There have been some concerned comments on one of my HV20posts about the camera's "rolling shutter" and the distortion it creates. There were even some links to some seemingly disastrous footage that caused one person to return his camera.
As the owner of a shiny new HV20, I'm not all that concerned about this shortcoming. Last I checked, I had no immediate plans to shoot a film entitled "a jiggly look at a lamp." I've uploaded some footage that represents about as kinetic a shot as I'm ever likely to shoot, and while the lampposts are leaning over a bit, I hardly call it a dealbreaker. You just need to follow the DV Rebel rules and keep your shutter locked at 1/48, as well as the age-old rules of 24 fps cinema about pans being motivated by an object in the scene. It also doesn't hurt that I properly removed the 3:2 pulldown from my clip before compressing it.
Here's a narcoleptic but awesome tutorial on how to manage exposure while maintaining the cinematic shutter speed of 1/48 (or 1/50 for PAL). (thanks to Farnsworth for posting this link on the Rebel Café.)
I should note that I'm not disputing the claims by the author of the most excellent Syntheyes software that the rolling shutter is problematic for 3D tracking—but I do plan on testing just how impossible it is to get a solid track from a "normal" HV20 shot.
Is the HV20's rolling shutter a flaw that you must be cautious of? Yes. Does it ruin the camera for the DV Rebel? No way.