Which format for a documentary
 

I'll be tagging along on an expedition in the libyan desert. Part of my role on this trip will involve shooting footage that we hope might be viable for a documentary of some sort. We'd like to potentially market this for the US and Europe, my thinking is, shoot at 50i and then this can always be converted easily to the US format? I havent had much time at all to get acquainted with the camera (The Z1) but in the next coming days before the trip i will. Any advice as to which format to shoot in ect would be greatly appreciated.

60i is a US format (as opposed to 50i in PAL land).

Generally speaking, I would be inclined to shoot primarily for whichever market would be your primary market (60i for NTSC land or 50i for PAL land), and then deal with conversion for the secondary market.

To do a thorough analysis, to arrive at an optimum solution though, you need to look at a number of factors, such as:

What aspect ratio will the primary audience be viewing at?

Will this be primarily targeted for SD or HD viewing?

Will it be primarily viewed on native interlace displays, or native progressive displays?

would like to shoot 16x9 but i know that previous footage from an earliar expedition was shot on the dvx100 at 4:3, sd. We'd like to make footage from this trip compatible but if this impossible fine. Mostly likely everything will be shot hdv and then converted to SD. Primary market... really unsure, i am in France right now but we are Americans and I really do not know at this time what the primary market is per say. What would be best for the greatest compatibility?

Was the previous footage shot with an NTSC DVX100 camera or with a DVX100E (PAL camera)? Was it shot progressive or interlaced?

102a was shot interlaced for first set of footage, was also told that they wished they shot it progressive...

I'd be inclined to shoot 60i or 50i (whichever you shot with the DVX). That's just based on what little I know though, from what you've said here.