It’s hard to believe another year has gone by. I think 2009 was one of the most challenging years for our industry. The troubled US economy created budget problems for videographers, video editors and producers on every level. In today’s economy every Penney counts and before we invest in new technology, we have to be sure of the benefits.
In 2009 Tapeless camcorders started dominating the landscape, at every level of video production, each with their own unique wrinkles and complexity. The emergence of tapeless HD acquisition formats have thrown a curveball into our post production workflows. In the past all we had to do was capture the footage to our hard drives – via a capture card or Firewire. With Tapeless acquisition we can go straight to editing, no need to waste time capturing, as long as our NLE supports the format we shot the footage in. Make no doubt about it, Tapeless workflows save you time and time equals money. In 2009 we saw many exciting new products and upgrades that made working with both consumer and professional tapeless HD formats easier and more efficient. So as you would expect, these products dominated our 2009 Top 10 List.
On the consumer side the proliferation of AVCHD based camcorders deliver unbelievable HD quality at even more incredible prices. While AVCHD delivers fantastic quality video in a small file sizes, that biggest feature is also our biggest problem. It take a lot of computer horsepower to handle these highly compressed files. While today’s editors can handle basic cutting and dissolves, any more complicated editing with additional effects or layers of video and graphics will bog down even the fastest multi-core computer. Fortunately we saw some very exciting new products introduced in 2009 that make editing AVCHD footage so much easier!
On the professional front we have DVCPro HD, XD CAM, RED and the new DSLRs from Canon and Nikon delivering HD quality video. Each of these formats comes with it’s own special needs, requirements, work arounds and gotchas. Working with any one of these formats is challenging enough. Trying to edit a production with footage from two or more different HD formats makes it even more difficult, but it can be done. Especially with some of the new products and tools introduced this past year.
We love all the new and exciting opportunities these new Tapeless formats and workflows represent. It’s just going to take some time and effort to get to know them better and optimize how we use them. Last year we published one of our most popular articles ever “Videoguys Guide to HD Formats”. It is a great place to start to learn more.
So without further ado, lets jump into our 2009 Top 10 List and start telling you about all the great new tools introduced last year that make your video editing and production more efficient and productive.
Videoguys.com Top 10 of 2009!
1. Matrox MXO2 Mini & MXO2 LE
2. Apple Final Cut Studio 3
3. Avid Media Composer 4
4. Sony Vegas Pro 9
5. CineForm NeoScene
6. Grass Valley EDIUS Neo 2 w/ Booster
7. Pioneer BDR-205 Blu-ray Disc Writer
8. G-Tech G-Raid (4th Generation)
9. Focus FSH-200 Pro / Aja Ki Pro / Convergent Design nanoFlash
10. Matrox CompressHD and MAX Technology
Click hear for the full article and a look at what lies ahead in 2010!