Am i right in thinking that if i bite the bullett and lay down 1500 quid for the Sony HVR-M15E HDV VTR deck, I will still not be able to capture tape shot in the 24/5 progressive (or F) setting on the Canon A1?

Assuming that this deck is good for regular 1080i recordings i suppose i could use my camera for any progressive stuff. If i capture in big chunks off the A1 and media manage in FCP after, the wear and tear on the A1's heads would be minimal.

I've read many people talking about buying low end hdv canon cameras to get round this problem but i don't think its the right way for me to go. A firestore would be a better option but i'm told these things are unreliable outside controlled environments. How are other A1 users dealing with this problem?

Am i right in thinking that... the Sony HVR-M15E HDV VTR deck... will still not be able to capture tape shot in the 24/5 progressive (or F) setting on the Canon A1?That's correct. The HVR-M15E will be able to play back all video recorded on the Canon XH A1 except for material recorded in Frame mode.

thanks Chris. So i suppose the next question is can the low end hdv camcorders people are buying to capture off handle this frame mode?

It seems odd to me that more A1 users aren't up in arms about this, and the silence from the canon reps i spoke to at videoforum 2007 was deafening. Nonetheless, i'm ecstatic about the impending arrival of the cam and will cross the other bridges when i get to them.

The HV10 and soon the HV20 can handle frame mode and work as an ingest device. It's certainly not the ideal solution, but guess what? Even those Sony HDV decks are really just pimped-out camcorder transports. They make a better impression to a client, but aren't necessarily ultra robust.

Dom, you'd have to put a lot of hrs. on the A1 before the heads go. eg: Panasonic recommend replacing the head after 1000hrs, that's a lot of tapes.

Good point Allan. Some of the guys posting on the LA FCP users group claim its an old wives tale that you need to use a deck. I've heard of people using cameras for years as editing pro's without any problems. I still have my PDX 10 as a second camera for capturing DV stuff. I think i'm going to take my chances, capture in good sized chunks with a minimum of rewinding and forwarding and media manage the outakes in Final Cut. Thanks guys. I wasn't looking forward to forking out 3000 US plus for a VTR that didn't even capture in the progressive mode, and i don't want to buy a (cheap?) camera for the purpose either. Can't wait for the A1 to arrive.