looking to start filming in HD

To this point I have only shot digital, no HD. Using vegas 7. Looking for advice on what I should know about shooting/editing in HD vs normal digital, and any suggestions for a lower priced HD camera. Now using panasonic AG-DVC-80. Thanks.

I agree that more information should allow us to make a better specific recommendation but I do have three general recommendations to anyone going from SD to HD:

The first recommendation I can make is that you should definitely plan on upgrading Vegas 7 to Vegas Pro 11.0. Version 7 was created at the "dawn" of HD and the formats that most cameras shoot today are not likely to be supported by such old software.

As for a general recommendation on HD cameras, I would stick with cameras that shoot industry formats like HDV or AVCHD. Stay far, far away from HD cameras that shoot proprietary formats. Don't be fooled, if is says it shoots AVC/H.264 and doesn't also say AVCHD it could be anything. AVCHD is a subset of AVC/H.264 and my recommendation is make sure you get AVCHD to be sure it will be compatible with Vegas.

Finally, make sure that your computer is at least a Core i7 Quad Core. If you plan on editing HD with an old computer that you edited SD on you will have a lot of problems.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Michael O'Connor] "My computer has been great for vegas so far but it is quite a bit behind what you are suggesting (pentium 4 cpu 3.06Ghz 1gb ram on windows xp pro)."

Yea, I'm afraid you're not going to edit HD with a Pentium 4. After the Pentium 4 came the Core Duo, then the Core 2 Duo, then the Core i Series (i3/i5/i7). So your processor is 4 generations old. It's really time for an upgrade.

You also should be prepared to upgrade to Windows 7 64bit. There aren't many NLE's that work on XP anymore. Vegas Pro 11 doesn't support XP. I'm not sure if version 10 did or not. It sounds like future versions will only support 64-bit.

[Michael O'Connor] "What do you feel is the biggest advantage of upgrading to pro 11?"

Coming from Vegas 7 I couldn't begin to list all of the improvements. The biggest is probably that it can edit AVCHD rather easily on a modern computer and Vegas 7 can't. So it's not a matter of why upgrade, it's a matter of you MUST upgrade if you want to edit AVC/H.264 AVCHD. You can't expect software that is 4 versions old to edit new camcorder formats that didn't even exist back then.

If you want to stay with Vegas 7 and XP Pro you might want to look for an HDV camcorder. That was the popular HD format back in those days and Vegas 7 should be able to edit it easily although it was still tough on a Pentium 4. If I remember correctly, Sony recommended a 2.8GHz Dual Core computer and 2GB of memory as the absolute minimum requirement for HD.

[Michael O'Connor] "And finally is there a problem when you film and edit in mixing HD and SD, or is that something you would never do?"

You can mix them but the SD is going to look noticeably softer as it gets upscaled. There are plug-ins that help with this like Boris FX BCC UpRez but I would avoid it unless it's footage that is already shot and you can't re-shoot it.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Michael O'Connor] "One last question, do you know if there is an upgrade version from 7 to 11 that is less expensive than just buying the version 11 I see advertised at $599?"

Absolutely. As a Vegas 7 owner you can upgrade to Vegas Pro 11.0 for only US$189.95. Here is a link to the Sony's Upgrade page.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

Thanks for the heads up Steve! That's a good savings.

[Michael O'Connor] "Steve I checked out the link and it has it listed at $189 and $199. Is there any other link for the June special at $133?"

Try this, and replace xxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx with your serial number.

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/upgrade/vegaspro?userial=xxx-xxxx-xxxx-...

Sony sends a monthly email newsletter to all registered users - this is where I heard of the upgrade special.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

Thanks for the response. I mostly film corporate videos used at trade shows or for marketing. I have seen some HD cameras for around 2300 - the Panasonic SD camera I have was fairly easy to learn so unless it is very complicated the basics of the camera should be simple. Thanks.