Ad augusta per angusta
To high places by narrow roads my friend!
The advice Michael has already provided will make your life so much easier as you move into S-3D. I can only offer some of my own experience and insights on top of that.
I've never actually shot with the AG-3DA1, but I've edited plenty of footage from it, and for its price, its really a great camera. However, it definitely has its fair share of problems.
For one, although you will hear people debate the subject for hours, I prefer "parallel" rigs where you can adjust the interaxial to cameras like the Panasonic, where you adjust your depth by "toeing in". It is true that toeing in does give the shot a "rounder" and less cardboard cutout feel, but when you set convergence before shooting, correcting in post becomes immensely more difficult.
I'm not sure how much planning has gone in to your production, but if you don't have an idea of your convergence points and depth budgeting, that should move to the top of your priorities list. Here's why:
Extend your index finger as far as you can from your eyes. Focus on it. Now rapidly pull it toward your eyes. Focus. Then move it away. Repeat at different distances, each time making sure to focus on your finger before moving it. Do this for a couple minutes and you will not feel like an idiot, you'll feel like a nauseous.
This is what happens when you leave issues like depth budgeting and convergence for post. The greater the variation in convergence between shots, the more strain you put on the viewer's eyes, and if your cameras are toed in, there's not much you can do to fix this in post other than pacing your shots effectively (no frenetically paced cuts! the eye naturally wants to explore the depth of stereo, so give it the time to do absorb the shot. This will also reduce eye strain.) If you are doing a composite edit, you can also choose shots that have similar convergence points. Remember, S-3D turns your monitor from a canvas to a window. This was by far the hardest concept for me to grasp when I started in stereo, but once I understood it, everything else began falling into place.
As to Michael's curiosity about how the camera handles close-ups, I'll spare you both the expense... it doesn't. I think the general rule is that you should keep 5-7 feet from your nearest foreground object. There are ways to compose a shot so that you can get closer without creating excessive parallax, but that's a whole separate topic.
In fact, understanding convergence and parallax is absolutely critical to walking away with usable footage. I've seen 3D shot by brilliant 2D cinematographers, and their lack of knowledge on these basics led to footage that was completely unusable. So do yourself a favor and, if you have an iphone, iPad, get an app like Dashwood's 3DA1 Calc, which, as implied by the name, is actually made for the 3DA1 and allows you to calculate your settings so that you remain within acceptable parallax boundaries. For $30 bucks, that piece of mind is a steal.
It's actually great that you're concerned about post right now because too few people think through the workflow before heading into production. I don't know what kind of system you have and what you will be using to edit, but I have to say that Michael's Sony Vegas recommendation makes me want to rush out and buy a PC. I'm guessing you've looked at Cineform's neo3D as well as Tim Dashwood's stereobox 3D. Both are great products, though they can be a bit buggy at times in my experience (not sure if Cineform has fixed it, but if you run FCP, make sure to turn down the amount of RAM Final Cut is allowed to use to around 90% or else you risk the frustration of repeated crashes.)
Dashwood's Stereobox 3D is great for the most part, and the lite version (only $99) gives you a great way to multiplex, preview, and render your footage.
The least expensive method (provided you have After Effects and know what you are doing, is to make use of Christoph Keller's stereo scripts. Here's a link to his tutorial, which has a link to the free scripts:
http://www.vimeo.com/10701501.
As for your final delivery options, let me just say that I hope Blu-Ray dies a slow miserable death along with MVC encoding. Side by side was a perfectly fine delivery format and people who claim that MVC is better because it gives you full HD don't know what they're talking about. I've authored both side by side blu-ray discs and MVC encoded blu-ray and I do not notice ANY quality difference between the two. The big difference is that MVC turns your $5,000 circular polarized 46" Hyundai 3D TV into an overpriced 2D display. That said, if you have to deliver in MVC, GoStudio by netblender offers a 30 day trial download (you have to call and get the full version). You can use that to encode and author your 3D Blu-Ray in MVC, and of course promise to purchase a full version of the software as soon as you make your first millions (I think the encoding + authoring programs run about $17,000... Sony's is about 60K. Beginning to see why I despise MVC?
Well, gotta go for now, but if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Hopefully I'll be able to help.
Michael David Hutchinson
Ridgeline Entertainment
"That most limited of all specialists, the well-rounded man."--F. Scott Fitzgerald 'The Great Gatsby'
