Photoclubalpha

I am a complete dumbo with video. Can anyone help me with some of the basic choices on my A77? AVCHD or MP4? 50i, 50p, 25p 24M or 17M? Once this is decided what is the desired shutter speed to aim for? I only want to take some shots of my granddaughters but I know that once I start I will want to go further so I would like to start on the correct footing. I am thinking of getting Sony Movie Studio for editing. Which recording format do I choose so that I can write to DVD or Blu-Ray?
So many choices.

All the current Sony models produce HD video, which is not compatible with DVD players or the regular DVD standard, though some can manage to handle it as a data disk - it's actually easiest to play HD video back from the camera via its HDMI connector. Biut that doesn't help you with editing. If you choose the highest qualities, the camera will warn you that they may exceed even Blu-Ray standards. Any of the AVCHD2 standards (non-MPEG4) can prove tricky to get into the computer and into the editing program unless you have the latest systems, and they may need conversion to add to the editing software's library.

For quick editing, YouTube and on-line posting the MPEG4 inferior option is far easier to work with but I prefer the rather slow and difficult process of handling the AVCHD2 files, for the quality. Just never shoot this format if you want to quickly copy a video for someone else!

As for shutter speeds, initially just set auto ISO and use program mode with video. Your lens will tend to default to around f/3.5 which generally looks good, but does force the shutter speed up to a faster (jerky action) look so it's best to shoot at 60i or 50i (p) which will appear smoother with a fast shutter.

If you have access to the latest Apple systems, their Quicktime will open all the video formats from Sony cameras or media, and can convert all of them to more editing-friendly variants.

David

Thanks David,

That was a really useful reply that has answered most of my questions. You are the man! Unfortunately I don't have an Apple computer. I think that the next step for me will be to take some tests and have a play.

Many thanks for your help.

You might find something like Handbrake useful for video conversion. It's free and whilst can be complex it's fairly straight forward after a bit of playing around. The software does like a fairly up to date pc, something with multi cores CPU wise should be fine.

Microsofts Live Moviemaker is a free and easy to use video editor which has some basic functions. I use it for the bit of video I do and it will automatically convert AVCHD if you open it. I use it with my RX100 video files.