Clive - you can take the HDV acquisition and transcode it to any other codec or record uncompressed 4:4:4 ala HV20 w/ HDMI and the Blackmagic card. The additional point I would make is in real editing, the difference in 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 is really only apparent in the extremes, such as compositing and massive grading. Far more troubling when dealing with HDV is the long GOP and Mpeg-2 compression. Which is why when you finish acquisition (assuming you go to tape), you need to get it out of Mpeg-2 and into something else as quick as possible. I am currently using Lagarith lossless codec for this purpose. Cineform also claims their codec does a good job.
If you're trying to point out that a sub 20,000 HDV camera is not going to outperform an F900, I completely agree, but if you are basing the distaste for HDV from the fact that it uses the Mpeg-2 codec, I have to say there are a few ways around that, including recording direct-to-disk and bypassing all compression (if your machine has the cajones for that).
