More equipment advice

A few more hardware and software suggestions from Curt Chandler's workshop:

Video editing
Curt recommends Sony Vegas as video editing software that’s a little easier to learn (and less expensive) than Apple's Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro.

(And from Jim: For entry-level video editing, try iMovie, which comes free with newer Macs as part of the iLife suite. Windows also includes a free video editor, Windows Movie Maker. It works for very basic stuff, but it lacks some needed features like the ability to overlay multiple video tracks.)

Video camera
Curt, a pro photographer, shoots video with a Canon XH A1. That's pretty high-end for newspaper Web sites. It's an HD video camera -- not important for the Web, but important for taking frame grabs and using them as still photos for print. If you want to do frame grabs, use a camera that shoots progressive video, not interlaced video. Progressive captures whole frames. Interlaced captures half frames that your brain assembles into a full image.

Generally it's a good idea to record on tape, not the video camera’s hard drive. This becomes important because in most smaller newsrooms, the camera is also used as a tape deck to capture video to the computer. If you fill up the hard drive, you have to unload it before someone else can use the camera.