F330 file transfer mode
 

Since I can't afford F350 with some decent lens I will have to buy F330 but I have a problem. Since there is no SDI on F330 is it possible to connect camcorder via Firewire and use file transfer mode to copy the recordings to PC? Is there any difference in visual quality between recordings transfered via SDI and FTM? I also can't afford to buy a deck so I'm looking for the best way to transfer recordings from F330 to PC. I'm fine with MXF and I don't really need SDI in my workflow. If I can just copy files from F330 to PC in full quality then that's great. Thanks.

That's exactly what the F330 and F350 do best. Switch the camera to FAM mode and you can copy the HD or SD files at their full quality directly to a PC or Mac. You will need to ensure your edit software can work with the Sony MXF files. If you have the right version of Edius or Vegas you can then send the finished edit as an MXF back to the camera, so no deck needed.

If your edit application dosn't support MXF you can use the camera in Firewire mode and export OUT of the firewire port a standard SD, DV compatible video stream. This is either the raw DV if shot in DVCAM mode or a SD DV downconvert if shot in HD. There is no Firewire input in the traditional sense.

Thank you very much for the info.