Sony HVR-A1P with Premiere Elements

[UKPal]

My employers have their eye on the HVR-A1P by Sony for use with Premiere Elements 7. The camera records to mini-DV and has a firewire connection so I don't anticipate any issues but just thought I'd ask (being that I don't want to be held responsible if anything goes wrong!) if anyone has had any negative experiences with the proposed camera/editing software setup?

Any responses will be gratefully received.

[Steve Grisetti]

I haven't had any experience with it directly, but if it's a miniDV it should work just fine. (It's, of course, an HDV camcorder.)

Here's a discussion of it.
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7594_102-0. ... ID=1996886

And the specs look great!

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

I have this camera and have had no trouble at all using it for SD with PrElv2 (down convert in camera) and PPro CS3 for HD.

It is a really neat package as, when I use it for 'personal' stuff like holidays etc., I can de-mount the XLR inputs which makes it almost a different camera, certainly smaller still.

Photos are shot at 1920 x 1080. You will need to replace the standard supplied memory stick as it is a measly 16Mb so won't hold many pics.

On the 'low light noise' point, the Neat Video plug in takes care of that quite well.

Have a look here for reviews:

http://www.dv.com/reviews/reviews_item. ... =188700830
http://www.dvuser.co.uk/content.php?CID=34

[UKPal]

Thanks Steve. Thanks John.

[jackfalbey]

It really depends on your needs, determined by what kind of videos you'll be producing and how they will be viewed. The HVR-A1P is a single-chip camcorder using the same imaging system as the HDR-HC1, which is fine for standard video, internal use, or web video. If your videos will be professionally-produced for broadcast or HD display, you should consider a 3-chip camera like the HVR-V1P, HDR-FX7 or HDR-FX1000.

Recording with 3 chips vs. 1 means that the light is split into individual RGB streams before recording, preserving more accuracy in the colors making editing easier, and allowing you to shoot in lower-light situations without boosting gain, which introduces noise into the image. The Neat Video plug-in does a very good job of cleaning up noisy video, but it's always better not to have any noise in the first place.

Of course, there's also the issue of whether you need XLR mic inputs for your intended usage.

[UKPal]

Thanks for the info Jack - I'll pass it on.

Personally, I just need to know its footage is editable in PreEl7! That's my entire role in this purchase

[jackfalbey]

Assuming the PC is sufficiently new and capable of handling the strain of editing HDV (multi-core CPU, lots of RAM, big fast hard drives), then yes you can edit the A1P's footage with PE7.

[UKPal]

Hi again Jack, I'll (we'll) be using the HDV --> DV feature for the far future!

[jackfalbey]

If your end-product is going to be DV "for the far future" then the A1 is really not the best choice for you. It's a good entry-level prosumer HD cam, but there are better prosumer DV cams out there around the same price point, and if you don't anticipate the need for HD capability for a while, you'd be better off to wait and buy a much better HD cam in a few years as the technology will cost less.

I'd recommend looking at the Sony DSR-PD170P or its cousin the DCR-VX2100E; as far as image quality goes, they're the kings of the prosumer DV cam market, and excellent for documentary filmmaking. A very close competitor would be the Panasonic DVX102, if you can find one, although it's more suited for indie filmmaking. Further down the price & quality spectrum would be the Canon DM-XM2 which is still a good DV cam but not as good as the Sonys or the Panasonic.

And to answer your original question:
If you're going to be editing in DV then any version of Premiere Elements will be able to handle it just fine.

[UKPal]

Thanks Jack.