Head,
The XL1 is a straight standard def DV camera. When you capture your footage you should be doing it in the Uncompressed setting provided by your NLE software. Since you’re using a Mac-based program, you should be pulling it in as an uncompressed quicktime mov.
Now because the video is interlaced, it’s going to look odd at times on your progressive scan computer/laptop monitor. That’s natural don’t sweat it. Your camera has separate XLR and S-video connections that you can hook it up to a separate television (preferably an old 4:3 standard def job) so you can see what is actually going into your computer. Note that there will be a significant difference between what you will see in your preview as XTR suggested and what you will see on the TV. However long as you exposed, focused and composed your shots well what goes from the camera into the computer will be just fine.
Where you will ‘lose’ quality from your images will come from the compression settings when you output your completed edit. If you stay uncompressed when you export to QT, you’ll get out what you put in. If you export to any of the MPEG settings (1, 2 or 4) you’ll get various amounts of image quality loss depending on your compression settings.
