Harry Christensen

Thanks for the info Scott. I like the idea of saving to two destinations. CF for ease of workflow into FCP and the tape for a reliable backup. I have seen lots of problems with the P2 system (mostly from user error I might add), so a dual system like the Z7 protects the lazy and sloppy, or the just plain unlucky. I'm sure one could lose footage with the Z7, but I would think you would have to work at it.

Sony's info from their web site says that it can shoot progressive 1080. HDV standard does not have progressive 1080 so I would suspect that it does the progressive with software, i.e. pulldown removal. The M35 deck is needed to play back the tapes generated by this camera, or the camera itself. I am leaning very strongly to purchasing it. Final Cut ver 6.04 does have easy setups for this camera, so I think all the tools are in place. This could be the one for doc work.

This problem isn't exclusive to lacie drives, I have had the same issues with my maxtor externals too. My work around is to get a USB 2.0 hub and hook my external drives up through that. My mac then recognizes the camera and all is good. I suspect that the issue is with canon's software but as you said nobody wants to own up or fix it. Both my lacie and maxtor drives have both interfaces, though I would prefer to use my lacie firewire 800 it just won't happen if I need to import with my camera. I guess it is more incentive to get a deck and stop using my camera as a deck.

HD or SD? In some ways its an easy choice to go with HD... newest, best, very pretty shots. Since I am in film school yet, I have access to lots of cameras HD and SD so I have seen the good and bad of both. It still comes down to shooting the frames and you can get bad footage either way. Right now there is no easy way to deliver HD footage to a dvd world. Properly shot SD can look very nice, especially when it is delivered to a DVD format. I have seen many a project shot on an HD format and when it comes time to deliver it for viewing the project crew realized that all their work went to a down rezed SD format and that really good SD looks just as good when projected. Look to your real needs and what you will be doing with it. My XL has shot footage that has been broadcast on stories that have been seen on national news and nobody has complained that it was SD, but maybe that will all change by next FEB. In the real world most video is so compressed that none of it looks as good as the original tape. And I don't even want to go into all of the horror stories about the P2 cards losing data and complete scenes from movies.

I bought mine through amazon.com why take a chance on ebay.