[Stephen Crye]

I must respectfully disagree.

Each of the cameras I have tested has a different problem. Each of the cams I have tried came close to meeting my needs, but each one had a different defect – the fact that one camera met my specs in one aspect, but then fell down in another, is an indication that it is possible to build a cam without that particular defect.

Also, keep in mind that my standard of comparison is a $1200.00 Sony HDR-CX550V consumer cam. It does not have problems with vignetting at full zoom, nor does it have noisy zoom servos, cheap rattly buttons, inconsistent focus at the frame edges. Surely asking for a camera with it’s level of quality but also some pro features such as fully manual adjustments is reasonable?

The Sony NX5U was WAAAY better built than the Panny AC-160. Beautiful, solid construction. Quality buttons and switches. Silky-smooth, quiet rings. No vignetting at full zoom. Wisper-quiet variable zoom. But it had a too-small LCD (and it was not TruBlack), no dual SDXC and the resolution was not as good as the CX550V. Also it is too old, (2009 engineering) and it lacks AVCHD 2.0 (like the Panny AC-160 or the Sony NX70)

No $40K camera will be light enough for my purposes. Besides, no camera at ANY price right now (that have not tested) meets my specs on paper. The AC160 had all the features I need, at a price I can afford … but I refuse to live with vignetting, poor build quality and noisy zoom servos!

So far, the cam that came closest was the NX70 … if it just had as good image quality as the little old CX550V – a cam costing 1/3 as much – I would have been willing to live with some of the minor annoyances like the worse purple fringing or the crappier Active Steady Shot.

I have discussed the return thing with B&H and they are cool with it. I pay for the return shipping, I use the cameras very gently for only a day or two. (Not counting the debacle with the NX70, and they were most gracious about that after I engaged Sony to help.)

For the record, here is what I am looking for:

* Can’t be larger or weigh more than an NX5
* At least 14x effective zoom (the NX70 and CX550V meet this in Active Steady Shot mode)
* Uses SDXC cards
* AVCHD 2.0 (i.e. 1080 60p)
* Image Quality must not be worse than $1200.00 CX550V consumer cam. This includes coma, CA, vignetting, fringing and low-light noise
* minimum 3.2″ LCD
* LCD and EVF simultaneous operation
* Zoom servos must not be noisier than CX550V
* Build quality no worse than CX550V
* Fully Manual controls (will accept selectable function for rings)
* Vari-zoom on the handle would be nice

If Sony would just release an upgraded NX5 with 1000 TV lines of res, a 3.5″ viewfinder and AVCHD 2.0 I would buy it right away!

So there!

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM, nVidia FX 570, Vegas 10e (and 11) x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Paul, I have searched for this setting now for a solid 1/2 hour and can’t find it. Not sure what “internal prefs” are. The only Preferences menu I have is the one at the bottom of Options:

None of the tabs has anything like “show unquantized events”.

Help …

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM, nVidia FX 570, Vegas 10e (and 11) x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

You are very welcome!

The AC160 that I ordered came with the Barry Green book, has a lot of good info.

One easy way to get sharp, noise-free video is shoot with plenty of light. Daylight, or bright indoor light while you are learning to use the cam is probably best.

Have you applied the AVCHD 2.0 firmware upgrade?

https://eww.pass.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/support/cs/csregistp2m/ep2main/soft/upgac160_e.htm

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM, nVidia FX 570, Vegas 10e (and 11) x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Hey Mikhail … I’ve been hearing about the Lagarith Codec, would like to try it, particularly since Huffy seems to not be actively supported any longer.

Questions:

* Is Lagarith lossless? (I need lossless because I do a lot of intermediate processing and quality suffers at the end of the pipeline if there is any loss)
*Do you know if there is a 64-bit version that can be installed so that it appears as a Vegas render option? Links to the latest version?

I am a bit confused by what you said about uncompressed 1080 50p (for me it is 60p) having too high a bit rate. Sure, if I just try to play them back, VLC is choppy. But when I drop them into the timeline and then render, everything is fine … what am I missing here?

Thanks,

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM, nVidia FX 570, Vegas 10e (and 11) x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Hi Thayalan;

Videography and editing can be great fun, but there is a steep and long learning curve. Don’t be discouraged, read, study and practice!

Wikipedia has a lot of great info. Combine it with Google Translate if needed and you will learn a lot.

I saw in a previous post you use a Panny AC160; that cam uses the AVCHD codec, (AVCHD 2.0 if you have applied the firmware update). You might want to start here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD

Vegas is not going to be able to do a lot of improvement if your source footage has problems. That having been said you can fix a lot of things related to color balance, levels, etc.

Don’t expect overnight enlightenment, most of us have spent years at this and are still learning!

https://vasst.com/home.aspx

https://www.jazzythedog.com/testing/DNxHD/HD-Guide.aspx

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM, nVidia FX 570, Vegas 10e (and 11) x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Hi Rasmus;

Some suggestions to make better use of this forum and help us assist you:

* One problem per post
* Include details such as Vegas version and build, the rendering template you are trying to use, etc.
* Screen shots of the problem can be helpful.

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM, nVidia FX 570, Vegas 10e (and 11) x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Thanks Steve … but I had Quantize on the entire time prior to noticing the Kiss of Fade Death. Somehow the process of ctrl-drag to squeeze the event early in the timeline made that event get out of synch with the frame markers in the project, even though Quantize was on. I had to turn Quantize OFF, then carefully re-position. After than, I could leave Quantize on while kissing.

Oh well, at least I solved part of the mystery! The project is rendering now, 90% done, 30 min to go.

I need sleep … gotta stop foruming!

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM, nVidia FX 570, Vegas 10e (and 11) x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Hi;

Try posting your question in this forum:
https://forums.creativecow.net/panasonicagdvx100

Essentially, you will see objectionable noise at 12 dB or higher gain. Try to shoot with slower shutter – the AC160 has syncro-shutter, so you have a lot of choices. 1/40sec will give you a lot more “light” than 1/60th, for example, but less blur than 1/30th.

FYI I just returned an AC160 for refund … good luck! I found it to be a bit noisier than the Sony NX5, which in turn is noisier than Sony’s that use the Exmor-R chips. But, the Panny has many cool features that lots of people like; it was just not the cam for me. (I’m picky and have specific needs …)

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM, nVidia FX 570, Vegas 10e (and 11) x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Heh … Neal, if Cow does not like self-responding then I am in big trouble!

At the risk of violating Cow standards, I say “self-respond” when you have something to offer … as in this case, you solved your problem, and at the same time I learned something!

I am wondering about something forum-related … what causes the “Solution” green check mark to appear? Did you put that there?

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM, nVidia FX 570, Vegas 10e (and 11) x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Stephen Crye]

Hi;

Ryan, I’m a little confused when you said ” …so it can be opened by Vegas.”

Vegas can open .AVI fine, I use lots of .AVI files. File size is only a problem if you are short on disk. In fact, Vegas likes uncompressed files – editing them is usually faster than editing compressed h.264 or AVCHD files.

Am I missing something?

You are correct in thinking that Vegas works harder when dealing with compressed formats, but this is not a huge worry. If you want to save space, and because you stated you are happy with the quality of the compressed footage, use the compressed versions.

I really, really like the Huffy AVI lossless compression utility. Of course, it will not squeeze things anywhere close to h.264, but it does compress. I work with AVI primarily when I need to use Virtual Dub for decimation, when I need to do time-lapse but don’t want any inter-frame motion blur, as in these projects:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRjzA9IYStc

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM, nVidia FX 570, Vegas 10e (and 11) x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

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