Thread: Video Editing

I'm just starting to screw around with adobe photoshop cs3, but they have some good video editing stuff too. What do want to do? How complicated I guess is really the question ...

I guess I want to be able to add music, be able to pan out in various cool fashions. All basic stuff.

It looks like Adobe is the product I'm looking for. Thanks.

Any idea what camcorder I should get?

Originally Posted by soxmuscle

I guess I want to be able to add music, be able to pan out in various cool fashions. All basic stuff.

It looks like Adobe is the product I'm looking for. Thanks.

Any idea what camcorder I should get?

What's your budget like?

Also for simpler editing there are some inexpensive video editting products out there, although some people would just go for the best out there and downloaded the torrent from somewhere.

Free Software Downloads and Software Reviews - Download.com is a very cool site to legally go check out some types of software for free.

Real cool. Thanks.

I'm not entirely sure what my budget would be, but I usually say I get like $500 dollars worth of things (inflated because I have two familes w. divorced parents). So if you had a blank check for up to $500 what video camera would you recommend? Keep in mind, I'd rather save as much of the money as possible.

Hard question to answer. I can answer for how I do things I guess. I'm very much into high def rt now. I'd get nothing less than HD even if I had to buy a gently used unit. As an eBay person I'd look there for something like the Sony Handycam HDR-HC7 or the Canon HV10 off of eBay. These are both out of your price range if you were to buy them new retail someplace like Circuit City, but they are both on eBay under your limit. Again sox, I'm looking at this from my own perspective. I've had great luck on eBay, but I'll spend a few weeks looking at stuff and doing the research then only buy with certain standards in place. If I buy from someone on eBay they must have a feedback rating of 100% with a serious part of that from buyers and I won't buy a refurb.

For example this would work for me in your situation, as would this.

Here's a guide to digital camcorders that came from this eBay help page:

Digital camcorders
Digital camcorders offer better color and clarity than analog camcorders and most can produce studio-quality video with 500 lines of resolution. With the digital video (DV) format, it's easy to transfer video to your computer and your editing is a snap. Look at different parts of your video, select scenes, choose precise edit points, and add special effects without forwarding or rewinding tape. When choosing a digital camcorder, consider the following formats.

• Digital8: Digital8 camcorders record to Hi8 tapes, digitally encoding the audio and video, and will also play back analog Hi8 tapes. Along with recording high-quality digital video, most have a still photo feature and also allow you to make small video clips for the Internet.
• MiniDV: For superior picture quality in a small package, consider the MiniDV format. You'll get better lenses and more effects with MiniDV than with Digital8. Also, you may even be able to shoot still photos and create smaller, compressed video clips to post online.
• High-Definition Video (HDV): High-definition camcorders record to MiniDV tapes and deliver 1080i resolution for sharp, clear video that looks great on your 1080i-capable HDTV. To edit high-definition video, make sure your computer has a fast processor and plenty of memory that meets, or exceeds, the minimum recommendations for your video-editing software. If your camcorder does not come with bundled video-editing software, look for packages that support high-definition video editing like Final Cut Pro HD or Pinnacle Studio.
• Advanced Video Code high-definition (AVCHD): AVCHD camcorders record compressed high-definition video to DVD, a hard disk drive, or memory cards. Some DVDs may only play back on a Blu-Ray/DVD player.
• DVDVD camcorders allow you to record video directly to a DVD-R or a DVD-RW. Once you finalize the disc, you can then play it back on your computer or DVD player. Because your videos go straight to DVD, they won't degrade over time, as can happen with taped images. If you want to record in DVD-VR mode, which makes it easier to add titles and reorder segments, record to DVD-RW discs.
• MicroMV: Ultraportable MicroMV camcorders are some of the smallest on the market. MicroMV compresses video more than MiniDV camcorders and although some video-editing software can handle the format immediately, you often need to convert it to another format before editing the video on your computer.Analog camcorders

Mac has iDVD and iMovie but I've never used them and I'm not 100% sure what they can do. I've used these programs though:

Video Editing:

Adobe Premiere
Final Cut Pro
Avid

Effects:

Adobe After Effects

----------
Hope this helps

Movie Maker is free with XP and is just as good as imovie. The end result will be a wmv file but there's tons of programs that encode that to whatever format you need including mpeg2.

That's for free.


On the pay side(reasonable priced):
VideoStudio
Sony Vegas
Pinnacle
Premiere
PowerDirector

are all popular choices.

On the Linux side...Cinelerra is the one to get. Cinelerra is built into a bunch of Live CD that you could try it out immediately - no cost other than a download: Cinelerra :: a video editor and compositor for Linux

for cameras....if you don't plan to edit...DVD cams are a good choice.

If you're editing, miniDV is still your best bet (make sure your pc supports firewire).

Camcorders with hard drives aren't quite there yet because the video format is rather compressed for editing purposes.