when dv cameras first took off. I'm not looking forward to capturing material and then rendering to an intermediate file. When I upgrade to version 7 the first thing I'll be checking is how fast it handles native .m2t files. I don't make effects heavy content so if it can give me simple cross fades in a timely manner then that may be enough for me to be able to work with native .m2t files.

Like I said, I'm glad that I went with this camera. This is a sweet camera and a great investment. No kidding, when I thought of different cameras I cringed at the thought of using a mid-sized camera again as my main unit. Mid-sized cameras can make the same picture as a shoulder camera, but they don't have the control or stability that a shoulder camera has. I'll buy a mid-sized camera as a second unit no problem but not as my main unit from now on.

It's also early on and I'll have much more specific questions as I go through the camera and start capturing and working with material in the next few weeks.

Thanks all.

Ben

I just finished a project that mixed a ton of 30p 720 (JVC) and 60i 1080 (Z1), some m2t but most Cineform. Here is my quick 2 cents:

Vegas 7 handles m2t very well now, in fact I'm getting better performance with it (no effects) than with Cineform. Cineform also works great although I did have a problem with an update of the codec (long story short, had to uninstall because it made Vegas VERY unstable).

Vegas handles mixed formats real well, I would suggest trying it a bit and see how it's going to work for you. In my case I just plopped the 720p and 1080i right on the timeline and cut away (the project properties were HDV 720p) - I'm not a fan of interlaced but the resulting 30p DVD looked great. I was worried that the "interlaced jaggies" would be problematic but I was real surprised how good everything came out.

If I was starting the project now (With V7,I started it on Vegas 6) I would capture native m2t in Vegas. If I needed to make a couple of render passes (new track, composites, etc) I would render to Cineform. Sounds like you aren't doing much multi-generation work so the m2t should be fine. Vegas comes with the Cineform codec so you could still render to that for composites - although Connect HD/Cineform does some cool stuff and it does boost Cineform preview performance a bit.

Bottom line it would be real cheap and easy to test out a couple of workflows and find what works for you. Vegas is an amazing piece of software, the latest version 7d is real good stuff. I kind of find it hard to believe that it's still regarded as the "best kept secret of the NLE world". How is this product not hugely popular?

Just my 02. - hope this helps.

Thanks Burk. Sounds like it's going to work fine even with the mixed workflow. That's good to know.

I have no idea why Vegas isn't more popular. I chose it over everything else because of the workflow. Changes, adjustments, and manipulation of the timleline were so quick compared with other editors. I could get the edit done so much quicker in Vegas than in fcp that it was a no brainer to make vegas my editing app of choice.

Israel,

Check the DVinfo private classifieds. Prices are normally right at what you would pay from ebay and you have the piece of mind of knowing that you're buying from someone who's just as interested in video as you are. That usually means that they take care of their gear really well so you'll be getting a working item. Ebay is a shot in the dark and you can find some good items but it takes a lot more work and you never really know what you're getting until you open the box. When I'm buying something used I always look through the private classifieds here before I go to ebay.

Ben