I'm using a Z1 and I shoot everything in 50i then convert to 25p. Surely 24p is "ideal" (or used to be) but 25p is just as good if you ask me. The reason I use 50i instead of 60i is purely for quality, not for film look as that can be achieved on the PC, though easier with 25p if you convert to 24p at all (which I don't). Filming at 60i requires the camera use a 19 Mbps stream to tape, while filming at 50i you get a 23 Mbps stream because 20% less compression is required with 10 fewer frames per second.
I am based in Philadelphia and to answer an earlier question posed, I haven't come across any devices in recent time that cannot play the PAL/SECAM/50i/25p standard even though we live in NTSC world. When I like, I just plug my component out cable into my projector, for example, and it automatically knows it's 1920x1080 50i at 50Hz.
