I am shooting a commercial next week on the HVX-200 and need some help. It is pretty simple. One take with camera tracking backwards. I will be shooting on the HVX-200 as a way of getting my feet wet so I can decide as whether to buy one now or wait until the HVX-200A or what ever comes out.

My question is if this is going to be seen on television I should shoot in 1080/60i right? On top of that should I use the P2 cards or should I use a DVCPRO-HD tape to shoot on? I have never used either and my concern is running out of space on the P2 cards (I would only have 2). I have a hard drive that I am about to start using as backup for my Mac, it is a 250GB external. Am I correct in understanding that you can connect the harddrive directly to the camera and dump footage onto it? Let me know what you guys think. I see that a lot of you are well learned in this camera already. Any advice would be of great help.

IMO if you want a "video" feel-look shoot 1080i ..
if you want "FILM" feel-look shoot 24p ...

if it's going to end up SD then i would shoot 720p onto P2

Am I correct in understanding that you can connect the harddrive directly to the camera and dump footage onto it?

yep -

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=62580

should I use the P2 cards or should I use a DVCPRO-HD tape to shoot on? I have never used either and my concern is running out of space on the P2 cards (I would only have 2).

That camera does not shoot DVCPRO HD to tape...only to the P2 card. The tape only records DV.

For the workflow to get this footage into FCP, go to www.proapptips.com/shane P2 INTRODUCTION.

Can you connect camera to HDD via USB2.0 or just firewire?

Do I have to do anything to the HDD before hand?

Joseph,

I'd highly suggest that if you don't already own the HVX that you download and read the HVX manual which is available on the Panasonic website. All your questions about operation and compatibility can easily be answered.

Give the manual a good read-through; if you're still in the dark about exactly how things work (and most of us have done our share of head-scratching on this system) then hit us up with your questions.

My question is if this is going to be seen on television I should shoot in 1080/60i right?
It depends on the network. Some are 1080, some are 720. You'd have to see what they broadcast. Otherwise you'll have to down/up-convert, which is a waste of time when you can source in either format.