Thank you jetdv,

Could you please provide a description of the velocity edit feature as well as potential applications. This option may persuade our team to purchase the pro version.

I appreciate your help,
Kevin
***

You can download the 30 day trial for free. That's the best way to understand how it works.

Kevin, there's two main ways to change the speed in Vegas:

1) Playback rate (in all version) can slow video down to 25% or speed it up to 400%.

2) Velocity Envelope (in Vegas Pro) can go from -100% (full speed reverse) through 0% (freeze frame) up to 300%. The velocity envelope is also more flexible because you can variably change speeds over time instead of simply jumping to a new speed. So, for example, you could slowly change from 100% to freeze frame over a second instead of the video just suddenly stopping.

Thank you kindly, for sharing this information with me.
Regards,
Kevin
***

Do keep in mind that Vegas will not interpolate in-between frames. If you slow 30fps video to 0.1x then you'll have 3 discrete frames per second, each of which will last for 1/3 of a second.

Vegas has two modes for achieving this. One is to resample by blending frames, so that as time moves from one frame to the next it will gradually fade from one image to the next. For engineering purposes this is probably not what you want. The other method simply holds each frame still until it's time for the next one.

Neither method is going to show you finer time slices than the camcorder is capable of recording.

"Do keep in mind that Vegas will not interpolate in-between frames. If you slow 30fps video to 0.1x then you'll have 3 discrete frames per second, each of which will last for 1/3 of a second." Do not despair (too much, anyway). There are solutions. See:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=740514
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=739678

...Jerry

Perhaps we should ask the OP by just how much he needs to slow the video down, he is talking about engineering and I've been there and done that.
Anything below quarter speed is highly porblematic in post no matter what software you use. The project I gave it my best shot on was material testing, carabenas in fact. You just keep pulling with a zillion ton hydraulic ram until it snaps and they wanted to see HOW it snapped.
The only way to capture this is with a high speed camera.

Another company was studying air flow in their RoFlow packing system, thankfully they owned a 500fps camera.

So depending what the "X" factor is, the answer can be a hell of a lot of money because not only do you need the camera you need one hell of a lot of LIGHT. One company I've spoken with at length that does this kind of work uses 500KW of lighting , to light a couple of cars as they crash.

On the other hand if its just something like pouring a concrete slab then Vegas and shooting 60i would be more than adequate.

Bob.

Another thing to know would be if he already has a camera, if so, which one. 60i or 60 fps progressive is going to slow down a lot better than 30p, and if there is plenty of light, an inexpensive 60fps HD camera like a Kodak Zi8, Playsport, or a GoPro would actually do quite nicely.

Just so you are clear on the difference between Vegas Pro and the consumer level versions of Vegas:

Consumer level of Vegas: You can set the clip playback speed, once for each clip.

Vegas Pro: You can enable a playback speed editor with a line and points on that line which lets you freely automate the playback speed within a clip. This is useful for something like a skateboard jump where the motion slows down midway through a jump, then speeds up again for the landing.

Either of these approaches will let you slow down the motion smoothly to about half speed with either a 60i or 60p camera. You can go a little further by rendering to a 24p final project. Beyond that, you really should use a high speed camera and light the heck out of your action (which gets really expensive).

There are some inexpensive cameras that do 1280x1080 at 60 frames per second (GoPro, Kodak Zi8 and Playsport, etc.). These work well outside or with high powered indoor lighting and will let you slow down to half speed (or a little bit more with a 24p render).

If you need to slow down further than that, you need a high speed camera (which is really expensive). Since with a high speed camera, the amount of time the shutter is open is really short due to the high frame rate, most high speed cameras have really big lenses and need what would be an excessive amount of light for regular video. This is where you are going to run into the big bucks. The equipment needed for car crash tests in a warehouse is extremely expensive for instance.