Ophelia,
Yeah it can be done in a pinch, but like Rob I don’t necessarily recommend it. Case in point, I was capturing racing footage via CS3 (Premiere Pro) but found some issues to be worked out between the software and the deck I was using. Since I was under the gun, I just captured the footage in Vegas. Though I could have used Vegas to edit the piece, there was a certain workflow I needed to follow and Premiere would make that work. The captured footage played well in Premiere, but then new issues popped up with the differences in the footage filing systems between the two programs. Fortunately, it was a simple fix but it could have been a major pain. Now I have all the ‘ssues’ worked out but unless it’s an emergency, I only capture within the program I’m using.
Now a workaround can come from a capture card like the types made by Black Magic Designs, AJA and Matrox to name a few. NLE’s primarily use a software solution and firewire (or God forbid USB) to capture your footage. Capture cards on the other hand use dedicated hardware/software solutions to capture footage via a link to your NLE software or in some cases independently. I tend to like this option because you can bring in your software in a much more NLE friendly format and quality level. Not to mention if you’re working with other editors on a project, it makes it easier to package the footage for them to use if they aren’t using your exact NLE software.
