I'm curious about the 850 and wondering if this camera captures 4:2:2? does anyone have info on this?

Also this recording format below, what is this? is this just your standard h.264

The GY-HM850 is also equipped with the H.264 Extreme High Quality (XHQ) 50Mbps mode for virtually lossless compression—even when recording fast moving objects. MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 offers approximately twice the compression efficiency of MPEG2.

No, it is still 4:2:0. You can attach an external 4:2:2 recorder to the SDI out.

When hooked to an external drive, will it be able to capture Extereme HQ 50Mbps at full 4:2:2? Or will it have to be 35Mb at 4:2:2?

Thanks

Thanks William.
Cheers