Need to purchase a camera. So far I'm leaning towards the Canon VIXIA

[Matt_@_CPS]

Hello all,

Super-newb here so bare with me. The company I work for has expressed an interest in recording informational videos, which is cool because video editing is something I've wanted to get into for personal reasons and this is a great opportunity to learn it all. Anyway we first need to purchase a camera, and I've been assigned the task to shop for it since I'll be the one recording the videos and applying them to our learning courses.

So far I'm leaning towards the Canon VIXIA HF R20. It seems like a good camera for the price, it has a mic-in stereo jack that we need, and I like that it has the 8gb internal hard drive because I'd like to avoid dealing with SD cards and card readers if possible. It appears you can get 1 hour of fxp recording from that 8gb, which should be enough because the videos we shoot will probably be 20 minutes at most.

I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything. Fxp is probably more quality than we need because these videos will mostly be posted to YouTube and our company website opposed to HDTV viewing, but I figure if we can get it why not. Is there a benefit I'm not aware of/considering in using SD cards besides more capacity/longer recording time?

Also, am I correct in understanding that all recording settings (LP, SP, XP) are in HD as long as it's being shot with an HD camera? The Canon website states that FXP and MXP allow for "full" HD recording at 1920x1080. Does that just mean recording in lesser (like LP, SP) will still be HD, just not full HD resolution?

One last thing, any advice on editing software besides Windows Movie Maker would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Matt

[Baldrick]

I changed the thread title so it better describes your thread. You can also edit it by click on the edit button and go advanced.


Nope, I have no advice. But I have bumped your thread now so maybe someone else can help. .

[Matt_@_CPS]

Ok, thanks. I set the title the way I did because I'm really open to any advice, but at this point I'm mostly concerned with making sure I'm understanding everything correctly as I shop for the camera.

Really, no advice on editing software? I just downloaded Movie Maker because I needed something quick and free to make a video file so I could add audio to a presentation I made on prezi.com.

[ranchhand]

Hello Matt.. welcome to the forum. I have the older version of the camera you are considering, the Vixia HG21. Link:
http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer/camcorders/high_definition_camcorders/vixia_hg21
My camera has a 120gig hard drive which I totally like, with LCD and viewfinder. I really know nothing about a flash drive for a camera so I can't give an informed opinion on that.

If you want other users opinions, read the users' reviews at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-VIXIA-Camcorder-Internal-Memory/product-reviews/B004HW7E7E...owViewpoints=1
I find reviews on items very helpful in making a decision. The 2nd or 3rd post down has an uploaded sample video, and he compares two recordings with a cheaper model. Pretty neat. Note he has produced an informational video and uploaded it, same as you want to do.

As far as my Vixia usage, I have used this camera in-home to produce an insurance video of my house (and keep it locked in my safe deposit box at my bank), outside in the evening having friends over for a barbecue so there were big lighting contrasts with my Malibu lights and the firepit; in Europe (my videos of Venice, Italy at night walking down the narrow, charming streets with all the little shops open and light streaming onto the streets draw "oooohs and Awwwws" from my friends viewing). I did two videos for Pepsico, one simply recording an internal event and one for another internal event, both several minutes long. The second one had several employees acting out a small story for an internal function. Lighting was both outside, inside the main halls, and in individual offices with sound. Both turned out excellent. For the money I paid I am totally happy.
Couple of thoughts: without question you will want the largest battery (get two!) you can order. The battery that will come with the unit will be totally inadequate for commercial work. Second, don't worry about telephoto super-zoom up close features. There is no way you are going to keep the camera steady with no shake. Majority of your footage will be medium distance, probably on a tripod. One thing I notice that I don't like is there is evidently no viewfinder (!) according to the reviews, only an LCD screen. If that doesn't bother you then you are good to go, but I like viewfinders. I notice that it saves to mpeg4 and AVCHD. There are many video editing programs that still do not handle AVCHD smoothly (although things are getting better). Check it out before purchasing an editor package.

For editing, you do not want to bother with Windows Editor for pro work. I use Pinnacle Studio 15 which does well with AVCHD and has one of the easiest user interfaces around. The only thing about Avid Pinnacle Studio is to get their highest version package, it comes with a variety of excellent pre-made transitions, effects, Title screens, and it is super-easy to create your own. One thing I don't like is that if you want more effects you must purchase a "key" to unlock them. I find that annoying. On the flip side, most of those are "gimmicky" stuff that a straight-forward business informative video will not use. Pinnacle has one of the easiest to understand and learn interfaces around. Easy to make splices, cuts, mostly drag & drop into place. There is a really excellent support forum for questions, and lots of experienced users to help you that welcome questions. I can't compare Pinnalce to any other video editors because it is the only one I have used, so get others' inputs before making your decision.

You really will need a seriously powerful desktop computer with a really good video card to run any video editing package you choose; review my computer stats to see what I mean. Trust me, a laptop no matter how powerful will not cut it. I probably haven't answered all your questions, but I hope I at least helped. I am sure others will post in with good suggestions.

[Matt_@_CPS]

Thanks for the welcome. That was great advice. I had read some of the reviews on Canon's website but not on amazon, so thanks for that. I was also curious if it would work with a tripod and it appears from your comment and reviews that it does, so that's good.

I will certainly consider Pinnacle for editing. Sounds like it's a great solution. Like I said I just grabbed the windows guy for a quick, free solution because Prezi.com doesn't allow straight audio files to be added. They must be in .swf or .flv format. :/

[ranchhand]

Well, Pinnacle is one of the more reasonably priced packages, and years ago had a lot of bugs but most of those have been worked out now. The audio will be imported along with your video, and it is registered as a separate editing line under the video, so you can see it and edit it. Another program that is excellent for this is Audacity audio editor (Google it). Several times I have done custom editing of a music track and imported it into Pinnacle for a video I was working on. I am sure others will post in, there are a lot of pros here far more experienced that I am.

[Matt_@_CPS]

Oh yeah, I'm already using audacity for strictly audio. Though I feel like WavePad's interface looks cleaner.