The strong point is that it will most likely have AF in movie mode.

A key benefit of not using a mirror.

The mighty 5DMII @ $2700 does not have AF in movie mode.

May seem trivial to some who think that movie mode on a DSLR is a gimmick.

But if you could have a small size DSLR with AF in movies then the situation clearly changes and more people would embrace it.

Olympus has a winner on their hands.

Interested to know the dimensions. From what I hear it is smaller than the Zi6 but I wonder if it is as small as the Mino HD and Vado HD.

The USB-XLR adapter is nice.

There are a lot of people with XLR mics that would be interested in getting them hooked up to their computers for a decent price.

Well considering that most people will use these cams in low light (bars, indoors, etc.) the fact that both Sony's flagship top of the line consumer Handycams (as of now, I'm sure they will bring something out at CES 09 or pre CES) HDR-SR12 HDR-CX12 need 14 lux to produce 50 IRE. The Samsung SC-HMX20 needs only 5 lux to achive 50 IRE.

I have a coworker who has the HDR-SR12 and I've seen footage from decently lit restaurants where anything that is not remotely lit has crazy grain running through it. Any shadow has grain. The Samsung units can do better for sure.

I'm a big Canon fan but have to give credit where credit is due.

Samsung is on a roll. After the stellar low light performance of the Sc- HMX20 (5 lux in 30p mode, same as Canon HF11 in same mode).

I think the pics tell the story. Even though the now "old" HMX20 (released this year) and HF11 were both producing 50 IRE @ 5 lux in 30p the test chart of the Samsung appears much brighter. Take a look on the upper right corner also (as far as shadow detail in low light). In the Samsung you can distinguish the last 3 vertical black bars, on the HF11 not so much.

Samsung:
http://images.camcorderinfo.com/images/upload/Image/Samsung/Samsung%20SC-HMX20/Performance/Samsung_SC-HMX20_15_Lux_Auto_30P_web.jpg

Canon HF11:
http://images.camcorderinfo.com/images/upload/Image/Canon/Canon_HF11/Performance/Canon_HF11_15_Lux_Auto_24P_web.jpg

Granted Canon can do 24p which is nice and good for certain people (movie look when combined with a 35mm adapter, like a Brevis.)

Now that is a stretch. I had the previous year's Panasonic GS300 (which is nearly identical to the Gs320 in performance) and it was nice for it's time with the 3CCD (very tiny CCDs @ 1/6). Cobined that with the fact that Pansonic lied that they improved the low light on the GS320 to 8 lux yet when tested by camcorder info put out a disastrous 23lux in order to produce 50 IRE (whereas an Canon HV20/30) can do hit 3 lux in 24p. http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Panasonic-PV-GS320-Camcorder-Review-32895/Performance.htm

I can honestly say that my GS300 was terrible in low light and the same sad performance came out of the GS320 with it's 23 lux sensitivity.

I figured the GS500 was a better bet at that time anyways (1/4" 3CCDs, true 16x9 aspect ratio.

There is no way the Gs320/300 would look better than a current generation SD camcorder like these Canons here.

Getting crowded at the top in the pocket HD cams.

This ZX1 has a few strong points over the current leader IMO (Vado HD).
Expandable memory via SDHC cards.
60fps at 720p
Ruggedness (whatever that means).

The memory expansion and the 60fps are the 2 most requested features when it comes to making the Vado HD even more perfect.

Some may wonder why I say Vado HD is the best. The next competitor, the Mino HD, has a smaller LCD screen (not that critical), no HDMI out, has less memory than Vado HD, and last but not least the lens is nowhere near as wide as the Vado HD.

My guess is that they will not release a Mino HD with HDMI, wide angle lens, more memory, 60fps.

They will instead wait for the feature that that "Joe Consumer" sees as a big deal, HD 1080.

If this new ZX1 can put out some nice low light capabilities and a wide angle lens it will be a good contender to take the crown from Vado HD.

I think that even though there are several features which are missing from Mino HD (HDMI, wide angle lens, more memory, 60fps) this does not mean an upgrade is around the corner.

Pure Digital seems to judge the need for a new product based on physical size and video quality (SD, 720, 1080).

I see that Kodak released their release....The previous info did not list OIS. Maybe I should read the new article first before I include info that is already posted :)

It has OIS (I'm sure someone will try to point out that it is not mentioned).

Not sure why anyone would belive a 24x optical zoom cam would not have stabilization.

http://www.image-acquire.com/kodak-easyshare-z980-hd-camera/

HDV can look outstanding or it can look like grabage. Take a look a great adventure film maker like Les Stroud (Survivorman) who uses a HVR-Z1U (3CCD 1080i HDV ) camcorder (along with some other prosumer/consumer units). Most of the time when you look at his footage it looks amateurish (mainly way too much red in his face and oversaturated). Can the HVR-Z1U produce great footage? You bet it can.

Simply by looking at the edited footage on Surviorman you'd thin the HVR-Z1U is a really bad consumer unit that oversaturates colors.

My guess is that the producers of the show wanted to have the tell tell oversaturated look to connect better with the audience (make it look like this is something that could've come from any average Joe's camcorder that he got at Best Buy).

By the same coin you can take a $630 Canon HV30 consumer camera from Best Buy and with proper lighting and color correction get footage on the caliber of XH-A1, XHG1. There are many film makers that regularly mix HV20/30 footage with A1 footage with great results.

Unfortunately these days everyone that does anything is from the "we will fix it in post" school of thought.
"WB?"...."Nah we will fix it in post, just sample some white from the some's shirt and use the color corrector tool in Vegas/Premiere/etc."

Sound is important for sure and having XLR inputs is great.
At the same time realize that line level input with a Rode VideoMic or wireless lav system can get you really good results as well.

The main problem with audio is background noise (lights flickering/humming, fridge running, AC running).
XLR inputs will not compensate for the fact that you are using a mic with the wrong kind of pattern which is picking up unwanted backgrounds sounds (and you forgot to disable AGC).

Most productions use ADR to punch up the voices and get them to "pop".
In this case you just use the on board audio simply as a guideline to be able to sync the sound with the new ADR track in your NLE.
This obviously is mainly done in movies and such where you can get the person to do ADR after the video footage has been recorder.