I recently purchased a Canon HF S100... my first HD camcorder. I'm somewhat familiar with VMS 8 Platinum, having used it quite a bit for editing Hi8 concert shoots from my Canon L2, after digitizing with my Canopus ADVC 110. Have had great results with VERY basic editing.

A couple of questions please:

I am in NO hurry at the moment to begin using my new camcorder and know that in all liklihood, VMS 10 is probably getting close. Any suggestions as to buying VMS 9 Platinum now, or wait a bit to see it 10 gets released soon? Hate to spend the $100 now and then find that in a few weeks 9 will be outdated!

I love shooting live concerts locally for bands I know. My Canon L2 has done well overall for this purpose, including use on YouTube. Resolution is obviously a handicap as compared to the HD and even SD digital camcorders. Question... knowing that to make and distribute copies of the concert shoots to the bands/friends that I will probably need to do that on SD DVD's.... in converting from HD to SD is there any video degradation as compared to if I had simply used a SD digital camcorder to begin with?

Haven't even used my Canon HF S100 and if there would be degredation in converting to SD DVDs as compared to SD throughout the shooting>editing process, like for instance having a Canon GL1 or GL2, was wondering if that might have been preferrable?

Thanks!

Curt