Adjusting sharpening
 

There are two ways to adjust sharpening on the HV20. In "programs" you can select "low sharpening," and you can also adjust sharpening on a scale in "custom." I'm looking to turn it off, entirely, or, at least, set it as low as possible. Does anyone know whether the custom scale lets you dial in a lower sharpening setting than choosing "low sharpening"?

There's no way to turn it off entirely. But with the Custom mode at Sharpness -1 or in the Low Sharpening mode, you get a pretty clean image. It's definitely clean enough for keying. If you want a slightly softer image, you might try varying degrees of Tiffen Black Pro-Mist -- starting at 1/4...

I'm satisfied with the quality of the image at Low Sharpening or -1. I was just wondering which one was lower -- perhaps they're both the same.

Yeah, I wonder. I'll shoot a test and see if I can pick out any differences...