Has anyone out there had much luck useing the 2X digital Zoom on the XL-1 or 1s, or is it just an add-on? Bob

I've never considered it an option while shooting.
When it's on, there is a noticable drop in picture quality at maximum zoom. For home use, sure. For professional use, never.

Hi Bob,
Well, I'm not sure "luck" is involved. Digital zoom basically magnify pixels from the outermost limit of the optical zoom. As such it coarsens, or "pixelates", the image. Certainly, if it's a matter of either not getting a shot at all or getting a somewhat coarse shot, I'd go for the latter. But the digital zoom feature on these cameras are not something you'll want to use often or for work you consider important.

Optical zoom is the only zoom that is important. Digital zoom pixelates, except in Star Trek.

Happy Holidays

I think it's funny in movies like Enemy Of The State where they have a heavily compressed clip of video that they magnify about 100x and it's clear as day. If the government had that kind of technology, they could take standard dv and "enhance" it to film resolution. Maybe they could sell the technology to adobe, and they could make it a plug in for After Effects. Imagine the possiblities!

Hell, I'm waiting for the type of magnification seen in Bladerunner.