Advice on video editing software

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this board and new to Videography. I have recently bought a Sony HC9 camera with a Light & Motion Bluefin Housing. Can anyone give me advice on what video editing software I should use?

Or any tips on my camera or housing?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm new to this board and new to Videography. I have recently bought a Sony HC9 camera with a Light & Motion Bluefin Housing. Can anyone give me advice on what video editing software I should use?

 

Or any tips on my camera or housing?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

What computer? (Mac Or PC?)

Get to know your Red Filter and White Balancing (not sure what is one the housing you have, I have a Gates.) Also if you are not going to MWB, using the Daylight setting as oppossed to Auto seems to give better results across the HC3, 7 & 9. Run some tests on that (I shoot the HC3, the HC9 should perfom better.)

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm new to this board and new to Videography. I have recently bought a Sony HC9 camera with a Light & Motion Bluefin Housing. Can anyone give me advice on what video editing software I should use?

 

Or any tips on my camera or housing?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

I"ve been using Sony Vegas Pro with my HC7 and HC5 lately, and very pleased with the software. Stable, has many advanced tools, and encoding quality is good.

I agree, learn to make use of the manual WB control, and I rigged up a slate on an arm, and I find it helps.

I use Sony Vegas too. I use the Platinum version. I don't do that much video work, so it is very good for me, and does anything I need it to do.

I tried Adobe Premier Pro, and it is very powerful, but it is quite hard to get to grips with all of the features in it, especially within the time of the free trial. ( I suppose it is a bit like Photoshop, it is unlikely that you will ever need all of the features, but they are there if you need them !) I found the Vegas software easy to use, and there are loads of cool and quite powerful tools, they just seem a bit more intuitive, at least for me anyway.

Good luck.

What computer? (Mac Or PC?)

 

Get to know your Red Filter and White Balancing (not sure what is one the housing you have, I have a Gates.) Also if you are not going to MWB, using the Daylight setting as oppossed to Auto seems to give better results across the HC3, 7 & 9. Run some tests on that (I shoot the HC3, the HC9 should perfom better.)

Thanks everyone for the replies. I have a PC and do have manual white balance.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I have a PC and do have manual white balance.

I have a mac and a pc but use Sony Vegas (PC only). I don't do enough video to remember how to use the Final Cut interface as easily as the Vegas interface. True, if you were a pro FC might be better, but Vegas will and can do pretty much everything FC can do with a little bit more of an intuitive / drag and drop interface. I know many pros who use it but don't admit to it. Vegas is very advanced and is by no means a beginner only program. In fact, Vegas Movie Studio Platinum will render to HD without the expense of Vegas Pro. The main limitation is that MS limits you to 4 video tracks. But, if you really needed more video tracks you could easily make a Quicktime video of multiple tracks and render those into one and drop it into the video. This video isn't an U/W video but it was done with Vegas a few weeks ago and includes stills, audio, keyframes, motion and multiple videos running in the same frame.

Andy

Hi

Then of course if you want to edit many raw HDV m2t video tracks with effects in render free realtime at preview full res then EDIUS on the PC rules.

I can have 9 HDV m2t tracks playing back in realtime.

It even comes with an intermediate codec (Canopus HQ) that coverts your HDV footage in realtime as it firewires in to a easier HD AVI to edit codec.

You can even watch it a full screen as it comes in or work on other stuff while it's sucking in.

It's all abit confusing to use when you first start though.

Good luck.

Many good editing programs out there. You could have an endless debate on which is best. I like Vegas. Does everything I need, reliable and the Studio Platinum version is $85.

Hi

Then of course if you want to edit many raw HDV m2t video tracks with effects in render free realtime at preview full res then EDIUS on the PC rules.

I can have 9 HDV m2t tracks playing back in realtime.

It even comes with an intermediate codec (Canopus HQ) that coverts your HDV footage in realtime as it firewires in to a easier HD AVI to edit codec.

You can even watch it a full screen as it comes in or work on other stuff while it's sucking in.

 

It's all abit confusing to use when you first start though.

Good luck.

Being a rank amateur, not into making dailies, but still serious about quality, I seriously considered purchasing Edius as it is indeed a powerful and stable application.

However, I ended up purchasing Vegas for the following reasons 1)If I recall, Vegas Pro and its companion DVD authoring program DVD Architect appeared to cost several hundred dollars less than Edius 2)I felt that there were many more resources out there for Vegas, in terms of books, on-line Youtube demos, and web sites discussion theads for learning how to use the Vegas software than there was for Edius. I often find that if I get stumped in Vegas, a quick Youtube search and I'll find a demo on the topic.

I capture with HDVSplit, edit with Vegas Pro, encode MPEG3 with CinemaCraft Encoder Basic and Author DVDs and Blu-rays with TMPGEnc Authoring Works. I recommend all of these programs.

I shoot video ... sort of. I have a Nikon D90 and do a lot of wreck diving. I will ocasionally switch over and shoot some video. I have all these clips laying around and would like to put them together.

I've read some of these recommendations and did not see any thing on Adobe Premiere Elements 7. Is it junk when compared to the other similiarly priced products? How about Premeire CS4?

Kirk

I shoot video ... sort of. I have a Nikon D90 and do a lot of wreck diving. I will ocasionally switch over and shoot some video. I have all these clips laying around and would like to put them together.

 

I've read some of these recommendations and did not see any thing on Adobe Premiere Elements 7. Is it junk when compared to the other similiarly priced products? How about Premeire CS4?

 

 

Kirk

I used to use Premiere Elements 7 up until about a year ago, and that was adequate for editing standard DV. But last year I switched to a sony HC7 and begin shooting 1080i HDV. The Premier element program had a difficult time working with these files, and crashed more often. Also, I wanted to edit in High Def, and then render our a standard def DVD. WHich Premier elements is able to do.. but at a very low quality. I found that the built in encoder for rendering in Elements is not very good. I did not like the results. I finally outgrew Elements, as it lacked tools such as Scopes, etc.. But when compared to its peers, in the low $ end, I think Elements is one of the best.

Using the same computer and with no hardware changes, I switched to VEgas Pro, and have had no application crashing issues, and its encoding quality and options are much better. Like many things in life, "you get what you pay for" and this is another example. I believe another poster, Nick Hope uses several different "best of the breed" software applications.. each app is a specialty niche program in its own area.. which increases the total cost.. increases the learning curve, but in the long run allows some of the best quality results. I am also using HDVsplit for the initial capture, and Sony Vegas Pro for Editing and rendering, and DVD ARchitect for authoring and burning. But, I am just a hobbiest.

I'm definitely a Mac Final Cut Studio guy but if I were on a PC, I'd go with Edius. With the better NLEs you have something to grow into as opposed to the cheap and limited NLEs that you grow out of. It will save you money in the long run to go with something good.

Steve