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Best shooting mode for everyday use
I just purchased a Sony AX2000 AVCHD camera and was just wondering what the best shooting mode would be for every day use. At this point I’m not planning on making any HD Blueray DVD’s of my grandson’s birthday or soccer games. I just want to minimize the hassle when editing, rendering, etc. I’m running Vegas 7 on an older PC but have purchased a better one to eventually move my projects to. At that time I’ll attempt the HD.
Appreciate any advise you can give.
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5 Replies
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This is really your call. If your PC can’t handle HD then you could always shoot SD MPEG2 if the camera does that. It seems silly to buy an HD camera and not use HD but I understand you need to upgrade your PC and probably Vegas because 7 is not going to handle AVCHD very well.
Personally I would have purchased an HDV camera. While they do use tape, they allow you to shoot HD and downconvert to DV Widescreen if that’s what you want to edit AND you always have the option of going back and capturing the same tape as HD later on.
Along those lines, you might want to shoot AVCHD and convert everything to DV Widescreen using VASST GearShift. That should give you a smooth editing experience in DV now and the ability to go back to editing HD later if you want. It’s the best of both worlds for people with older computers and older versions of Vegas.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Thanks for the quick feedback.
It does shoot in SD MPEG 2. When you say Vegas7 may not handle AVCHD that well, what exactly do you mean? What problems would I experience?
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[Mac McGinnis] ” When you say Vegas7 may not handle AVCHD that well, what exactly do you mean? What problems would I experience?”
Vegas 7 was created before AVCHD became popular. In fact Vegas 7 cannot edit AVCHD unless you have the 7.0e update. The popular HD format in Vegas 7’s time was HDV. Sony improved support for AVCHD with Vegas 8, then again with 9, and again with 10. So you are using software technology that is 3 versions old with a camera format that didn’t exist when Vegas 7 first came out.
The problems you might encounter is choppy/stuttery playback to the point where it may be difficult to edit. Also the Sony AVC encoder in Vegas 7 has been improved over the years so rendered files may not have the quality or speed of rendering that they would today. In general, it should work, but as I said Vegas 7 didn’t even support AVCHD until the 7.0e update so it is Sony’s first attempt at supporting this format.
You may want to seriously consider updating your Vegas software if you plan to work with AVCHD.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Again, Thanks for all your help John.
One final question and I’ll leave you alone. Is the best option at this point to upgrade to Pro 10 or are there other possible less expensive options?
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[Mac McGinnis] ” Is the best option at this point to upgrade to Pro 10 or are there other possible less expensive options?”
I would upgrade to Pro 10. It handles AVCHD better than any other version and you can get it for $139.95 USD until Nov 30th. It doesn’t get much better than that.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com
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