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[tim_mc_psulaw] “(slow zoom, panning, etc.)”
Just select the still on the timeline, open the Effects window, there will be a “Motion” and “Opacity” effect that can be applied to the selection, click the little triangle to the left of Motion Effect and the controls will drop down, read up on keyframes that has been suggested.

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You didn’t say what your final product will be output to? If DVD, you just make a 16:9 project, output a 16:9 DVD, most DVD player auto-detect whether the tv set is widescreen or not, and will letterbox if WS, some DVD players require manual setting for the video aspect.

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[crispypancakes] “it’s been squished in to give everyone a taller, thinner head”
Thats the description of a anamorphic DV clip viewed on a 4:3 tv set or a widescreen(has very annoying black lines down the left and right hand sides of the picture) set in 4:3 mode, if viewing on a normal tv check the setting of the DVD player to make sure it set properly, to letterbox the video or set the widescreen tv to the wide mode.

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[jimmyahlander] “someone know about the probem”

If you described the formats of the clips you are using and your presets and workflow, plus the version of Premiere someone might be able to discern the problem

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[mbevilacqua] “My question is: Is it a good idea or would I benefit from going directly from PPro to betacam? and if so how should I go about it?”
You could use a camcorder with PassThrough like mentioned or a converter like a Canopus ADVC300 which has a component output, or use a video capture card with component output like a BlackMagic Intensity Pro.

[mbevilacqua] “Should I output to some hi-quality codec and send them disk drive with the rendered output?”
If editing in DV, the DV file would be fine, outputing the a higher quality codec doesn’t up the quality of the original, unless you use the codec for editing then you get bit better quality when editing and adding effects but not with the untouched footage.

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Are you trying to load Progressive scan or interlaced HDV? if progressive scan have you downloaded the Presets for progressive scan.

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You problem is you are trying to capture SD footage, your camcorder has three modes HD 720p mpeg2(preset in Ppro), SD 480p Mpeg2(no preset in Ppro) or DV 480i(preset in Ppro), the cam only outputs one of the three modes with no conversion between them, You should try importing the SD footage via the software supplied with the camcorder, the resulting file maybe workable in Ppro, but a much better chance would be using Premiere Elements 3.0 with the file.

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[RHewitt] “Avid have moved on since than and now use the MXF format. It is the default for all new installations.
I guess Premier Pro will be playing catch-up again! ;-)”

The problem is who is sleeping with who, not Adobe playing catch-up.

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[willjohnston] “‘m pretty sure it has something to do with my source footage, as it doesn’t happen with all videos, only ones that I get from my employer’s webcast.”
What’s the source format? and since you are employed by them why can’t you get the source footage in another format.

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[Leo Baker] “I know Final Cut Pro and Avid cann all export to OMF so seems Premeir eis lacking in this area.”

Avid and Apple belong to the AAF(Advanced Authoring Format) consortium which decided to support AAF as the universal interchange format, Adobe implemented AAF years ago in the anticipation of the rest of the consortium following, you should be asking Avid why they are dragging their feet.