Re: wedding video questions

Doug -

The main reason I don't like to give out raw tapes is that I'm afraid someone will edit a poor video and people will think I did it. I tend to relax that rule for other professionals, and I've given out tapes in the past when I've trusted the person asking. So you should be able to find someone to do this for you. Just try to sell yourself to them as a good editor so they aren't afraid of what you might do with their footage.

I strongly disagree that 24p is "useless." It's another look, just the same as color vs. black and white in still photography. Try telling a still photographer that black and white is "useless" and see what they tell you. If your son likes the 24p look, then that's all that matters. And if he doesn't, that's fine too. It's totally dependent on taste, nothing more or less.

The good news is, most cameras that shoot it allow you to record in a 24 fps mode that goes to tape as normal 60i DV footage. Be sure that your shooter can do that and you'll be fine. You'll get normal DV footage that neither your camera nor your computer will think is any different from what you shoot all the time. There's no reason to do actual 24 fps video since the 24p 'look' on 60i tape will look the same with a lot less trouble for you. (If you get a camera model, come back and check with us. Some of the older Sony cams have a horrible 24p that they "fake" and isn't worth using. Most cameras do it right, though. We can give better advice once you know a camera model.)

If they shoot widescreen be certain that they can get an anamorphic image (as opposed to letterboxed). I don't know how Vegas deals with anamorphic DV, but check the manual, I'm certain they have a way of dealing with it.