Am I wrong in thinking that one cannot usually export footage from a digital camera directly to a HDD without some kind of an encoder....at least with the XL-1's I use we have to send it through a "Firestore" unit first or import it through an editing program.

I thought his issue was that since the camera has to go into the computer via the firewire port then he can't hook up the drive to the computer except through the USB not that he was planning on bypassing the computer all together. I know some cameras will let you save right to a HDD but not most consumer or pro-sumer units.

I'm not sure what the best soloution would be for you....if I was going to do a lot of video like that I think I would have gone for the next size up in PowerBook so I would have had two firewire ports...

as it is, I'm in the same position you are when it comes to using my PB for video....a little limited. If I start doing more editing on my own equipment then I'll most likely get a "Firestore" or similar encoder so I can transfer directly to the HDD and bypass the computer until I'm ready to edit.