Hello Forums,

I recently inherited a Sony HVR-A1U after my brother flamed out of film school, shooting with it for quite some time - mostly travelogues, which can be found here: YouTube - JessicaImprov's Channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/JessicaImprov) - getting progressively more comfortable with the results, although generally feeling there's so much more this camera is capable of. Note: It can't be a good sign when you always think the image on the viewfinder looks better than what you end up capturing. So how is it some of you have found you get the best results out of this machine or similar Sony products.

I ask all this because I'm shooting a wedding this weekend as a favor to a friend, and would like very much for it to look crisp (free of all the aliasing that seems to dog all of my videos). I understand the A1U doesn't do DoF or low-light well, but really all I'm shooting for is good-looking video.

FYI:
I shot all of the above YouTube videos in DV mode in 16:9 wide (No CineFrame or CineGamma). Should I shoot 4:3 instead? Or maybe make the "leap" to HDV1080i?
I captured all the video on my 1-year-old iMac using FCP 6.0 using the NTSC Anamorphic settings. Should I be using another preset? How should I go about capturing while using HDV1080i?

Sorry to throw this all out there, I'm just trying not to screw up this kid and his future wife's memories. Also, I scoured the boards looking for answers to my questions, but didn't really come across any that addressed them. It's very possible I missed them, so if I did just direct me there, no harm, no foul.

Oh, and one more thing, another friend is going to be using a Panasonic DVX100a (I know this is the Sony board, but it's worth a shot) at the reception and it's going to be up to me to marry the footage, no pun intended, in a single sequence. Are there any ways we can make that endeavor less taxing (shooting settings, etc.)?

Thanks in advance for any and all responses,


Leo