What cameras to pair up with HVX?

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So I need some direction. A couple of months ago I documented the "Fireball Run" its a road rally from Orlando to LA. We shot the whole thing on 3 HVXs. our only challenge was it all needed to be in HD. we used the firestore 100s and I really didn't like it, we had alot of challenges on the firewire connection. One of the cameras was mine so I'm partial, but short of having 5 16 gig p2s (which we don't) I would never have enough to record on because we are on the road for hours on end. I think the average was at least 4 to 5 hours on the road with no opportunity to dump the footage. ...I did have a converter where I could hook up my laptop and external Hard drive and dump on the road but that only covers me , one camera. and my laptop is the main hub for all of the cameras. The CEO of the event wants to cut down on rentals and purchase another camera. he wants the 24fps "Film" look with HD which presents another problem....he wanted my opinion on the Sony HDR- FX1, no 24fps.
What, as far as capture and compatibility (I use FCP) and cost would you guys suggest. I am an amature on a learning curve, so forgive the longwinded post. does shooting on HD Mini dv tape mixed with p2 native, work well together on FCP does it even matter?
Thanks for reading and your help!!!!
 
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I would suggest that to shoot continuously will require 1 HVX, 2 P2 cards of similar sizes, and 1 laptop with a PCMCIA slot. The size of the P2 card will dictate how often you have to pull and load, so you could save money by buying 8GB cards and swapping a lot.

The Laptop can be an old used one, you are just going to transfer files to it. Get an old Compaq from E-Bay, but make it comes with installation media and be sure you can get a new battery for it first. Swap in a 120GB drive, and shoot 720 24PN mode. An old laptop will transfer about 1 GB/Min, but I'm not sure what the fill rate for 720 24PN is...

If you need three cams in three cars then you need three of these setups. If you have one camera car then you might skate by with three cams and two laptops.

Finally, every evening you would offload the laptop's HDD to an external HDD and clear it out for the next day.

Bob
 
The main question is if the FX1 footage will look different. I am afraid so. You might have to fix all that FX1 footage in post to look progressive and intercut with the 720pN material.

And on your P2 problem: renting 16GB cards or a P2-Store seems like good options. If you have breaks you can use a USB-OTG harddrive. I use one and it takes about 12 minutes to dump 8 GB on mine. I don´t know if you have long enough breaks to do that. It is cheap though.

One more tip: make sure to delete takes you know you won´t use anyway.
 
We matched Z1U to HVX200 footage that was shot at 720/24p.

The HDV footage was 1080i/60. We had to do a standard conversion using a deinterlace, etc in Compressor

Took forever, but was acceptable
 
So I guess the optimal question ends up being what other camera can I use that shoots straight on to mini dv tape HD@ 720p/24fps or 1080/24fps?
I can handle my p2 cards and the dump on the fly but it would be easier to just give them (the other 2 cameras) a bunch of mini hd dv tapes. I guess 720p and 1080i on the hvx is 720p and 1080i on any camera. I just was worried that since there are so many different advances in technology and recording methods that it would be hard to match it all up perfectly. it all goes to FCP. So again, sorry for the longwinded post. thank you very much for all of the advice!! keep it coming!!!
 
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