The Basics for Digital HD

M

Madelena

After a year of listening to me blather about wanting to make films again, my boyfriend went out and bought me an embarrassingly expensive camera - a Sony HDR-SR111. (The last time I made films I shot on Super 8mm and cut with my Hervic splicer!)

So, here I am with this beautiful camera and not the faintest idea of how to start. I did some shooting which turned out well, but I haven't done anything with it for fear of compromising my computer, etc.

If anyone wants to help a Newbie, it would be appreciated:

What kind of external hard drive do you recommend?
WHat is a good editing program? (I am familiar with Avid - do I need to go this top of the line in terms of price or are there other good programs? I have a PC which is supposed to work better with Sony, but Avid is Apple-based, yes?)

Any insights or time you have to offer is appreciated.

Thanks!
 
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Keep that boyfriend too!

To try and answer your questions, I have Western Digital external drives. They've worked well for me. But really any top of the line hard drive will work out, and they aren't too expensive anymore.

For the editing software, if you have a Sony computer, you might have a SE version of Adobe Premier Pro. With the SE version, I'm not sure what it's lacking, but you can upgrade it for a lot less than new software (it's still pretty pricy). But if you shoot well and don't need too much post work, you can try whats already on your computer (microsoft Movie Maker) just to get a feel for it.

But like cameras, everyone has their tastes. I've found the best thing to do is just get what you can afford at the time, work with it, and get bigger or better as the time goes on.

Good luck!
 
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cibao said:
Keep that boyfriend too!

To try and answer your questions, I have Western Digital external drives. They've worked well for me. But really any top of the line hard drive will work out, and they aren't too expensive anymore.

For the editing software, if you have a Sony computer, you might have a SE version of Adobe Premier Pro. With the SE version, I'm not sure what it's lacking, but you can upgrade it for a lot less than new software (it's still pretty pricy). But if you shoot well and don't need too much post work, you can try whats already on your computer (microsoft Movie Maker) just to get a feel for it.

But like cameras, everyone has their tastes. I've found the best thing to do is just get what you can afford at the time, work with it, and get bigger or better as the time goes on.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Hi - Thank you for taking the time, Cibao! That's exactly the info I need.

Appreciate it. (And yes, going to keep the boyfriend - :yes:)

Madelena
 
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Fear of compromising your computer? Lost me, explain please. :)

As far as editing software goes, they all can pretty much do the same thing, it just depends on which one you want to use. Don't let people tell you X software is better than X. It's not.
 
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