Perhaps someone can clarify the differences for me on these two? At first I thought the S had a new "L" lens, but in looking at the Canon site, the A1 is also mentioned as having the L lens.

I do see the A1S has grown a bit in length and put on a couple of ounces, but beyond that I can't detect what the actual differences are.

Thanks for any help on this!

All four camcorders... the XH G1S, G1, A1S and A1 all share the exact same "L" series 20x lens. Please see these threads, already in progress, for more information (and reply to them if needed... closing this one because we don't need yet another thread on this frequently discussed topic):

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/canon-xh-series-hdv-camcorders/138944-xh-a1-vs-xh-a1s.html

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/canon-xh-series-hdv-camcorders/137222-canon-upgrades-xh-a1s-xh-g1s.html

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/canon-xh-series-hdv-camcorders/137758-comparison-photos-xh-g1s-vs-xh-g1.html

Hope this helps,