The only game in town

For professional use, classic Sony quality. There's really nothing else like it on the market. The JVC equivalent costs almost as much and JVC always comes across as more of a "consumer" item. [...]

Menu set-up will be difficult for non-pros, but if you're buying this you're probably already beyond "consumer level," so you'll know how to deal with it. I added a component video out card (from B&H Photo/Video) that Amazon did not carry. The picture output quality to a component video monitor is fantastic - especially "downscaled" HDV to a standard definition monitor. You'll be able to use one of these decks in almost any digital video production environment.

Use this at work and it works great!

My company has been using 6 of these decks for a year now.We currently shoot our footage using the Z1U in HDV anddepending on what our final video will be we use the thedecks to down-convert the HDV footage into standard DV bothwide and full screen. We use the Squeeze mode for gettingstandard DV wide screen video and the Crop mode forgetting full screen video. I know there's some math involvedwith the various types of footage around, however Sony iskeeping it simple by using the terms Crop and Squeeze. All the footage we get into our NLE using this method isready to edit in standard DV format. Recording back to the deck is also no problem with StandardDV video. We haven't tried to record HD from the NLE to thedeck yet and I'm not sure how it could be done with ourcurrent software.Capturing HD is not so great. I like to use the detect sceneoption during capturing and even when down-converting thisoption works like a charm, however when you want to capture1080i, scene detect is unavailable.  more

Great but not perfect

This is an incredible machine but for some reason the company decided to deny the consumer one function which if you ask me is a crucial function during this era of transition into the world of HD. The deck won't downconvert HDV footage through the iLink in letter box. It will only let you import to your NLE as Crop or Squeeze, which means that you have either offline on the sickening Squeeze mode or in the insufficient Crop or that you have to put more money into your NLE. I am sorry to say that the omision was a calculated one that shows disdain for the consumer, because my HDV camera is perfectly capable of doing it.