You said the magic word Walter, Kona 3. Without an HD capture card, HDV could take some time to conform depending how long your clips are and what your system configuation is.
HDV is a less expensive aquisition option but you will still need other hardware options to make it perform.
I see a lot of people shooting HDV and when they get back to the edit suite, they are having a hell of a time trying to edit. You can edit with HDV, you just need to go through the correct steps to make it work efficiently.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Director-At-Large
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group