richkolasa wrote:
Hello and thanks for the compliment. Regarding equipment, I use the Sony HDR-FX1 for ground shots and the Sony HDR-HC9 (palm-camera, but Mini-DV tape) for air-to-air. I wasn't too sure how it would do shooting from a BT-13 (nicknamed VIBRATOR)so I kept shots to a minimum, but I got some decent shots just hand-holding. About 3-4 times the duration that's in this video is the total of what I got.
I use the HC9 as well. It's a terrific camera and the last of the HDV tape cameras from Sony unless you go to the professional level. I've had mine for 2 years now and it's given me nothing but stellar video!
richkolasa wrote:
Fluid head? Tripod? That's a thing you have to carry around, right? I use a lot of water and gatorade at shows, that's about as "fluid-head" as I get.

I do have a Manfrotto head, but never bought legs, so everything I do is hand-held. With 2 camera bodies, 5 lenses minimum, and two video cameras to lug around, no tripod for me at this stage.

Wow, no tripod! I'm impressed. You do a great job with that handheld stuff!
richkolasa wrote:
As far as uploading HD, I'll see how I feel in the future. I'm trying to sort out some glitches in Sony Vegas Pro on my PC, so I'm keeping the render time to a minimum since I keep running into jittery transitions and all. Might be time for ANOTHER new computer. Ugh...
I use Sony Vegas Pro as well and it's fantastic! I would suggest joining the Vegas forums to answer any of your questions on your problems. The wealth of information there is truly incredible. I don't know why you have those problems, but from what I've read on the forums is that people typically have issues with AVCHD or HDV when they try to edit those raw files on the timeline of Vegas without undergoing a conversion to an intermediary codec like Cineform. Unless you have a very new, very fast, multi-core CPU computer, editing the raw files on the timeline is not recommended. Also, and I'm sure you know this, but you can't judge your previews by what you see on the preview screen. The transitions WILL be choppy on all but the most newest computers as they can't keep the frame rates up high. The final rendered transitions however, will look normal.