Finally moving to HD. Want to stick with Cannon

[Al Bergstein]

I’m sure there are folks here who deal in your type of video broadcast and I’ll let them answer. From my own point of view here’s my thoughts:

AVCHD is fine for much, I’ll let others comment on that, but I would be worried about naming conventions. I hate working with it, because I constantly have to strip out the MTS files and rename them after every shoot. When I’ve worked with MXF files, it has always been easier, the tools are easier to strip and rename, etc.

There is also the idea of working with mov wrapped files, like on Canon 5Ds, which are much easier to rename as the whole file is contained in the mov file. (MXF and AVCHD have multiple parts to the container) or even the MP4 formats.

Certainly each format has its pros and cons. I would be more concerned about your choice of cameras. While the GL1s and 2s were serious prosumer cameras in the day, the Vixias are consumer grade cameras. The first step into better quality, and what I would consider from Canon is the XA series.

Can you not afford buying Canon XA or XF series?

Al

[Matthew Swager]

To answer your last question we can’t. Money over the last few years has gotten tighter and tighter and as things stand now I’ll have $10k at best to replace my current 14 camera fleet. Now as a school, 10-12 high school, I’ve been looking for grants but they either end up being too small or for items we don’t need.

Also I need to take into account that I’m handing these cameras off to students who might only be in my class for half a year or less. The XF100 would be a great field camera for my advance students but with most of the students being beginners I still need something basic and in bulk they can use that can be a reliable fallback for the advance class.

The formats do make me worry. I was under the impression that I could just plug in a Vixia HF series via USB to a computer and capture through the video program of my choice. Is that not the case or is that not recommended?

SKHS Video Tech
SKHS Video Production

[Al Bergstein]

I totally understand. No you are correct, in that you can use Premiere and take the card (or just import from the camera), and bring the clip in. But my comment is about how there is no way (that I’m aware of) to give unique names to those AVCHD file structures. I use a tool from Canon called Data Import Utility, that does pull the MTS files out and renames them. You don’t get a choice of what to call them, but you do get unique names. However, the actual AVCHD file structure is still the same, and I put copies of original file structure in a separate hard drive as the original media. It’s just frustrating, and not as easy as other formats are. If you don’t do that, and you lose the link inside Premiere to the original AVCHD footage, you end up having to search through file folders that only use the top level folder to id the footage.

So teach them to use the data import facility, rename the MTS files so that it will be easier to find the footage later if needed.

As to quality in your county video channel, it should be just ok. These cameras video often look pretty much like amateur footage, due to auto focus misuse. But given your students, etc. they’ll be fine.

Have you seen the iOgrapher for the ipad? It was developed by a high school teacher that wanted to use ipads for his classes. I bought one and it works really well for the price.

Al

[Matthew Swager]

It just wouldn’t work for us and our workflow. We do too many things like promos, PSAs, news stories, and even short films that I feel there wouldn’t be enough there to supplement the use of a normal camera.

SKHS Video Tech
SKHS Video Production

[Craig Alan]

I used the Canon HV 30/40s for a few years for the cheaper cams in our arsenal. Became a pain when our macs would balk at the firewire in – not seeing the canon at all. Tried one of the new HF Vixia-s and was not a happy camper. I would combine those resources and update your entire workflow. I would consider cameras that use a better codec.

Rather than buying a lot of cheaper cams I would pool that money and buy better ones. Have your students work in teams and take turns as camera operators. Do your really need that many total cams? Are they loaners? The prosumer cams are more robust and the beginner classes would feed the more advanced classes with students gaining experience with the same tool set. Card based cams have less parts that break than tape based. Those little consumer cams will break. And they just don’t work as well in this day and age as the HVs did back then.

Adobe says they are supporting CS6 on the current releases of Windows and Mac OS, but do not have plans to support it on the next releases coming out from Microsoft and Apple… In other words, within less than a year it’s likely that CS6 will not be supported to run on newer operating systems.

I would go with either CC or FCP X not hang on to legacy software from either company. Money being tight I’d go for FCP X which by the way is an easier program for the beginners and will grow with the advanced students.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.