HD-DV Camcorders

[RTFM]

Not too long? How long?

 

What I'm getting at is, whilst you are converting it, and all the faffing around that that often requires, would a tape equivalent been just as easy to capture from?

 

My workflow here for tape capture :

 

Put tape in Sony deck, set capture limits in Final Cut Pro, capture and go and get on with other jobs, come back, edit.

 

OK, capture time has to be done in real time, but pretty much all of the projects I have to work on here are well under an hour so it really isn't a major issue.

 

From a personal aspect however, tape capture is a pain for the weddings that I have filmed, as that is usually anything up to 10 hours worth to capture.

 

But again, I just set it up, let it capture, go watch telly.

 

In the word of Aleksandr Orlov, "simples".

 

Not too long = it depends how long your footage is, 1 min of footage probably takes, i dont know, 20-30 seconds to convert?

 

Put it this way, the time it takes to convert footage wont be as long as it takes to play it back in real time I wouldnt have thought. This does depend on what your converting to / from....I could be wrong on that score though.

 

In honesty I think its 6 and half a dozen. The only forseeable advantage of a tape rather than having to do converting is a possible loss of quality, but the converters we use dont seem to lose quality so.......*shrug*

 

Premiere Elements, or Pro CS?

 

And do you have Quicktime Pro? If you do, you can convert it to an .avi which Premiere will lurve...

 

We have a Panasonic HDD cam that has a file format of .mod which if you convert to .avi PP doesnt like. I have to do it as .mpg for PP to play it back properly......strange I know!!!!

[Ashm]

That's a very good point actually, I've got some footage which is in .mpg which I think came off a Sony Camcorder, with Premiere doesn't want to believe contains sound. I've had to convert it to wav in Super and hope that the lipsync doesn't break when I import both seperately and link them.

I think that may be because the audio is in AC3. If it's Premiere Pro CS3 you've got, you can copy the "ad2ac3dec.dll" file from Encore into the root of the Premiere Pro folder. It should now import video files with AC3 audio properly.

[Voodoo]

To go back just a bit to the original post...since we're in a similar situation...have a need for a video camera that takes MiniDV tape (HD not specifically reqd though).

 

Looking for something in the £200 - £300 range. Previously used Canon MV's but having trouble finding anything now.

 

Tape still has it's uses here...PE dept do very little post processing...they like to film the event then put the tape into storage for use the following year. Tape's quite handy when no editing needed. They also have stock of recordings that they don't want to lose (but don't have time or desire to convert).

 

Would be grateful if anyone could suggest good current supplier for MiniDV cameras?

[laserblazer]

I know this is changing the discussion slightly, but how do you handle /edit your AVCHD footage, laserblazer; what software do you use on what machine? Do you do any pre-processing in your workflow before you edit?

 

I have an AVCHD camera (an early Canon HDD model) and have found AVCHD to be much more of a pain to use than I originally thought it'd be - largely due to processing demands to play the stuff back!

 

That is the downside. I'm currently editing a 50 minute video using Premiere Elements 8 and it is so painfully slow. Up to now, I have been mixing footage from the HD cam. with SD and I've been converting the mts files to hdv which Premiere Pro 2.0 accepts. At 1440 x 1028 the clips are twice as big as the SD and have to be scaled down. It does give me the opportunity to apply zoom or Ken Burns effects without compromising the resolution.

[Guest theeldergeek]

That is the downside. I'm currently editing a 50 minute video using Premiere Elements 8 and it is so painfully slow. Up to now, I have been mixing footage from the HD cam. with SD and I've been converting the mts files to hdv which Premiere Pro 2.0 accepts. At 1440 x 1028 the clips are twice as big as the SD and have to be scaled down. It does give me the opportunity to apply zoom or Ken Burns effects without compromising the resolution.

 

Lovin' the Ken Burns stuff! I do it with stills all the time

[Guest theeldergeek]

To go back just a bit to the original post...since we're in a similar situation...have a need for a video camera that takes MiniDV tape (HD not specifically reqd though).

 

Looking for something in the £200 - £300 range. Previously used Canon MV's but having trouble finding anything now.

 

Tape still has it's uses here...PE dept do very little post processing...they like to film the event then put the tape into storage for use the following year. Tape's quite handy when no editing needed. They also have stock of recordings that they don't want to lose (but don't have time or desire to convert).

 

Would be grateful if anyone could suggest good current supplier for MiniDV cameras?

 

I think you'll struggle to find anything in that price range, as it is at a consumer pricing level, which, as mentioned earlier, is now very much driven by card based cameras.

 

You may need to take a step up into the pro-sumer or semi-professional price range to get something decent.

 

I might have a couple of Sony HDV's up for grabs soon. Hardly used, good as new and only going to be about £2k a piece with batteries, lenses, kit bags and various other goodies if anyone is interested for their school