[Micah Mcdowell]

Nope, won’t work.

You need to use an HDV camera to digitize that (preferably another Canon, but other HDV cameras/decks should work as well).

[Micah Mcdowell]

I’ve always used Keepvid.com to grab Youtube videos…

Of course, make sure that the video gives the rights to freely download and use it without copyright restrictions.

[Micah Mcdowell]

You may be noticing rolling shutter artifacts… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_shutter

This is a problem with all the video DSLRs as far as I know. They can give great results when locked down on a tripod, but with fast uneven motion (like the aerial and hand-held shots you mentioned) it can make it add a wobbling or distorted effect that could appear “choppy”. It’s not to say that you can’t get great results out of these cameras, but you have to be cautious and know the limitations.

Of course, you may have a different issue, but this is a possibility.

[Micah Mcdowell]

Considering how cheap old S-VHS decks are now, I’d probably pick up some more used ones rather than try and repair. This is probably not what you wanted to hear, but from experience, any parts you might need would likely cost more than those decks are worth.

[Micah Mcdowell]

If your computer has a Firewire port already, you might want to consider the Canopus (Grass Valley) ADVC-55 (or ADVC-110 if you need to lay video back off to analog Betacam or for monitoring). They do the same thing as that card and are a bit cheaper and don’t require installation into your machine.

That being said, those are somewhat cheap solutions and will be compressed to DV, so the quality won’t be stellar, but it’ll be fine for hobby use.

[Micah Mcdowell]

Good point… I do paying work infrequently on this system, so no matter what I do it’ll take a while for me to make back the investment.

I’m an avid eBay user and have been watching for deals on a system. However, the refurbs from Apple are surprisingly cheap so I’ll probably go that route. One benefit of getting out of my current system ASAP is that G5s still have a surprisingly high resale value, and mine’s among the last of the breed. So, that would drop my total investment in a new MBP significantly. Regardless of what I do, I sure won’t be looking back. Thanks for your advice!

[Micah Mcdowell]

I never used a capture card… I’ve always captured via Firewire and monitored through a DV deck hooked to a Sony BVM. If I do need to do HD monitoring for broadcast, I will definitely look into one of the AJA solutions plus a shiny new Flanders Scientific monitor. I don’t anticipate needing this immediately though.

[Micah Mcdowell]

Thanks, that’s exactly the type of info I wanted to hear.

I would prefer this system to be mobile. It will be my home system for projects on the weekends, not my work system (anticipating having new Mac Pros in the department one of these days).

I started thinking about an upgrade probably 6 months ago, figuring that there’d be a new MBP after the holidays. My G5 has had some issues (replaced the Superdrive) since then, and it’s not getting younger. If it wasn’t a G5 I’d probably keep it even longer, but there’s so much Intel-specific stuff now (FCS3, Snow Leopard, even Netflix). I’ll try to hang on another month or two and save up but after that, I’m buying whatever they have.

[Micah Mcdowell]

Mmm, iBurger…

Seriously though, the iPad looks to be a sleek, powerful, well-executed, er.. oversized iPod touch. I’ll have to wait and see what uses it may have.

The announcement that would really make my day would be a 15″ quad-core Macbook Pro with eSATA, so I could finally ditch my trusty G5 desktop; maybe someday…

[Micah Mcdowell]

Well, as already mentioned, you’ll need to choose from one of several 35mm DOF adapters depending on how much you want to spend (Letus, Brevis, Redrock are some names you should check out). Generally, you will get what you pay for.

In addition to the adapter, you need your actual lenses. If you’re on a budget, Nikon or Canon 35mm SLR still camera lenses are very popular. You’ll probably want a set of primes in different focal lengths, since zoom lenses are usually slower (use more light) and cause other problems with the DOF adapter.

There’s an EXCELLENT article on this subject right here on the COW, that you can read at this link. Check that out to answer any other questions you may have.