Advice on home studio set up
 

Hey everyone.

First and foremost I'd like to officially say hello to everyone, been browsing the forums for a few days now and there is a wealth of info on here.

Anyway, I'm fairly new to video and looking to get into video editing in the very near future and would like to hear some thoughts and advice on a few things.

I will be shooting mainly wedding to start with, but would like to expand to other things, like training videos, architectural visualization presentations etc.

My goal is to have home studio set up as my background is in graphic design, 3d and photography. I recently purchased a.....

Powermac G5 Quad 2.5Ghz
Nvidia Geforce 7800GT graphics card
4gigs of RAM
250gig HD (will get probably 2 500gig drives soon for video)
Dell 24" Ultra Sharp 2405 LCD monitor.

I also have a Powermac G4 867Mhz Dual MDD that I sometimes use for simple print stuff.

I mainly got the G5 for use with my 3d program (Cinema 4d) mainly for it's rendering speeds and as of late I've got a job doing architectural visualization.



Anyway, I'm looking at a few vid cameras but have mainly narrowed it down to the Sony FX1 or the Sony PD170, though I like the fact that the FX1 is HDV. However i'm open to other cameras within this price range like the Panasonic DVX100B,JVC GR-H1, Canon GL2...as mentioned though the FX1 looks like the better choice, I'd appreciate any thoughts on this.

Since all my software is Mac I'm probably going to get Final Cut Studio as my editing application, I've only used imovie and Adobe Premiere 6.5 (which is very unstable with the g5's i find)up to this point, I know enough to edit and make simple movies but I'm currently learning on my own (and may take a night class) to learn more indepth video editing techniques. I've dabbled with FCP 4 that my friend owns as well as FCExpress.

So......Would this setup be a step in the right direction? Does the FX1 and FCstudio Work well together?

I' dlove to hear from anyone that works out of a home studio, what kind of gear and set ups you have and any other advice you can pass on to an inspiring videographer.

I have the HDR FX1e and use it with Final Cut Express. I think they almost seem made for each other and am really happy with the results. With your computer set-up, if you aren't using it for too much else, you are going to be better off with a HD camera like the HDR FX1 because you have the option to export it onto your computer in either HD or just DV.

i'm sure you know that premiere 6.5 is a pc program... it was probably unstable because you were running it on the mac in emulation mode?

editing dv footage would be the way to start the learning process, but you can do that with an hdv camera as well... you'll also have to think about delivery formats, which for weddings would be on dvd.

Thanx Chris, though I have quite some time to way out my options. I'll be taking some courses this year and hopefully along the way I can get a camera that would suit my needs. I really like the look of the XL2, plus I'm into photography as well, so the interchangable lenses are tempting. Currently Most of the things I do on my computer is graphic and 3d related, one of the reasons why I got this computer set up to have a good system to support video as well.

Hey Dan, I appreciate your input. Premiere 6.5 is indeed the last version they made for the Mac, before snubbing us out entirely....It's a pity too because I really enjoyed using Premiere since V5. I am quite familiar with editing but still have more to learn, hence the courses I'll be taking.

If I were to luck out and get some jobs at the moment from the people I've been talking too, HD wouldn't be needed just yet, regular DV would be sufficient. I plan to get the camera sometime at the end of the year or early next year because of other freelance priorities, so who knows what people may want by then. Then there is the issue of thinking ahead, eventually HD will become more popular, and other Vid cam's will be available. I know for sure though that my first few projects will be only DV.