Canon A1 vs. Sony HVR-V1U
 

I'm debating about upgrading from the Sony FX7 to one of these 2--mostly for the 24p feature. I'm really staring to think that the look these 24p cameras can produce is better suited for the documentary stuff I want to do.

My question is, at the same price (roughly) are there any downsides to the canon 24f vs. 24p? I'm just worried about editing later in FCP--but I've also read that the V1U 24p can be a problem with FCP.

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this question, but thanks for any advice you can give me.

BTW, documentary is human interest piece with everyday life interviews, b-roll of settings, run and gun stuff. Maybe pitch for TV/dvd, nothing good enough for a film--if that helps to clarify what I'll be using the camera for.
Thanks.

I'm shooting 24p with the XH A1 and editing in FCP with no trouble at all. It edits just like DV, though you have to render out the final timeline before exporting. You do have to have the current FCP, 5.1.2 at least. It has the 1080P24 Easy Setup and 23.98 timeline setups.

Canon's 24F is 24P. No difference, except the way they get there. They call it frame mode because it derives progressive from interlace chips. The end result is exactly the same--24 discrete frames per second, no interlace, no pulldown.

I prefer the XH A1 over the Sony V1 because the Canon has bigger chips (1/3" vs. 1/4") and a significantly wider angle lens. It's difficult to get a wide angle lens in a 1/4" chip camera--the smaller the chips, the greater the multiplication factor. I personally prefer the Sony Z1 over the V1.

thanks bill. so there are no problems capturing video shot in 24f using the latest FCP software?

No problems for me at all. You just have to get your settings right. It captures fine, drops right into a timeline with no rendering. If it wants you to render that means your sequence setting is wrong. You can't watch it on your NTSC monitor because it's HD. We don't have an HD monitor, so what I do for color correction is change the compressor setting to a DV one, and that allows me to see a single frame on the Sony monitor, good enough to check color. Then change the setting back before export. It doesn't affect editing one way or the other.

If you have an earlier version of FCP, you should have upgraded already to the Universal, which was a $49 upgrade. That allowed you to then download 5.1.2, for free. It's the 5.1.2 that makes 24p HDV work properly.