[Douglas Spotted eagle]

There is no source/record monitoring? – i.e. events are placed on the timeline then trimmed/slipped there? This seems a little clunky to me compared to the source/record mentality of other NLEs.

Source/timeline monitoring is more or less a thing of the past. Many editors today don’t trim source footage in the source window at all; they merely drop the footage on the timeline. However, the Vegas preview window can be EITHER source or timeline preview.

A major way I work with other NLEs is to make a selects sequence then use that sequence (loaded into the source monitor) to edit into my main sequence, so that the subclips within that main sequence refer directly to the original clips, rather than any nested sequence. This doesn’t seem possible in Vegas?
Nesting is possible in Vegas. Do your selects cut, save the selects in a veg file, then drop that veg file on a new Vegas timeline, if that’s how you want to work. However, this isn’t the fastest workflow in Vegas, IMO.

Is there any way of assymetric trimming? i.e. often times I want to pull the sync earlier on A1 while removing frames from the in on the video track – and to keep sync further down the timeline I would be removing frames from the filler after the music on tracks 7/8. This is cumbersome, but usable on the Avid and downright messy on FCP –

Sounds like you’re describing J and L cuts? Very easy, and one button-doable in Vegas 4-8. Or, you can disable event grouping, and do a slip edit between two files if that’s how you’d prefer to work. Hold ALT with the cursor at a cut point to perform a slip edit.

Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST

Certified Sony Vegas Trainer
Aerial Camera/Instructor

[Douglas Spotted eagle]

The interlacing is there during capture, and in your capture window.
If the camera is interlaced, then it’s going to be interlaced on capture. If it’s progressive in the camera, it’s progressive on capture.
Capture is nothing more than transferring data from the linear hard drive (tape) to the non-linear disk hard drive.

Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST

Certified Sony Vegas Trainer
Aerial Camera/Instructor

[Douglas Spotted eagle]

For Vegas on its own, it doesn’t matter whether you run home or Pro, but if you’re going to network, Home is a PITA, which makes network rendering less than easy to set up.

Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST

Certified Sony Vegas Trainer
Aerial Camera/Instructor

[Douglas Spotted eagle]

I’v had the A1 as high as 16,000 feet before, which isn’t as high as these guys are going. They cannot use any sort of HDD-based recording system due to altitude.
The A1 performs very well at high speeds/high altitudes.
Expect to see a lot more Xtreme footage from various sources.
As an example, all of Travis Pastrana’s new “Thrillbillies” is HD, with HDV used for the parachute-less skydive that Travis did.

Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST

Certified Sony Vegas Trainer
Aerial Camera/Instructor

[Douglas Spotted eagle]

Very cool, lance! I saw some of this as it was being worked, and the audio alone is pretty intense in places.

Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST
Aerial Camera/Instructor
Certified Sony Vegas Trainer

[Douglas Spotted eagle]

Open widescreen project.
Set PAR to 1.212.
Done.

Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST
Aerial Camera/Instructor
Certified Sony Vegas Trainer

[Douglas Spotted eagle]

With limited exception (Canon palmcorders with 24p), Vegas doesn’t care if the camera is Canon, JVC, Sony, Grass Valley, whatever….excepting Panasonic DVCProHD. Even then, there are plug-ins/third party tools.
If it’s a digital camera in virtually any format, Vegas will work with it.

Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST
Aerial Camera/Instructor
Certified Sony Vegas Trainer

[Douglas Spotted eagle]

If you have to deal with low light and like 24p, then the Canon A1 is a no-brainer, IMO. The V1 has -some- advantages, but in low light, the Canon is slightly better.

Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST
Aerial Camera/Instructor
Certified Sony Vegas Trainer

[Douglas Spotted eagle]

Yes, you can produce wonderful pieces of work with Vegas, many people do it every day, content from Vegas is broadcast and/or distributed on DVD every day.
Depending on what you’re doing, Vegas is equal to and/or superior to FCP or Premiere. These apps also have their strong points over Vegas. Frankly, all the NLE’s today are great, and it boils down to the very question you’ve asked; “What app do you know?”

As far as training, there is this website, Ed Troxel’s newsletters, and VASST.

Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST
Aerial Camera/Instructor
Certified Sony Vegas Trainer

[Douglas Spotted eagle]

http://www.dvfilm.com
Download the Raylight product. I believe there is a demo still.
That will decode your DVCProHD file for you.

Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST
Aerial Camera/Instructor
Certified Sony Vegas Trainer