#1.... you will download it to your home computer and edit with software made for HD camcorders. I use Pinnacle Ultimate v12 but there are others that get good reviews, like Vegas and such. Prices are around $80-150 for decent software.
#2.....you need to have a brand new, high speed, mega memory computer. Those HD files are enormous and the software needs to process them, adding in the cuts and fades, music, etc. The minimum requirements on the software boxes are purely
minimums, faster is better. I had to buy a new system this past year, along with an HD monitor as my 3yr old computer couldn't drive the software without jerks so it was impossible to edit. New computer, no problemo.
#3....editing to make good movies takes more time than you think. I usually say for every hour of video shot you will spend 10 hours editing and burning. You have to watch clips over and over, back up and fast forward and add music, oops music doesn't fit, go back and trim clip to music, oh, need another clip of that section, watch clips again.... then creating the actual finished video and burning them takes hours.
~~This doesn't mean you can't throw together a bunch of clips and put music to it in less than 3 hours, but it does mean that it will look like it. I have a real dislike of 95% of the videos, especially the underwater ones, posted on YouTube as they have not been edited at all or very little. Okay, rant off.
if you want to see some really good videos by members of ScubaBoard, go to Youtube and Vimeo and search: Ronscuba, Mike Meagher, and Roger Uzun. They all shoot with higher end camcorders than these, but it will give you a good idea what to aspire to! Mike and Roger both shoot cold water west coast so that will give you an idea of low light capabilities, too.
robin
