Canon HF G30 Questions

I just acquired the Canon HF G30. It's my first venture into HD video. There are myriad choices in the menu system. My biggest question is, since I'm probably going to be editing with Sony Vegas Move Studio HD, which format should I choose? AVCHD or MP4? 1080i or 1080p?

What brand of SD card should I get? It didn't come with one.

If you have any other recommendations, hit me. I'm probably going to do some YouTube videos. It may get used to create a new online video course for one of my side businesses.

Class 10 is a must for the SD Card. I have a Canon HF G20 and I use a Transcend 32 gig class 10 SD Card

MP4 would be the easiest format but what resolutions and bit rate will the G30 record in MP4?

I have found that editing MP4 videos in Sony Vegas is a bit sluggish as it seems to tax the system pretty hard (though it's an older system, it's still an i7 920 with 12GB of RAM). If I have the choice of editing MP4 or another format, such as AVCHD or AVI, I'll typically go that route. I don't know if anyone else has seen Vegas struggle with MP4 source files or not, but that's been my experience. My JVC records in AVCHD format and I have no issues working with those files in Vegas.

Exporting out to MP4 from Vegas hasn't been an issue though, but that's not what you asked. :)

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Originally Posted by mcphillips

I just acquired the Canon HF G30. It's my first venture into HD video. There are myriad choices in the menu system. My biggest question is, since I'm probably going to be editing with Sony Vegas Move Studio HD, which format should I choose? AVCHD or MP4? 1080i or 1080p?

What brand of SD card should I get? It didn't come with one.

If you have any other recommendations, hit me. I'm probably going to do some YouTube videos. It may get used to create a new online video course for one of my side businesses.

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I record in AVCHD highest definition quality possible. I am using Sony Vegas Pro to edit my videos. The process is seamless. Studio should have the same ability.

I have 120 gig HDD built into my camera, Sony HDRSR12. I have never used SD card ability. Just something else I have to keep track of and those little cards are a nuisance for me.

You have made a very good camera choice for post edit video. My only thought at not knowing any more than I do about it. If you want to live stream with it you may have to use capture cards.

I can load my videos directly from my camera into Sony Vegas Pro software, but I do not do that. I load my files from the camcorder onto my HDD and load them into the editor form the HDD folder. I know by looking at file folders whether the file is stored in AVCHD or other formats. AVCHD to me is really the only folder I use for raw video from my camera. I create separate folders for my vegas projects as I work with them. I have hundreds of files in all stages up to final renders, including titles, and specifically modified videos, etc.

Careful thought about folders naming will be alot of help to you as your files storage grows.

My project preferences in Sony Vegas are set to work with video files at 1080 and occasionally 720. I prefer to use highest quality for shooting, recording and working with Sony project files. I never shoot SD footage EVER, and I never upload SD quality to youtube or other video sites.

I render all final videos into 720 format MP4 for upload to youtube. My Sony project file is 1080 so I can always go back and render 1080, if i need to do that. I have never uploaded 1080 for any internet videos -only 720, which is high enough quality people can read normal sized text.