I agree with Ervin. You should try to see for yourself, maybe not the whole 60 mins. but something like 10 or 20 mins. As for myself, my experience is in line with most of the comments in this thread that shooting HDV and then downconverting to DV seems to yield SLIGHTLY better results than straight DV25 shooting from the same camera. The emphasis here is on "slightly" which I'm certain will be irrelevant once the Mpeg-1 codec is used as the final output.

Looking at it another way, a little future proofing with HDV would not be too bad as the real cost to it is only more temporary storage space in post to enable editing using an intermediate codec. This will require minimal or no upgrading of your system. The master is of course on the tape in HDV, same space as DV25.

Wacharapong

Or outputting back to tape as DV25 4:3, depending on your requirements.

Wacharapong

Fried wire
 

Hey thanks for the input everyone! I really appreciate it. I know that every one of you guys is pushing me to "see for myself" and be my own judge. I'd have done that but there's a teeny weeny issue here. Somewhere down the line i fried my fire wire connection, it just doesn't connect anymore. Obviously i'll have to get it checked out, just haven't had the chance to do that. Also, i'm one of those guys that believe once a camera's been operated upon it just isn't the same anymore, its the begining of the end. I've had my fx1 ever since they first came out. In fact my brother got this unit from london and it was one of the first to be sold at that particular store, we even got a special free gift digital camera with it and as promotion Anyway, i think its time to get it checked up. By the way, i'm really curious about the fx1000! I'll definitely look it up! As for the dvx100b, i wasn't going to use it as a second camera for the same shoot but as another option. I do have easy access to another z1 should i require a second camera.