What other editors are out there that do 10 bit editing? and above? would it be as simple as getting AE 6.5? or is it more expensive than that having to go to something like FCP (I feel so dirty even saying that). Keep in mind that I'm trying to stay under 2K and really under 1K or so.
Even PS as far as I know only works in 8 bit. About the only tape system that'll handle better than 8 bit is HD SR (Ithink it goes to 10 bit), even HDCAM is only 8 bit from memory.
FCP as far as I know forget about, think high end Avid film systems i.e. a cool million or so. Even a monitor to do justice to 10bit will set you back over $20K. The rather good Samsung monitor I'm typing this with is in reality only 6 bit.
If you've only got $2K that will not even cover the electricity bill to run those kind of systems for a year.
Perhaps before you start looking for 10 bit depth you'd do better looking for better sampling, going to 4:2:2 is a big step up from 4:1:1, you could even step up to 4:4:4 before you worry about going to 10 bit and beyond.
Bob.
VelocityQ, FCP , Avid, Quantel, Liquid chrome, combustion all have 10 bit NLE (or better - combustion does 10, 12 , 16, 32 (float) for example) ..
Shake, AE and fusion all do 10 bit and up ...
Liquid Pro MIGHT do 10 bit , but im not to sure of that - if really true (i think not, though that was reported) .. combustion is prob. the cheapest true 10bit+ system other than you can buy a velocity used system sometimes pretty reasonable (IMO - the editor sucks though, not really why you use it though)
i still would not drop vegas -- i do use (or have to) other apps for 10bit work... but the large majority can be done very well on vegas ... most film transfers are 8 bit , only our scans are 10bit or better (16) log files and that is getting into a lot of expense (specially for 70mm) ..