Katherine,
Not knowing that camera, I can only make some uneducated guesses. In the VCR moce, open the camera menu and see if it has a way to change the playback standard. You want HDV, not DV or Auto. While in the menu, make sure downconvert is not on. Plug the camera into a Firewire port, turn it on, THEN launch FCP, and make sure there is not another FW deck connected.
Go into FCPs Audio Video settings and select HDV Firewire for control and HDV 1080i (native) for the capture preset. Then launch the log and capture window, and go to the tab where it says make new clip on Timecode break and uncheck that. Again, not knowing that camera, dunno, but it may work. Try a capture now for a test.
Another method is to capture to ProRes via Firewire, but it takes a bit of horsepower. I wrote a tutorial on it in here.
Good luck!
Have a wonderful day.