After seeing the camera at the DVexpo West last week....

Correct me if I am wrong...but a major blow to the Z1 (for me atleast) is...The camera has NO audio meters on the screen during shooting. To check the meters, you have to hit a button and it pops up the meters with a gray shaded area over the screen. But if you wish to see the meters on your video assist monitor while they shoot, say for instance in the lower left hand corner, so you can watch the levels.....you can forget about it.

But maybe I am wrong...I hope I am.

- Shannon W. Rawls

If you put the camera in manual audio mode instead of auto, the meters will appear on the LCD display and the video output if you have the DISP OUTPUT menu set to V-OUT/PANEL.

This display is full-time on the lower right portion of the LCD and is different than the "STATUS CHECK" meters you are talking about.

Much appreciated, Mike -- thanks for setting us straight on this.

The title of this thread should be edited to reflect that there is audio monitoring available--otherwise prospective buyers are going to get the wrong idea.

Good idea, Patrick, thank you.

The title of this thread has been changed from "No Audio Monitoring while you shoot?" to "Audio Monitoring while you shoot?"

I can verify this, as well. Of course, the FX1 goes up to 0 (being the highest level) and sound is recorded on two tracks, even with a BeachTek adaptor and one channel plugged in.

heath