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Some cameras record a letter boxed image, which is no problem (you just treat it as 4:3 video and it shows on the browser and comes out on tape as letter box-- QED). Better cameras squeeze a 16:9 image into 4:3 so that the video is distorted unless played on a monitor that unsqeezes it to 16:9. This is also the case with footage shot 4:3 with an anomorphic lens attachment. When setting up clip and sequence preferences in FCP, you can check 16:9 so that it will be displayed unsqueezed on the computer monitor. It will still be squeezed on NTSC output. Apple has a pretty good sumary of these issues. John Beale's site also has useful information, links, and suggestions for working with widescreen.

I found a quick way of working with squeezed images and outputting them to tape in leterbox.
1--Capture clips at 4:3 with 16:9 box checked.
2-- When you have them edited into the time line, select all the 16:9 clips and Apply Motion>Aspect Ratio> -33.3
3-- Render them and they will play letter boxed on the NTSC screen and tape.

You can also save the sequence before changing the aspect ratio and output it squeezed so you have a tape that will play on wide screen monitors and projectors. The rendered one will play on standard monitors.

If you are mixing squeezed and regular 4:3 footage in the same sequence, then only change the the squeezed portions.

John Beale's USING THE DCR-TRV900 Camcorder is an essential reference for serious users of this camera. It links to many other sources.

Here's a page on bluecreen efx work in DV.

Digital Video Club, lots of links and information.

Commercial Sources
B&H is a good mail order source. This is their home page. They also have an extensive link page to manufactures' sites, but you can only get to their links from their home page.

Here are some video manyfactures' pages--,

Panasonic	Studio 1 productions makes a nice XLR adapter for camcorders.

Elite video has some unusual items, like a portable blue screen and a quad spliter to put four cameras on one monitor. They're in Hot Springs, Arkansas which is a lovely town and host of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival every year.

Pro-Max puts Mac based editing systems together, and sells cameras, decks, and the Cobra Crane series of jib arms which are the best thing on the market for the money. They now do PC based turn-key systems as well.

DV magazine has excellent reviews and technical articles and they are archived on their site.

EXPEDITION BATTERIES-- For those of us who occassionally find ourselves shootinng in wild and off the track places, nothing keeps the camcorder running like a lithium expedition battery from Stuart Cody's Automated Media Systems. I started using them with my 16mm camera when shooting in the Himalaya, and now use them for my TRV-900 and for my hand held Jordana computer when I am up in the mountains.

Swiss Effects is the current hot place to have your DV productions transfered to 35mm film after you win Sundance. The site has a lot of info on how best to shoot and edit to get a good film release. Four Media in Los Angeles also does great job.

J L Cooper makes a variety of interfaces for audio and video equipment and the corresponding software. For example they have two controllers that let you work with Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Media 100 etc. with the same tactile interface as you get with a good edit controler for tape.

As great as is our love for Macintosh and Windows operating systems, what really tickles our fancy is the open Linux operating system. There is now a video editing program written for Linux called Broadcast2000. It is free and one to watch.