Digital Video and Editing

[Darth Biscuit]

My oldest son (13) is wanting to get into doing some video recording and editing stuff... He's been working with what he has, which is a digital camera with video capability and some basic windows software (Windows Movie Maker, I think)... needless to say, he can't do much with that.

Anyway, I'd like to get him some better equipment and software, but without breaking the bank. Any ideas on a decent low-end video cam and software?

[TerriblePizza]

For photo editing, I use GIMP. Its an open source alternative to Photoshop and it works pretty well. I don't know any movie editing, so I have no idea.

www.gimp.org/

[cookinwithgas]

Photo editor - Paint.net

http://getpaint.net

[phidelt649]

If he is going to end up doing it professionally, get an older version of something like Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere. He doesn't need the most up-to-date version (for instance, get him Premiere CS2 instead of CS4) that way he can learn the basics and it won't be such a shock going into it.

If he is wanting to do animation (ie, 3d rendering) I would get him a copy of Maya.

Trust me, don't get some crappy cheap program now because he'll have to completely unlearn everything if he wants to go to school for it. Schools, in my personal experience, rarely use anything other than Vegas or Premiere.

Hope that helps!

[Darth Biscuit]

Thanks PhiDelt... I don't know if this is something he really wants to do forever or just a passing fad, but he seems to be really into it.

[cookinwithgas]

be on the lookout for cell phone porn loops

[Darth Biscuit]

be on the lookout for cell phone porn loops

Huh? In general or from my kid?

[cookinwithgas]

yes

[methodtoll]

Like someone mentioned above, get an older version of premiere or Sony Vegas because really, majority of the stuff that is on the newer version is on the the older versions.

As far as cameras are concerned, I recommend looking into the lower-end HDD cameras (or Hard-Drive) because it is so much better then going through tape after tape or dvd after dvd. I have a JVC Everio MG-130u, which is a lower-end HDD camera and it works great. The only thing is that if you upload a video it will be a .MOD file which you will have to change the extension.

Sony and Canon also make good cameras as well.

and if he really gets into it, get him some conversion lenses later on.

[Darth Biscuit]

Thanks MT... that looks like a neat little camera.

[ItsNotGonnaBeAlright]

Id recomend looking into All-Pro Sound. Don't let the name fool ya, besides selling lots of sound equipment they also sell video equipment. Usually have some good deals there on cameras. Won't do you much good for software though.

B&H is another good catalog source to look into, but they can get a little pricy on some things. Hunting around on their website can turn up a few gems though.

B&H

All-Pro Sound

[mmmbeans]

make sure that if you're buying older software that it is compatible with HD footage if you're buying an HD camera.

[Darth Biscuit]

Thanks for all the info guys... right now he's being a typical 13 year old punk... so no new camera...

I told him he had to straighten out his attitude before I would even think about anything like this... we shall see.

[shinner]

Like someone mentioned above, get an older version of premiere or Sony Vegas because really, majority of the stuff that is on the newer version is on the the older versions.

+1 for Vegas....seems much easier to use than Premiere.

As far as cameras are concerned, I recommend looking into the lower-end HDD cameras (or Hard-Drive) because it is so much better then going through tape after tape or dvd after dvd.

I bought a HD camcorder recently and would have preferred a hard drive or flash model but they all use AVCHD compression which generally requires a Cray supercomputer for editing. The old standard, HDV is much easier to edit so I went with that and bought a Canon HV30. Uses tape which I can get for about $3/each.