Fast Help Finding Perfect Camcorder (Pan SD9?)

Okay, this has been an ongoing problem for me for about 3 weeks now.  I have a week left before we start shooting our videos, and need help ASAP.

I’ve been researching camcorders to fit the following specifications:

  • Less than $600 (Prefer around 500)
  • 3CCD
  • Great Picture Quality
  • Editable in Premiere CS4
  • Records to SDHC Memory Cards

This is for a series of youth group videos, and I was thinking of getting 2 when I thought I could spend about $400/ea. but research has been more than confusing, as people generally have so many various views of great cameras, and in certain budgets they compare a $600 camera to an obviously superior $1100 camera.  (Duh, the higher priced camera is going to be better… it’s nearly twice the price!)

I’m not looking for anything TERRIBLY high as all the videos will end up on YouTube and perhaps DVDs to give to the kids after the summer.  I also want something that’s slightly future-proof.

Anything from Panasonic? Canon?

I found the Panasonic HDC-SD9 that seems to fit the specifications, some reviews I’ve found have scared me a little.

Sony uses their own super expensive MemoryStick Pro cards… don’t know if that’s really within budget.

Anyone have some insight?  What would you do?

You can either comment here, or at Videomaker.com, or at Amazon.com

Ordered Adobe Production Premium, Dreamweaver and Fireworks CS4

Adobe CS4Yesterday, I took the plunge and ordered Adobe Creative Suite 4.  The great news is that I got free shipping AND saved $200 on the upgrade for Production Premium.  Hooray for that!

The bad news is the same problem that I had with ordering Fireworks CS4 was duplicated when I tried to order it again.  I had to create a separate order just to get it.  It shouldn’t have worked out this way, but it did.

I put the Production Premium CS4 upgrade into my cart, and followed that up with the Dreamweaver CS4 upgrade.  At that time, it asked me if I was in need of the upgrade of full version of Dreamweaver, to which I obviously answered with the upgrade.

I believe that is the root of the problem.  You see, it sets that option then, for every other individual software, or at least that’s my impression.  I suppose that if you were ordering upgrades for individual programs, it would save you a click or two, but it caused me to pull out my hair.  I would have liked to have an option to click OUT of that for other programs.  It would have made ordering the full version of Fireworks CS4 a breeze.  Instead, I put in my order for the other software (and selected the fastest shipping time available… hey, it’s free!).  Then I proceeded to the Fireworks page, and added the full version to my cart without a problem, submitting a second order.

At least the shipping is free on both.  But still, there’s an oversight that I’m going to report to Adobe at my earliest convenience.

I’m excited to check it all out, though, and to finally have Adobe software that makes use of the computing power that I have.  Now all that I need is Windows 7 64-bit (I’m skipping Vista), and instead of using only 3 GB of RAM, it’ll use all 4.  That’ll be a nice day.  Moving from 32-bit to 64-bit, and from 3 GB of RAM to 4 GB with a single install of what is reportedly Microsoft’s best operating system in years.

CS4 Announcement, Thank You Adobe, Please Help

Adobe has announced the CS4 line of products, and again I feel somewhat slighted.  You see, I am the Chief Creative Officer at my company, and I do it all.  From web design to video editing, my hands are in everything.  I use, regularly, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Premiere, After Effects, OnLocation, Encore and Illustrator.  I’d also like to get my hands on Fireworks.

That’s where the problems begin.

They offer four CS4 bundles, and none of them suit my specific needs/wants.  All of them offer great products, and one offers everything and more (far more than I would ever use), and that’s CS4 Master Collection.

I currently own Adobe CS3 Production Premium, and Adobe Dreamweaver CS3.

So, I’m at a loss when it comes to upgrading.  I was thinking of upgrading Dreamweaver, buying Fireworks, and upgrading to Production Premium CS4.

But when doing a comparison of Adobe Creative Suite 4 editions, you notice something funny at the bottom of the list:  Adobe Version Cue® CS4 is a part of every collection except for CS4 Production Premium.  Why not, Adobe?  It could be fun to give it a shot, and it’s included with every other bundle.  Not to mention the fact that there is no price tag associated with it.  Granted, I would be getting Adobe Dynamic Link with Production Premium, and that’s a really great thing.  But still, what’s up with leaving that one program out of only one bundle?

Another thing that happened, as I was adding things to my cart on Adobe’s website, to see if upgrading to Master Collection was worth doing.  I added the upgrade of Dreamweaver, and then when I went to add Fireworks, it wouldn’t even let me select that I didn’t want an upgrade.  I don’t currently have any previous version of Fireworks, so getting the upgrade wouldn’t work, as the Fireworks upgrade details require me to have Adobe Fireworks CS3, Macromedia® Fireworks 8, or MX 2004, of which I have none.

But there is some good in all of this.

There’s a site that is pretty new (only a few weeks old), which gained the attention of Adobe within 24 hours of its’ launch. That website is Dear Adobe. There, you can agree with, disagree with and post your own gripes about all of Adobe’s products.  You can also mark certain gripes as inaccurate.  Adobe got in touch with the site’s owner, and quickly began working with him to devise a way for him to package the gripes in a way that Adobe can use them.

So there is hope that the most popular of the gripes will be addressed in the future, and we have a voice that we can use to help Adobe to better meet our needs.  Today, they’ve responded to the top 25 After Effects gripes!

CS4 is really impressive, though.

I am thoroughly impressed with the CS4 line, so far, and can’t wait to get my hands on the software.  I’m really hoping that the improvements to the software really do help with performance.  I’m also looking forward to the new CSS features in Dreamweaver.

One thing that I would love to see in Dreamweaver’s code view in the future is something that Textmate has (I’ve only seen it second hand, I’m on a PC).  The ability to highlight code in columns and rows, without highlighting everything in each row.  Then, when typing, it types the same thing in every line that was highlighted.  That would save a lot more time when working with code.

Either way, though, the code finder stuff in Dreamweaver CS4 is going to be very fun to use.

I’m looking forward to it.