Hi,

I should probably upgrade to CS3, but I happen to really like 6.5. Yes, some of you may be laughing and I admit, I'm outdated, but hey, if it works well, don't break it, right?

However, I'm looking at getting a new consumer camera as they are all so cheap and shoot great HD video.

What is the video format these cameras use (are there more than one?) and how do I edit them? Are there plugins that will allow me to continue to use 6.5? Or I need to go to CS2 or CS3?

Can anyone enlighten me on what's the news on this since I took a break about 2 years ago?

Hi,

I should probably upgrade to CS3, but I happen to really like 6.5. Yes, some of you may be laughing and I admit, I'm outdated, but hey, if it works well, don't break it, right?

However, I'm looking at getting a new consumer camera as they are all so cheap and shoot great HD video.

What is the video format these cameras use (are there more than one?) and how do I edit them? Are there plugins that will allow me to continue to use 6.5? Or I need to go to CS2 or CS3?

Can anyone enlighten me on what's the news on this since I took a break about 2 years ago?

First of all, do yourself a favor and get CS4. CS4 can edit all those new formats without the need for plug-ins.

New formats a tape based HDV, or disk or card based AVCHD, at least in the consumer range. There are a lot of different new formats, but not in the consumer price range.

What salespeople often forget to mention is that even though new AVCHD cameras are cheap and shoot great HD, they are incredibly difficult to edit. It will likely require a completely new and powerful PC (think in the $ 2 K+ range) to edit that material. Then the investment is not so nice anymore. HDV is far easier to edit, has the advantage of cheap tapes for archiving, and the drawback of capturing from tape, instead of copying files to hard disk.

If you are looking at attractively priced consumer cameras, I would start with having a serious look at the Canon HV40. A great camera at an attractive price, that can be edited with relative ease on a good PC.

Hey, thanks for your reply.

As it turns out, I'm now looking at Adobe Premiere Elements 7 or Sony Vega Home Studio Platinum as both look like they already kick ass on what I am using now (an old version of Premiere). I think both are robust enough and will do AVCHD if I need to.

But you are right, I think my computer just barely makes the system requirements.

So I looked at the Canon HV40. Wow. The footage on Youtube is great. Is HDV editing smooth and error free now? No dropped frames or artifacting? And this camera will also record tape as DV. Will it look better than a high end DV only camera because it has HD chips?

Thanks for the suggestion. It looks like Canon has done a great job with all the consumer cameras.


I just looked to see what is available in my area and I found these:

Cameras ;Camcorders ;Cameras ;London Drugs (http://www.londondrugs.com/Cultures/en-US/Products/Cameras.htm?BreadCrumbs=Cameras;Cameras;Camcorders;All%20Camcorders&Catalog=Cameras&Sort=0&Page=1)

Hmmm, no HV20.... BUT....

then I saw this STAPLES | BUREAU EN GROS (http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=73%2C267,3554&webid=788810&affixedcode=WW)

The HF200. I saw Youtube clips on this and it's awesome. So hard to decide but the price on the HF200 is perfect.

The HF200 has the right price, but that will be negated by the required hardware investment.

It also misses a generic accessory shoe for an external mic, only Canon accessories can be used IIRC. And most importantly, it is difficult to edit, even with PE, which is a very good program for the price and does not carry the system requirement overhead of CS4.

Personally I would prefer a Canon HDV camera, because it does not require a state-of-the-art high cost PC, a simple Core2Duo or QuadCore would suffice.

For AVCHD the bare minimum IMO is an OC'ed i7.

YouTube should never be used to compare camera results. YouTube is another word for CCNWLAOOWS.

Translation: 'Commercial Crap Not Worth Looking At Or Otherwise Worthless Sh*t'

Hmmm, no HV20.... BUT....

then I saw this STAPLES | BUREAU EN GROS (http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=73%2C267,3554&webid=788810&affixedcode=WW)

The HF200. I saw Youtube clips on this and it's awesome. So hard to decide but the price on the HF200 is perfect.

HF200 shoots in AVCHD, which as Harm mentioned is an extreme load on your computer while editing. You'll likely want to stick with HDV. The Canon HV20, 30 & 40 are all fairly similar. I may be wrong but I think the HV40 is the first one which shot 24fps, or was easy to encode down to your pc as 24fps without any setting adjustments.

Ronald I'm still working in Premiere Pro 1.5, which still works for what I do. Plus it came with CS which has Photshop After Effects & Encore which for me are nice to have. So like you haven't had the need to upgrade. Although I've been starting to reseach HD.

I upgraded to CS4 about a month ago.

My CS3 is for sale, complete with manuals, and also complete with training DVDs by Total Training. I paid $400 for the Total Training DVDs alone.

Make me an offer I can't refuse. You will love CS3.