Many of the responses have not considered that this is a very new camera that is not fully supported by today's NLEs. Certainly is the best thing to shot an independent film with (for under $5000) even through it is interlaced (shoot 50i, then de-interlace with results still higher resolution than a DVX100 -- the other popular indie video camera.) It terms of NLE that support it, Avid has only made promises, and Apple has only limited support Final Cut Express not in the Final Cut Pro HD. The best functioning solutions are from Adobe (just released yesterday running a limit version of the CineForm engine), Aspect HD from CineForm (HDV accerator for Premiere), Canopus (+ hardware option for component previews) and Ulead. There are a range of price points and features.
Disclaimer: My company developed the Adobe licensed engine and Aspect HD which I believe is the price-performance leader.
Slashdot Mirror
There are good disscusions for editing the Z1 and FX1 HDV footage on http://sonyhdvinfo.com/ and http://dvinfo.net/.
Disclaimer: My company developed the Adobe licensed engine and Aspect HD which I believe is the price-performance leader.
David Newman
CTO, CineForm
http://www.cineform.com/