i have not picked up a pc editing softward yet, but was informed the Newteks speededit is a great new product. For simplicity sake, i was going to go vegas 8...but speededit was recommended. want to dissolve, cut and add music, nature sounds. keeping things simple. also add time dissolve with a nikon digital camera

question...i am familiar as a still photographer with adobe cs3 extended. can you increase contrast, darken and saturate images digitally without a lot of time involved

second question..anti shake software work without loosing too much image quality? have sea otters and whales shot in kayak to take out the shake. thanks. bill

For what it's worth:

I use Adobe Premier Elements with my A1 and things come out fine.

Yes, you have easy access to image controls. I just shot a auto show in Cleveland and I'm finding that I need to keep boosting saturation and contrast, while turning down brightness. It's really pulling a lot more color out of the images - and in HD! Some of the images are stunning.

And this was really my first second time out with the A1. My first time using it, I came up with this: http://www.vimeo.com/739660

Personally, I like Premier and it hasn't caused me any problems yet.

apparently premier elements is a lighter form of premier pro? nice work on your reference for just starting. i have overexposed footage on some dark background areas..and wanted to saturate. how easy is premier elements to use? bill

has anyone used newtek' speededit software for hdv editing?

bill, bothell, washington

SpeedEdit is showing up in more posts lately and reports sound fairly positive. I haven't any personal experience with it but if you search these boards you might turn up some good information.

I plan on looking into SpeedEdit as PP CS3 is not working for me in HD. Cineform doesn't improve things either as I'm not convinced that it's ready for Vista yet.

I just went and read Videomakers review. Seems like a kinda cool piece of software, but for $495, I'd be looking elsewhere. I'd wager it can't do half of what Vegas could do for similar money. But Vegas will certainly take more time to learn.

If you have a serial number from Avid, Premiere, Final Cut or others you can get a discount of $100 for a final price of $395. Check Newteks store front for competitive upgrade.

one of the features i was hoping to use was mercali plug in for removing motion from marine mammal footage shot in a boat, or kayak. apparently newtek speededit doesnt support it, nor does the anti shake software do as good of a job. any suggestions?

bill, bothell, wa