ok so we are thinking of doing something with video but cant get in to much detail yet before we start it. Dont want people stealing my idea before we do it.
But my question is, we are going to be buying an hd camera and there are 2 were are looking at. we did some test video on both and the video is just about as equal. so now it comes down to, tape over hard drive. which one? i dont mind only being able to shoot 60 minutes of hd tape at a time because what we are doing is only going to be 10 minute clips anyways. so we will know that after 4 or 5 clips its time to swap tapes. not a big deal.
now a hard drive would be cool to capture 12-20 hours of hd at a time but what my concern is hd failure. hd's are still new for video and we all know tape has been around forever and is a trusted media.
Any input would be great. If you can help me out today that would be even better so I have some amo to bring to the table later tonight at our meeting.
One other thing to consider is your work flow. Tapes load into your editing computer in real time. Meaning that if you shoot an hour's worth of footage, it will take an hour to load. Disc's will be almost instant.
We use optical discs for our system but they're not cheap.
As a videographer, I would recommend tapes, but not for the reasons that others have mentioned.
MiniDV tapes use a standard compression called DV25 that is very good and compatible with all editing platforms. Most HD cameras, such as Canon's Vixia series, use a compression system called AVCHD. AVCHD is not a standard editing compression. It is a "delivery" system, not an editing system. By that I mean that AVCHD can not be edited frame-by-frame. So if you use a platform like Final Cut, AVCHD will not be supported because it does not conform to industry standards for editing. It is, however, supported by the new version of imovie and Leopard.
So, you should keep your editing workflow in mind when deciding between the two.
gfrasur wrote:
As a videographer, I would recommend tapes, but not for the reasons that others have mentioned.
MiniDV tapes use a standard compression called DV25 that is very good and compatible with all editing platforms. Most HD cameras, such as Canon's Vixia series, use a compression system called AVCHD. AVCHD is not a standard editing compression. It is a "delivery" system, not an editing system. By that I mean that AVCHD can not be edited frame-by-frame. So if you use a platform like Final Cut, AVCHD will not be supported because it does not conform to industry standards for editing. It is, however, supported by the new version of imovie and Leopard.
So, you should keep your editing workflow in mind when deciding between the two.
Wow, this is news to me. I have been shooting with an HF10 AVCHD video camera, and I can edit it either iMovie or Final Cut Express - depending on whether it is family or serious stuff.
But you are correct in that it is important with drive based systems that you consider the editing. I am looking at purchasing a P2 system, but when I do that, I also have to upgrade to Final Cut Pro because Final Cut Express doesn't support P2.
gfrasur wrote:
As a videographer, I would recommend tapes, but not for the reasons that others have mentioned.
MiniDV tapes use a standard compression called DV25 that is very good and compatible with all editing platforms. Most HD cameras, such as Canon's Vixia series, use a compression system called AVCHD. AVCHD is not a standard editing compression. It is a "delivery" system, not an editing system. By that I mean that AVCHD can not be edited frame-by-frame. So if you use a platform like Final Cut, AVCHD will not be supported because it does not conform to industry standards for editing. It is, however, supported by the new version of imovie and Leopard.
So, you should keep your editing workflow in mind when deciding between the two.
mikebrice wrote:
Wow, this is news to me. I have been shooting with an HF10 AVCHD video camera, and I can edit it either iMovie or Final Cut Express - depending on whether it is family or serious stuff.
But you are correct in that it is important with drive based systems that you consider the editing. I am looking at purchasing a P2 system, but when I do that, I also have to upgrade to Final Cut Pro because Final Cut Express doesn't support P2.
You are correct that Final Cut Express supports AVCHD. FCE is a lower-cost alternative and geared toward video hobbyists- the same market as the HF10. AVCHD is not supported by Final Cut Pro.
Personally, I don't think AVCHD is good enough for professional video. The compression can be nasty at times, since it doesn't handle the footage frame-by-frame, but rather in groups of frames. But I do a lot of video work and probably have more nit-picky standards of image quality.
Get a RED cam! Panasonic makes some AMAZING HD cams right now, if you can afford the HD then jump on it, the digitization time is money and I really hate tapes anyway, the only good they are really for is for backups, but its still magnetic so not so archival.
