I could have sworn the XH A1S and the XL H1A were 1080p, but Canon's site says 1080i. Hmm.. so what's Canon's prosumer camera for 1080p then? What's a step up from HV30?

The XH A1 will shoot progressive at 30 and 24fps on the NTSC models. I think it will shoot progressive at 25 fps on the PAL units, but I don't know about 24fps.

One can argue that it's not true progressive because it uses an interlaced sensor but the results are effectively the same.

In this particular case, the reference to 1080p vs 1080i has more to do with the resolution /pixel shape. 1080p is 1920X1080/square pixels where as 1080i is 1440X1080/rectangular pixels. Although the A1's sensors produce 1920X1080, HDV specs convert and compress this to 1440X1080. This is standard for HDV.

Cameras that record in AVCHD maintain the 1920X1080 resoution. But then AVCHD has it's own set of challenges.

That said, I routinely drop my A1's footage onto a 1920X1080, 24f timeline. That way I have fulll 1080p for blu-ray and can render to a lower resolution like 720p for other things.

The new Canon S10 should be a step above the HV30... its due out next month

I could have sworn the XH A1S and the XL H1A were 1080p, but Canon's site says 1080i. All current Canon HD camcorders, including the XH series, are 1080i60, 1080p30 and 1080p24
(or 1080i50 and 1080p25 in Europe and Australia).

And yes the next step up from the HV series is the HF S series (HF S10 and HF S100).