New to HD and confused

[David Scattergood]

Originally Posted by Marc Colemont

If you really want to run 'n gun with this camera without having to worry about panning and judder effects, you should look at the HD200 series as they can shoot 50/60P.
With the HD100 series shooting in 24,25,30P it needs more care. But you know what? Learning shooting progressive, makes your images look so much better and filmic.
Using panning while shooting needs to have a message...
With HD there is so much more detail in the picture that a wide shot can tell a story on it's own with some additional close up's. Were panning can distract what you want to show instead. I find it an everlasting learning curve shooting any sort of job and trying to achive a filmic result.
My 5 cents...

Financially the HD200 is not an option Marc but a fine idea. Some jobs/clients are not too keen on the filmic look anyway and certainly the fastish pans associated with corporate vids are better suited to either interlaced or the 50p format. I have used the HDV SD50p on the 100 but usually for slow mo. I've tracked a cyclist in 25p (background anything in between blurry and juddery) but on viewing you only notice the fella on the bike.
Yet to pull off a decent really fast pan using 25p...I actually thought that was a no no till I read a few posts on here. Quite a difficult one to pull off I would imagine.

[Kevin Shaw]

Most people shooting weddings and events in HD are using either Sony or Canon HDV cameras, and with those you can shoot 1080i/60 for a smoother motion look. If you really want a shoulder-mounted camera Sony has two new ones to consider: the HD1000U (low end) and S270U (high end).

For editing you might consider the Matrox RT.X2 hardware card with the latest version of Adobe Premiere, but I've heard of significant problems with that combo. Cineform with Adobe Premiere is another option which doesn't rely on hardware to accelerate the editing. I like the Canopus/Grass Valley "Edius" software and have also seen Sony Vegas in action with good results, or you could buy a Mac and go with Final Cut Studio. All can edit HDV effectively much like DV, but with more time required for the final rendering.

For Blu-ray authoring get Adobe CS3 and any 2X or faster burner. With CS3 you can burn both Blu-ray and standard widescreen DVDs from one authoring project, plus render Flash-based files for computer playback. As an alternative, you can also play rendered HDV output directly on a Sony PS3 from a USB flash drive, with no lengthy disc burning process required. HD presents new challenges but also some new options, and it's a pleasure seeing your own work at HD quality.

[Marc Colemont]

Corrrect the HDV SD50p format on the HD100 is the alternative to 720P50.
Another help is to follow a subject while panning on 25P. The judder will be less visible as the viewer is looking at the subject which stays relatively still while the background moves.

[Alex Humphrey]

I learned on film years ago, then I was ruined by 7 years of video. It took some time, (maybe a month or two) to totally retrain myself. If I have a choice, I'll never go back to interlaced video again. If however I was doing sports live HD, the 60p would be sweet... Yet I find sports looks just fine in a anamorphic DVD at 24fps downconverted from 720p 24fps with a shutter speed around 1/60th.. (1/100th is a little too SAVING PRIVATE RYAN for me) and 1/48th blurs a bit too much when zoomed all the way in. Besides.. apple's iTunes HD content is 720p at 24fps, so that's where I'll probably sell HD content until Blu-ray burners drop in price (now that HD-DVD is apparently cancelled by Toshiba)