Thanks everyone. As far as premier. i have the Adobe Web CS3 (it includes Photoshop, etc). If I were to look at premier, which package would I want to look at? They have a few.,

one other point about Vegas - it works like an audio product. Because it is a audio multi-tracker. And video works the same way. Complex video effects, etc. are hard to do, but is you need to do editing, fades, stretching, etc. it is very easy to learn and quick to do. The effects are all there, but I'll bow out to those that do more video work. But for my purposes, it does all I need to w/o me needing to learn to re-invent the wheel.

Also, I've always found adobe stuff unintuitive, having to grab a new tool for the simplest things. I've used it enough now so that it isn't like having two left thumbs, but my curing quotent always goes up because it doesn't operate like a DAW/audio program or even, in a lot of cases, like a windows program. I'm sure it is just what you are used to, but for me it is a big pain.

@

Anybody have a suggestion for an entry level video camera to use with Vegas Pro to make YouTube type presentations?

Any SONY camera will work great with VEGAS. VEGAS will pick up the camera when you plug it in and DL your files.

Yeah the Sony's are nice - I got one with Firewire, or iLink in Sony parlance - not all models have that, tho. I kinda like it.

Which ever way you go, try to qualify for an 'academic' discount from www.academicsuperstore.com.
I've been getting most of my stuff there and saved tons of money. Premier and Vegas are both there.

Vegas is powerful, intuitive and also has an x64 version.

Thanks everyone. As far as premier. i have the Adobe Web CS3 (it includes Photoshop, etc). If I were to look at premier, which package would I want to look at? They have a few.,

Yeah, they keep changing those suites with every new version it seems. I'd get the one with Premiere, Photoshop, After Effects and Flash, minimally.

Maybe check out a few (free) AfterEffects tutorials on videocopilot.net (Andrew Kramer). Then you see that the days of using Premiere (or Vegas for that matter) as a kind of glorified Windows Moviemaker, are behind us.

You really need some more skills, these days, and that's were programs as After Effects come in, totally blowing programs like Vegas out of the water. At least with Premiere, you won't have to start all over again, it's more of a natural extension.

It's a bigger investment, but on the longer run the wiser choice, I think - assuming you are also someone who essentially wants to be able to do as much as possible himself, like me.

If you want to set up a small studio, doing animation/greenscreen stuff, it's even the only affordable way to go, at the moment.

[edit for missing words]

As far extras for Vegas goes, you can add stuff by Boris (for 3D) and New Blue FX.
The New Blue stuff now supports 64bit, but the Boris doesn't even though it will make good use of your GPU. Personally I find the Boris stuff quite slow to work on and it can be a bit quirky. Needless to say, all render times are long in any 32bit operating environment.

I don't want to derail the thread, since it's originally a comparison between 2 video sequencers, but maybe check this discussion on Creative Cow:

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/917320#917435

also check some of those showcase videos done in AE. I nearly fell off my chair watching those only 6 months back. Now here's me, having tons of fun with it. Gah.