My Summer Project Video Experiment

After having done all the research about video, now it's time to play with video. I'm going to make a movie using several different cameras and several different video editing software packages. I will experiment with the different output options in the various packages, and I will upload my movie to several different online video sharing sites. Then I'll share what I like and disliked right here. So let's get started.

Video Cameras

• Panasonic HDC-SD5 HD Camera ($500)
• Panasonic PV-GS300 Mini DV Camera ($400)
• SVC PacketCam305 ($125) PHOTO -------------->
• Nikon CoolPix L3 Digital Camera ($150)
• Flip Mino ($150)
• Blackberry Pearl 8130 ($200)

The SVC PacketCam (pictured) is a cheap piece of crap camera, but for some reason I like it. What ever you do, don't buy it. That is if you can even find one. I couldn't even find a website about the dang thing.

Shooting Video

• Panasonic HDC-SD5 - This is a full HD camcorder that shoots on SDHC cards. Those are just fancy Secure Digital cards. I have a 4GB and an 8GB card for this camera. It shoots in 1920x1080 HD in the AVCHD file format. The AVCHD file format is a nightmare right now. More on that later. But the video from this camera is beautiful on my 50" Plasma HD television. I love this camera.
• So I shot some footage a few weeks ago while at Hawley Lake in the White Mountains, AZ. I'll use that footage for this experiment. Shot outdoors on a sunny day. I don't think I have many options for editing this footage on my PC unless I fork over the dough for one of the upgraded commercial packages I listed. Most of the trial packages don't provide support for AVCHD files. I'll start with my MacBookPro. Read more about this on my blog (Summer Project Video Experiment: HD Video on Mac (Part 1)).
• Panasonic PV-GS300 - I love this camera too. It shoots on min DV tapes and is a 3 CCD camcorder with optical image stabilization (OIS). I'm going to use this camcorder to shoot video of me talking about all of these cameras. Indoor footage. I should be able to test this video with all the test editing packages. We'll see. Read more on the blog (coming soon).
• Flip Mino - I just got this camera two days ago and already I love it. It's so small I can take it everywhere. It's even smaller than my digital camera and definitely lighter. The video quality is pretty good too. I blogged about this camera and my first experiences with it on my blog---> Playing with a Flip Mino Video Recorder.

Editing video

• Editing video in Windows Movie Maker 
• Editing video in