semi OT: Vegas and Canon VIXIA HF100

kraz wrote on 8/22/2008, 2:33 AM

Something very interesting in happening. If you read reviews on the Canon VIXIA HF100 (Amazon NewEgg etc.) The word Vegas is showing up regularly. It is so interesting. Much more than Adobe. Everyone is talking about editing HF100 on Vegas good for us !!!! - I would not be surprised if many people who buy the Camera get Vegas.

Now - (and I bought this up in an earlier post- but I was just given a gift of about 70% of the cost of the camera so maybe it is more real now )

I am quite interested in getting this unit -but still nervous about editing etc. (have copied all the advice on this and other lists)

1. I keep reading how strong the PC needs to be to edit it - is a dualcoreduo (4mb cache) from about 2 years ago acceptable? I have 4GB (Mem)?

2. I assume that over time the software (and hopefully Vegas too) will make editing with this SW easier - the question is does some of the problem lay with the HW itself in the cameras (and the AVCHD implementation) - in other words - do I need for the compression technology to get better - or just for the PC SW to catch up. SW can always upgrade the Camera itself I am stuck with - is it too early technologically?

3. BTW I now have Vegas 7 - is there any was I can edit on 7 or I need to upgrade?

What do you say? Jump now ? wait? it looks so cool but don't want to be a fool.

Allen

Comments

Cheno wrote on 8/22/2008, 11:16 AM

I've got an HF100 and for the price point, I'm blown away. The footage is VERY, VERY close in comparison with the HV20/30 which we intercut with XL H1s and XH A1s all the time. Only upon very close inspection (300 times blow up) will you see some of the edging issues that will in reality only plague VFX guys but in general, won't matter to most others shooting, especially for corporate / docu work.

The .mts files are not read in Vegas 7. You will need to upgrade to Vegas 8 in order to play back the files natively on the timeline. If you're using Cineform to convert, Vegas 7 will read the intermediary files with no problem. We're also taking these HF100 files into Final Cut and converting to ProRes and they look absolutely beautiful.

As for horsepower on the machine. I'm on a Mac Pro 2.66ghz machine with 4 gigs of RAM - I'm getting in Preview mode on 24p timelines, up to 20 fps for playback. Not as bad as I was expecting. Any fx or color correction though will drop that down though as it will with HDV footage.

Overall, I'm very happy and impressed with this little cam. If you've not yet shot with an HVX200 / EX1 / AVCHD cam yet, the opportunity to just drag and drop files over as opposed to capturing tape is a dream.

cheno

Aje wrote on 8/22/2008, 2:22 PM

I have made some editing with HF100 (PAL) AVCHD files in Vegas 8b.
There is no problem with scenes under 2 GB.
If i shoot more than 2GB in one scene HF100 makes a new file
due to the FAT 32 format of my 16GB HCSD card.
I´ve tried to format NTSF but HF100 will not accept that.
The first 2GB file is no problem for Vegas but when I load the second and third file in a 40 min take I get the wellknown red frames
issue and vegas crashes.
I got the HF 100 to be able to shoot up to 2 hours in one take - so this is very frustrating.
I hope the new dll file can solve this problem whenever it comes.
In the meantime I´ve got the AVCHD Upshift and it workes but I don´t understand why the Low speed/high quality setting is faster than
the High speed/low quality setting when converting.
Anyhow its a great camcorder when it comes to picture quality.
/Aje

kraz wrote on 8/25/2008, 4:40 AM

thanks for your input guys.

man .. so I need to add to the price the upgrade cost to version 8
any other (free) utility I can use that will let me convert the raw and then use with Vegas 7?

So can I be confident that the "raw" data produced by this camera that I will keep on my PC till all SW issues are improved over the next years .. has really good quality?

Wolfgang S. wrote on 8/25/2008, 6:08 AM

Aje,

try the software, that is included with the camcorder. PAL-user reports, that this software merges the 2 GB pieces to a larg file, and that can be edited in Vegas 8b without crashes/red frames.

To copy the files from the SDHC card with a card reader is possible, but seems to work fine for smaller files only.

Laurence wrote on 8/25/2008, 9:24 AM

>in the meantime I´ve got the AVCHD Upshift and it workes but I don´t understand why the Low speed/high quality setting is faster than

Does AVCHD Upshift downrez the clips from 1920x1080 to 1440x1080 or does it leave them at full 1920x1080 resolution?

UlfLaursen wrote on 8/25/2008, 1:35 PM

To copy the files from the SDHC card with a card reader is possible, but seems to work fine for smaller files only.

Hi Wolfgang

What do you mean by this? Is it not possible to copy larger files when the card is not inside the camera, and if so, why should that be?

Thanks.

/Ulf

Wolfgang S. wrote on 8/25/2008, 1:59 PM

If you make longer movies, the files will be separted to 2 GB pieces. Yes, you can copy those files using a card reader. But then you will see a lot of artefacts in the footage (blocking) - at least user have reported that.

So, what you should do is to merge the 2 GB pieces to one large file - with the pixela software delivered with the HF100.

Aje wrote on 8/25/2008, 3:33 PM

To Laurence
Vegas file properties says that the original MTS file and the upshifted m2t file are both 1920x1080 but also says that they are both 25 fps INTERLACED though I shot in 25p cinema.
I thought interlaced always is 50i - but I´m not that technical.

To Wolfgang S
I will try the pixela software and see what it can do.
It would be nice to find a Canon HF10/100 forum - anyone who knows?
/Aje

Laurence wrote on 8/25/2008, 6:02 PM

lots of progressive stuff is flagged as interlaced. It really doesn't make a difference in how it looks.

So it is 1920x1080. That is good news for anyone using this camera!