I ended up with Vegas 10 on 64 bit pc. Added Cineform neoHD for better codec to edit with, and for Lightroom-like ability to handle videos shot at 280 feet down with ambient light only....perfect for canon 5d mark II, but to use cineform with Contour 1080p video camera ( for high current very demanding shots a big camera can't get used in) I had to add Elecard Converter Studio ( as Cineform does not yet read the file format of Contour).
Interestingly, I played with the contour at the BHB several days ago, on a day with not so hot vis, but several manatees....I was freediving with one for nearly 15 minutes, so I got lots of useable clips. After importing the movs into Elecard and having this program create a container that Cineform likes, Cineform was able to drastically improve the quality of the Contour--something about the manner in which it uncompresses and resamples or something--maybe someone on here could explain more about the why of this.....Cineform then exports with very cool light effects ( far better than Vegas), and ends up in a "smooth" 1080p cineform file that Vegas runs beautifully on the timeline. Ie, not choppy! I am still playing with this--learning how to best use the system, but I am excited about what this will allow me to do!!
