Understanding Video Formats and Attributes for use in FCP7 My question(s) for you today regard the converting of videos from various cameras for use in Final Cut Pro 7. I have footage of the same event from different angles all shot on different cameras (Sony DV Handycam, Sony Hard Disk Handycam, Panasonic Hard Disk camera) that all shoot to different frame sizes, and, inconveniently, different frame rates. 

My first question is (while I know FCP can handle different frame rates within a project by frame skipping, it is not advisable) how should I convert my footage so that they are all same frame rate? Should I convert the Panasonic (that shoots at 50fps) down to 24fps that the Sonys record to, or should I upconvert those two up to 50fps? Obviously I would like to lose as little quality as possible, what is the best plan of action when it comes to this?

My second question is regarding converting formats. I use Compressor, and am very impressed with it, but what common format should I convert the footage from the two hard disk camcorders to? The DV tape is captured into DV by FCP, but what should I use for the others? HDV, Prores, DV?

My third is to do with frame size and aspect ratios: one of the camcorders records to 16:9 1080p, how will that work alongside the 576x720 4:3 footage from the other camcorders on the timeline?
The codec question is the easier one: use ProRes.  It preserves quality very well and FCP likes to edit it.

As for what frame rates, image dimensions, etc. the general approach should be to go to the highest resolution of any of the originals so you aren't discarding any data.  So, upconvert to 50 fps rather than downconvert to 24 fps.  Similarly for image dimensions, conform to 1080p rather than 720p.

But I might moderate the advice above depending on what output format you are targeting.  An alternative strategy is to conform everything to a format that more closely matches the output characteristics.