Noob Question!! I need a new Camcorder

[Larry Pollis]

Samantha,
As others have already said previously there are ways to edit AVCHD and I for one, love my Sony SR1! I am an early adopter and, as a dear friend told me many years ago, "Those that live on the cutting edge of technology shall be sacrificed upon it!."
That said, AVCHD is great, at least for myself, a seriously advanced non-professional videographer. And by that mean that I do serious work, just not broadcast quality.
You do need a seriously capable computer for editing. Look at the VideoGuys site for the DIY 5 project for guidance. http://www.videoguys.com/DIY5.html
I just finished building a new system based (almost) on those specifications and it is a fantastic system and it cost a LOT less than anything ready-built. The processor is an E6700 with an Asus motherboard, 2 gig memory, a 300 Gig SATA system drive and 2 500 Gig ($100 each!) in a raid 0 configuration. My graphics card is a medium priced ATI card with 256 Meg.
I use Sony Vegas 7e (will edit AVCHD directly), Pinnacle Studio Plus 11 (will edit AVCHD directly), Liquid 7.2, and Premiere Pro 2. With Liquid and Premiere I use the output from Studio 11. Depending on the project complexity, your familiarity with any of the above, and the target medium, any of the above can be mixed and matched.
My preference is to convert with Studio 11 and edit with Liquid. I get great results to DVD (no blu-ray yet, enough on the sacrificing!), or to play from the PC via component to my HDTV.
Not being tied to tape is the best feeling. Importing video from the camera to the PC is the same as coping files. The SR1 shoots in discreet clips so there is no need for scene detection. So, the trade-offs are faster imports and scenes. If you use Vegas, edit immediately. If you like Liquid or Premiere, there is an extra step in the need to use Studio as a converter. If it is a simple project, Studio may be enough for the task.
Lp

[Tony Neal]

Good work Ron !
It looks like these little Sony cams are programmed to keep the lens at its optimum aperture for HD resolution at the expense of noise, resulting in a bright, sharp 'consumer' friendly image. Its just a pity you can't manually control the gain as well as aperture and shutter speed.
I agree that the upgrade to CS3 is a stunningly good deal - its an essential purchase if you want to do both BluRay and SD DVD.

Larry, I wish I could buy SATA drives that cheaply - they're twice the price in the UK.
Thats an ingenious workflow you've got there - good to know someone has got it sorted. Presumably you export a .AVI from Studio 11 for import into Premiere, but is that much quicker than capturing HDV from tape ?

Tony

[Larry Pollis]

Tony,
Yes, I Studio does convert to .AVI and that is imported to Liquid or Premiere.
As to saving time over tape, probably not but I have to believe that it is just a matter of time before the rest of the majors allow the import of AVCHD content. I also believe that AVCHD will become an accepted (and improved) format. More and more cameras will use hard drives or memory cards. Remember, Vegas already does edit AVCHD directly and there are a lot of Vegas folks out there. That should apply pressure to the others to follow suite. Just think, Pinnacle (Avid) has already provided the capability in Studio 11. What would it take to include the code in Liquid? Probably not all that much!
Lp

[David Kennett]

Samantha,

The firewire went out on a JVC HD10, and I had an expensive repair just to capture previous footage. Two comparable cameras could give you a backup, but I LOVE memory cards. Copy files MUCH faster than real time capture - with a $10 card reader if necessary, durable, no dropouts, and since each shot is a file complete shot data is maintained.

MicroMV was a propriatary Sony format, whose only advantage was that it was small - and it still was tape! AVCHD is no such animal.

I think tape will disappear completely in a few years, and AVCHD fills the bill for a competitively priced quality system. B&H has the Panasonic HDC SD1 for $799 (3 chip AVCHD). I would have one now, but improvements are on the horizon. Download some samples. HDV does NOT have a quality advantage. editing is not really there yet - but its coming.

[Jamie Allan]

Just to clear one thing up that I don't want you or anyone to misunderstand here - Vegas 7e will only edit AVCHD from a Sony camera, not Panasonic models. I spoke to the Pana guys at Broadcast Live and there are more cameras and much more software support coming in the next year from Apple/Canon/Adobe/Canopus etc...

Larry what make/model are those drives?

[Larry Pollis]

HD 500G|SAMG 7K 16M SATA2 HD501LJ

I also bought a 7200 RPM 500 gig Seagate Barracuda a few weeks ago at my local Fry's Electronics store for $120.

Prices ARE coming down!

And yes, Vegas only edits AVCHD from the Sony cameras but, as far as I know, Pinnacle Studio Plus 11 will work for all AVCHD cameras.

Lp

[Jamie Allan]

That's a daaamn good price considering its straight retail aswell, although I guess I'm thinking in terms of $120 = £60 whereas 120 bucks probably seems fair with the, err, 'economy' over there ;)

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Larry,
Sony Vegas should be supporting the Panasonic AVCHD soon. I know their engineers were a little disappointed that it didn't feed the same information as the Sony cams do, and as the industry moves through the growth of AVCHD, NLE's, cameras, etc...it'll all settle out fairly soon. Most folks don't recall what DV was like 12 years back. :-)

[Jamie Allan]

Originally Posted by Douglas Spotted Eagle

Larry,
Sony Vegas should be supporting the Panasonic AVCHD soon. I know their engineers were a little disappointed that it didn't feed the same information as the Sony cams do, and as the industry moves through the growth of AVCHD, NLE's, cameras, etc...it'll all settle out fairly soon. Most folks don't recall what DV was like 12 years back. :-)

This is the point I've been trying to get across to people who ask me about the 'latest' technologies. I didnt personally go through the period when DV was introduced but I've read alot of stuff about how it was (relatively) looked at much in the way AVCHD is now and even HD a few years ago. Granted companies could wait and sit on products untill everythings there for it but then they'd lose out on all of this - people talking about it all over the world.

Despite how fast technology moves nowadays people still want more...

But anyway....Do let us know if/what you choose to do Samantha, this thread is starting to get hijacked by another AVCHD support discussion...