Just got the XL H1 and I need a little advice. I'm currently working on a short film for the 48 hour film festival and I'm worried about the speed of editing HD over SD. I own the Canon XL1s and the XL H1, and I'm very comfortable with the workflow of the XL1s footage in FCP. I have a G5 dual 2.0 and the system seems a little sluggish when editing HD. I'm worried that because of the strict timeline(only have 48 hours to finish the entire film), I might need to capture and edit the film in SD, but I want the best possible quality and I really want to play with my new camera. The final video needs to be delivered on DVD and Mini-DV so if I went HD I would need to convert down to SD anyways. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Hi Ben,

Surely you've answered your own question. You've only got 48 hours, final delivery is SD, you know the XL1s inside out, you've got a smooth post-production route with the camera - horses for courses, go with the XL1s. Heck, you can play with your new camera any time you like outside those 48 hours. Good luck with the contest!

One of the other options would be to record in SD 16:9 on the XL H1. I should still get the efficiency of recording and editing in SD but the features of the XL H1. Does anybody know if FCP can capture SD 24f?

I've heard the 24f is the same as 24p on the regular SD cameras (such as XL2, DVX100,...)
Don't know for sure though, but I think you could edit it fine.

Yes, 24F is recorded exactly the same way as 24P is on the XL2 and DVX100 (along with the pulldown options). I would definitely use that route.

I did the 48 hour film festival in NYC, and I shot in 24F HDV and downconverrted that to 24P DVCPro50 for editing and final output to DVD. Results were excellent .... we even won some awards!

Ben,

I would recommend shooting in HD 60i and setting the camera to downconvert when you bring it in to edit. This way you have HD source footage that you can re-edit some other time, but you will have SD footage going into your NLE and you can edit as normal.

Make sure you shoot 60i though, there is no workflow for 30p or 24p yet.

Thanks everyone for your help. The film turned out awesome and I'm thoroughly impressed with this camera. I shot in SD 16:9 24f and had no problems with the footage in FCP.

Michael, I would love to know more details on how you did your downconvert. Was that done through FCP?

Brian, thanks for your tip. The 48 hour film project was from the 21st - 23rd so I will have to try that next time.
I will post the film soon for you guys to take a look.