Advice needed - editing HD video

[SHABOY]

I am looking to invest in an HD camcorder after many years of recording and editing SD footage of sporting events.

Would my computer be able to handle this? Its specs:

Windows 7
Intel Core i3 2.1 GHz
6 GB RAM
500 GB HDD

Would I still be able to use Premiere Elements 10?

Which HD file type would be easiest to edit? MP4?

Would I be able to export the finished videos as .f4v files without losing any quality?

Roughly what file size would a finished 10 minute video be?

Thanks for any/all advice.

[Hikmet]

Which HD file type would be easiest to edit? MP4?

Lossless AVI. If use Windows, use "CamStudio Lossless Codec". Fast and result file is small.

Roughly what file size would a finished 10 minute video be?

For 720p 200-300 MB, For 1080p 400-500 MB (when encode H264/AVC)

And your system is enough for HD capture...

[SHABOY]

Can you suggest any HD cams that output files in lossless AVI?

Or would I need to convert the files to AVI? (If so, how easy/time consuming is this?)

Cheers.

[julitomg]

Would my computer be able to handle this?

Thanks for any/all advice.

Yes, it should. Some will probably suggest a better CPU because of the longer render times that you´ll probably face working with HD.
I´d strongly suggest adding a second large and fast HDD just for video files.

Would I still be able to use Premiere Elements 10?

You can check your program documentation to find what formats does it accept.

Which HD file type would be easiest to edit? MP4?

MP4 is not very edit-friendly unless your NLE accepts such files natively, even in such case its not a bad idea to transcode to something that will be easier to handle within Premiere, a lossless avi codec would be ok. I´m not familiar with the one suggested before but also you can check lagarith, HuffYUV or UT Video Codec Suite (free) or Cineform´s NeoScene (not free), there are many threads in this site that discuss their use (but the files produced with these codecs will be very large tho)

Can you suggest any HD cams that output files in lossless AVI?
Or would I need to convert the files to AVI? (If so, how easy/time consuming is this?)

I don´t know of any that outputs to it, well maybe higher end like the RED line of digital cinema cameras with their own codec or something like that, but I don´t think that´s what you have in mind.
AVCHD camcorders are popular (even if they output in .mp4, .mov, mts or other containers), decide what features you want/need and how much you´d like to spend. Converting AVCHD to lossless shouldn´t be too difficult or time consuming, again, search and read some threads on the subject.

[Hikmet]

Can you suggest any HD cams that output files in lossless AVI?

Or would I need to convert the files to AVI? (If so, how easy/time consuming is this?)

Cheers.

Adobe premiere can open mp4. But, if only want basic edit your videos, no need conversion. But you need high-end editing, complicate project then: Convert your video to lossless AVI.

If you want color grading/balance, effect vs., then: Convert your video to image sequence (.PNG)

Lossless AVI files very big and usually camcorder not support this formats.