What to do

Hi Tielman,

The Canon VIXIA HF-10 AVCHD Camcorder is an NTSC framerate friendly camcorder. It also records 24 and 30 frames per second. Belgium cable companies transmit PAL (25i fps) and since MTV (Music Television) does not broadcast in HD in Belgium (as far as I know) you will probably be well advised to ask MTV what broadcast standards they expect from you for the preview. From that you'll be able to adjust your shooting technicalities so the MTV preview rocks! See below for more info on this.

This camcorder uses 16GB Internal Flash Memory cards. How many of those will you bring? This is important as India is very careful about what equipment you bring into the country. If your combined equipment list costs more than USD $1000 you may need to get a customs agent.

Regardless, you will be well advised to carry the Handycam in your carry on luggage. Sending it inside your suitcase will destroy the Handycam.

When you're done shooting (shoot in 16:9 but protect for 3:4 aspect ratio) you will need an HDMI to HD-SDI converter so you can capture your video into your non-linear editor. Be advised that this camcorder is recording MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 so you will need to stay away from FAST moving objects (unless you enjoy pixelization.)

Why the HDMI to SDI converter? Because if you capture the MPEG-4 video natively inside your computer, you may end up having to render pretty much everything... most people don't like to render just to preview video on the timeline. Well I guess some have to do this, but it’s not fun.

Microphone and headphone? I always like SONY for those.

So what about Post Production? I'm guessing MTV will tell you to bring a Digital Betacam tape 3:4 aspect ratio for PAL broadcast, including sound reference level being -16 FSdB.

So, you'll end up shooting in 24P. When you're done editing this 24P project (23.98P fps), you'll speed up the playback to 25P so you can get a nice 25i fps standard definition video playback (which PAL Digital Betacam recorders like.) The 24P to 25P will KILL your music soundtrack (will sound off pitch,) but the PAL images should end up looking nice.

So what about the Canon XL-2. That camcorder costs around USD $3260 (customs agent anyone?)

Enjoy

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Paul Thurston
Producer
Chile