Editing Final Cut Express HD

I want to edit video filmed in HD in Final Cut Express (FCE), which it is capable. I am looking at the Cannon HV20 video camera.
1. Do I need a video capture card/board etc. or will the cable with the camera import the file directly to my MacPro.
2. I have extensive analog video editing experience, is digital similar and......
3. I realize that unless I have a HD DVD player, the picture won't be HD, BUT will the picture be better filmed in HD and FCE converting it to standard format, or should I just look for a good analog video camera.
Thanks in advance,
Steve

You will need to buy a Firewire cable to capture from the HV20. Nothing too expensive, but you can't capture video with the USB cable that's in the package. I assume you already have a FW port on the MacPro.
I have an HV20 and the Mac gear listed in my profile. It works great and results look awesome! I have captured HDV to the internal drive on the iMac and generic Firewire drives on both the desktop and the G4 laptop. My test on the laptop was only a few minutes of HDV tape, but it worked. Canon has had glitches with daisy-chained FW drives in the past, but I've seen no such problems. Please search for "HV20" and you'll find a bunch of recent posts.
See also the HV20 forum at dvinfo.net and hv20.com.
On question #3: The HV20 has a ton of features and is at a reasonable price point. There are 'prosumer' features like shutter and aperture control, volume control, and 24p capture (w/some edit limitations for now). You didn't really mean "analog" in your question, but DV tape as the alternative. Hard-disk and DVD camcorders seem to have a bunch of limitations. The HV20 will let you record in HDV or DV now, or record in HDV and down-convert in-camera, in FCE, or in iDVD, so you're pretty future-proof -- for at least a month ot two. [grin]

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