Is anyone here using Adobe Premiere Elements 8 to edit video files from the 7D?

Does it handle the files and perform well?

I just finished a project shot with my 7D and while I've been editing AVCHD successfully on a Q6600 based machine and a Core i7 machine with Pinnacle Studio and Cyberlink PowerDirector, neither can handle the 7D files smoothly.

Pinnacle Studio won't even recognize the 1920x1080 files from the 7D and PowerDirector 7 and 8 do but I get "stuttery" playback on the timeline. It will render individual clips to AVC H.264 file format, that re-imports and works better on the timeline but as the project builds in size performance begins to falter.

The finished render to HD WMV format went OK.

So I need to move in another direction. The price level of Sony Vegas and some of the other similarly priced packages is a problem at this time. My credit card is writhing in agony over what I did to it with a T1i purchase and 7D purchase not 4 months apart.

Bruce: Consider Vegas Movie Studio Platinum. I think if budget is an issue in the future, climbing the Vegas tree is cheaper than the Adobe route. You also will be needing to think along the lines of Cineform NeoScene, if you aren't there yet.

^^^Does the software accept MOV files? When I looked that the specs it did not state so. If not, how are you importing MOV files from your 7D to the software?

Jeff,

Pinnacle Studio 12.1 is compatible with the 720p files from both the T1i and the 7d, but not the 1080p files from either camera.

So I copy the 1080p .MOV files from the card to the C: drive and then in Cyberlink PowerDirector 8 Ultra I use the "Import Media File" option. Once imported into the work space I put the clips one or two at a time on the timeline then "Produce" (render) to an AVC H.264 file (1920x1080). At this point I can either put that resulting file on the PD8 timeline and edit or point Pinnacle Studio 12.1 to it as Studio can now recognize it just like AVCHD clips from my HF100's.

It's a "roundabout" way but seems to result in no resolution/detail/quality loss I can see and I still prefer the editing interface and features of Studio.

Kind of temporarily solves my problem.

Premiere Elements 7.0 accepts 1080p and 720p files from my 7D. My laptop's not up to smooth playback, but it works. Playback of 7D files are actually better than the AVCHD files of my HF100.

Kin Lau,

Thanks, that's exactly the kind of info I need.

Studio 14 can work with the 1080p files from the 7D. I am using it now for that since my primary editor (Liquid 7.2) doesn't do AVCHD at all.

Thanks, Chris.

I wondered if something like that was one of the improvements in Studio 14. I'm kind of debating whether or not they've lost me with the dropping of support for SmartSound music. I know they have offered to help 3rd party programmers develop new plugins but SmartSound had one that was working well even with Studio 12 if you had the right files and told Pinnacle to get lost.

I have SonicFire Pro 5 Scoring Edition but sometimes it's much more convenient to try to score from within the NLE.

I may look at Studio 14. Thanks again.